Magodonga Mahlangu is a

women's rights Women's rights are the rights and entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st centuries. In some countries, ...

campaigner from

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Mozam ...

who in 2009 was awarded the

Robert F Kennedy Human Rights Award The Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award, was created by the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial in 1984, now known as the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights to honour individuals around the world who have shown great courage and have made a significant contri ...

by U.S. President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...

. Mahlangu is a leader of

Women of Zimbabwe Arise Women of Zimbabwe Arise or WOZA is a civic movement in Zimbabwe that was formed in 2003 by Jenni Williams to provide women, from all walks of life, with a united voice to speak out on issues affecting their day-to-day lives, empower female leader ...

(WOZA), founded with

Jenni Williams Jenni Williams (born 1962) is a Zimbabwean human rights activist and a founder of Women of Zimbabwe Arise (Woza). A prominent critic of President Robert Mugabe's government, ''The Guardian'' described her in 2009 as "one of the most troublesome ...

. When presenting the award to Magodonga and WOZA, Obama commented: "By her example, Magodonga has shown the women of WOZA and the people of Zimbabwe that they can undermine their oppressors' power with their own power -- that they can sap a dictator's strength with their own. Her courage has inspired others to summon theirs." In her remarks accepting the award, Mahlangu quoted

Robert F. Kennedy Robert Francis Kennedy (November 20, 1925June 6, 1968), also known by his initials RFK and by the nickname Bobby, was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 64th United States Attorney General from January 1961 to September 1964, a ...

, saying, "The future is not a gift: it is an achievement. Every generation helps make its own future." As of 2008, Mahlangu had been arrested more than 25 times and by 2011, over 30 times.

Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human r ...

denounced the repeated arrests of Mahlangu and Williams, stating after one arrest that the Zimbabwean government should release the women and "allow civil society the right to demonstrate peacefully". Mahlangu born in a suburb of Bulawayo and she was raised in the South Matebeleland area and educated at a private school where she received a diploma in coaching and sports administration."Tell a Woman: WOZA spreads the word in Zimbabwe" by Maggie Paterson in ''Amnesty Magazine'', Issue 168, July/August 2011. She was annoyed that local athletes were being discriminated against. She founded WOZA with Williams and Sheba Dube to protest against economic and political changes in their country. She began organising protests for WOZA in 2003. Mahlangu's family now live outside Zimbabwe. She was unmarried and had no children in 2011.

References

External links

Article at Front Line Defenders.Article at Human Rights Now.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mahlangu, Magodonga Living people Zimbabwean human rights activists Women human rights activists People from Matabeleland South Province Zimbabwean democracy activists 1972 births