"The basic cry of the [ANC Youth League] did not differ from the ANC's first constitution in 1912. But we were reaffirming and underscoring those original concerns, many of which had gone by the wayside. African nationalism was our battle cry, and our creed was the creation of one nation out of many tribes, the overthrow of white supremacy, and the establishment of truly democratic form of government. Our manifesto stated: "We believe that the national liberation of Africans will be achieved by Africans themselves. ...
The manifesto utterly rejected trusteeship, the idea that the white government somehow had African interests at heart."
Nelson Mandela, Long Walk To Freedom, p.99.
Reject trusteeship. This is the smartest phrase I have read in a long time when it comes to a fight to ending supremacy of a minority that works against the interests of a majority. Although Nelson Mandela was writing about the liberation struggle he and his compatriots waged against white supremacy in South Africa, the idea of rejecting trusteeship is going to be critical in the long walk to full autonomy for women (and anybody who is not a straight male) in our country.
Women need to appreciate that their liberation will be achieved by women themselves.
Consider each of three great emancipation/liberation struggles of the twentieth century: the fight for civil rights for blacks in the United States; the effort to end colonial rule and caste-oppression in India; and, most significantly for the post, the fight to bring democracy to South Africa. In every case there came a turning point, when the leaders of these struggles realized that they could no longer operate within a paradigm of "normal politics". That is they realized that that for true social transformation to occur the emphasis had to be on transcendent politics, a willingness to fight from the outside, not from within.
None of these fights I just mentioned were fights directed toward ending misogyny or sexism ; women participated, but the struggles were not aimed at ending male supremacy; they were directed against other social ills and led by men with some rather illiberal attitudes toward women. I'm not prepared to condemn these men - e.g. Martin Luther King, Jr., M.K. Gandhi, or Nelson Mandela - for their attitudes toward women. I prefer to learn from their experiences in bringing about major social change.
Mandela in particular is a source of knowledge and inspiration for anybody determined to see a vast social transformation, one in which an oppressed majority comes to the fore. Mandela's own development as a social and political thinker is a lesson in coming to understand true politics. I intend to continue to share his insights as guideposts for those of us who have found 2008-09 a time in which we realize that we cannot entrust the interests of women to preexisting institutions. We are starting almost from scratch.
I cannot pinpoint a moment when I became politicized, when I knew I would spend my life in the liberation struggle. ...
I had no epiphany, no singular revelation, no moment of truth, but a steady accumulation of a thousand slights, a thousand indignities, a thousand unremembered momements, produced in me an anger, a rebelliousness, a desire to fight the system that imprisoned our people. There was no particular day on which I said, From henceforth I will devote myself to the liberation of my people; instead I found myself doing so, and could not do otherwise.
Long Walk To Freedom, p. 95.
Do these words resonate with you? If so you are getting ready to move beyond normal politics - for Mandela's "politicization" was in fact a rejection of the politics as usual of his time and place; he rejected tribalism in favor of African unification, he rejected incrementalism in favor of sweeping social reform; he demanded that the people whose oppression he sought to end become empowered as both a means and end of that goal.
Let us demand the same for women. We do not need breadcrumbs from either political party - we need not beg them to protect the already withered and watered down rights to reproductive freedom that are essential to women's autonomy; we have seen the futility of supporting their favored sons in the vain hope that they will avoid employing and highlighting those who degrade and belittle women; we have seen that they will tolerate anything from a straight male regardless of the insult bestowed on women or gay men.
To be continued...
It is less than 24 hours ago that I watched, again, "goodby Bafana", an extraordinary movie about Mandela's long year racist prison guard from Robbin Island up to Mandela's release from prison. The change in this guard's understanding of normal politics and blind trusteeship towards the then current system of apartheid to emancipate himself and learn independent thinking, through the influence of Nelson Mandela, and their ensueing friendship, is extraordinary. I can only recommend watching this excellent portrait of an intra-personal metamorphosis.
Posted by: Mirlo | January 08, 2009 at 01:02 PM
By the time I read this at TC the comments were closed. Just wanted to tell you this is a wonderful essay, thank you.
Posted by: soupcity | January 08, 2009 at 01:03 PM
This is very important for all women to take to heart. We should never be satisfied with the "breadcrumbs" from the table of our "favorite son". Obama has already shown himself incapable of appreciating the human rights struggles of women for a larger share of the pie that he now owns wholesale. Having drunken misogynist punkboy Jon Favreau next door (marked "Director, Speechwriters to Prez") to Obama's should be of grave concern to all women who have chosen to work for Him and for those who haven't. Favreau has insulted, degraded and diminished the Office of the Secretary of State and, by implication, Obama himself and the country he represents. To have promoted this xeroxed scribe rather than kick Jonny's sexist posterior out of the office and into the unemployment lines, where he truly belongs, Obama has made one of the most erroneous judgments in his phenomenally ambitious jump to the White House. And delivered simultaneously a thunderish slap to the face of all women, including his own two girls and wife, as well as to his country. Shame on him.
Posted by: mary | January 08, 2009 at 03:28 PM
Well said, Heidi Li. There is a new movement afoot that has the potential of propelling women to greater equality, led in part by you. Thank you.
I, however, do feel that we stand on the shoulders of those who have come before us. The woman's suffrage movement and the second wave of feminism. I think it would be empowering to remember and emulate the women who have come before us as well as the male champions you mention. Even if that brings us dangerously close to those women who drank the Kool-Aid and are in danger of being permanently derailed.
Posted by: purplefinn | January 09, 2009 at 08:43 PM