Women's March took place on 9 August 1956 in

Pretoria Pretoria ( ; ) is the Capital of South Africa, administrative capital of South Africa, serving as the seat of the Executive (government), executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to the country. Pretoria strad ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

. The marchers' aims were to protest the introduction of the

Apartheid Apartheid ( , especially South African English: , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...

pass laws In South Africa under apartheid, and South West Africa (now Namibia), pass laws served as an internal passport system designed to racially segregate the population, restrict movement of individuals, and allocate low-wage migrant labor. Also ...

for black women in 1952 and the presentation of a petition to the then Prime Minister J.G. Strijdom.

Background

The organisation behind the march was

Federation of South African Women The Federation of South African Women (FEDSAW) was a political lobby group formed in 1954. At FEDSAW's inaugural conference, a Women's Charter was adopted. Its founding was spear-headed by Lillian Ngoyi. Introduction The Federation of South Afri ...

, an anti-apartheid organisation for women of various groups including the

ANC Women's League The African National Congress Women's League (ANCWL) is an auxiliary women's political organization of the African National Congress (ANC) of South Africa. This organization has its precedent in the Bantu Women's League, and it oscillated from ...

with the aim of strengthening female voice in the movement. They contributed to the Congress of the People in 1955, where the

Freedom Charter The Freedom Charter was the statement of core principles of the South African Congress Alliance, which consisted of the African National Congress (ANC) and its allies: the South African Indian Congress, the South African Congress of Democrats ...

was drawn up, by submitting a document called ''What Women Demand'' which addressed needs such as child care provisions, housing, education, equal pay, and equal rights with men in regard to property, marriage and guardianship of children. By 1956 their focus had shifted towards a protest concerning the introduction of passes for black women.

March

The march took place on 9 August 1956 with an estimated 20,000 women of all races descending on Pretoria. The day of the protest was called for on a Thursday, the traditional day when black domestic workers had their day off, with the aim of ensuring a larger gathering of women. As the women arrived by train and other means, they walked to the

Union Buildings The Union Buildings () form the official seat of the South African Government and also house the offices of the President of South Africa. The imposing buildings are located in Pretoria, atop Meintjeskop at the northern end of Arcadia, close ...

, the centre of the South African Government, in small groups of twos and threes – large groups were banned by the authorities – and met at the building's gardens and amphitheatre. Leading the march were

Lillian Ngoyi Lilian Masediba Matabane Ngoyi, "Ma Ngoyi", Order for Meritorious Service, OMSG (25 September 1911 – 13 March 1980) was a South African Anti-Apartheid Movement, anti-apartheid activist. She was the first woman elected to the executive ...

Helen Joseph Helen Beatrice Joseph OMSG (''née'' Fennell) (8 April 1905 – 25 December 1992) was a South African anti-apartheid activist. Born in Sussex, England, Helen graduated with a degree in English from the University of London in 1927 and then de ...

, Rahima Moosa and Sophia Williams-De Bruyn. A representatives of each race group in South Africa carried 14,000 petitions for presentation to the Prime Minister J.G. Strijdom. The Prime Minister was not available, being elsewhere so as not to accept the petition from a multicultural group of women, so in his place it was accepted by his Secretary. They then stood for thirty minutes in silence before singing "

Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika "" (, ) is a Christian hymn composed in 1897 by Enoch Sontonga, a Xhosa people, Xhosa clergyman at a Methodism, Methodist mission school near Johannesburg. The song became a pan-African liberation song and versions of it were later adopted as ...

" and then sang a woman's freedom song called "Wathint' abafazi, Strijdom!"

Petition

The petition had been created by the Federation of South African Women and printed by the

Indian Youth Congress The Indian Youth Congress is the youth wing of the Indian National Congress party. The Indian Youth Congress was a department of the Indian National Congress from the period just after the Partition of India in 1947 until the late 1960s. Whil ...

. The petition reads:

Monument to the event

On 9 August 2000,

National Women's Day National Women's Day (, ) is a South African Holiday, public holiday celebrated annually on 9 August. The day commemorates the 1956 march of approximately 20,000 women to the Union Buildings in Pretoria to petition against the country's pass la ...

, a monument was unveiled at the ''Malibongwe Embokodweni'', the amphitheatre at Union Buildings in Pretoria to celebrate and commemorate the event of 1956. It is called the Monument to the Women of South Africa, a project developed by the Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology (DACST). A Monument Steering Committee was formed in 1999 with a judging panel established consisting of a veteran of the march, a member of the presidents office, three artists, a designer and a curator. A seven-day workshop at the Technikon Pretoria was held to enable the event to be fair and transparent and allow disadvantaged artists to participate in the competition. Sixty entries were received with the winners being Wilma Cruise and Marcus Holmes. The final design for the monument starts on the steps of the amphitheatre with the keywords of the petition inscribed in metal on the risers. Climbing the stairs, you trigger a sound message in eleven official languages, "you strike the woman, you strike the rock". When you reach the vestibule, there in the centre lies a ''imbokodo'', a small grinding stone atop a larger grinding stone. The stones sit atop a polished circular bronze stone surrounded by a darker bronze octagon plate. The stones symbolise the women's labour and nurturance while the bronze plates the earth and stone they sit upon.

Notable participants

* Frances Baard * Bertha Gxowa *

Fatima Meer Fatima Meer (12 August 1928 – 12 March 2010) was a South African writer, academic, screenwriter, and prominent anti-apartheid activist. Early life Fatima Meer was born in the Grey Streets of Durban, South Africa, into a middle-class family ...

Ruth Mompati Ruth Segomotsi Mompati OMSS (14 September 1925 – 12 May 2015) was a South African politician and a founding member of the Federation of South African Women (FEDSAW) in 1954. Mompati was one of the leaders of the Women's March on 9 August 1 ...

* Florence Mkhize (as an organizer) * Rahima Moosa * Rita Ndzanga *

Lilian Ngoyi Lilian Masediba Matabane Ngoyi, "Ma Ngoyi", OMSG (25 September 1911 – 13 March 1980) was a South African anti-apartheid activist. She was the first woman elected to the executive committee of the African National Congress, and helped ...

Albertina Sisulu Albertina Sisulu Order for Meritorious Service, OMSG ( Nontsikelelo Thethiwe; 21 October 1918 – 2 June 2011) was a South African anti-apartheid activist. A member of the African National Congress (ANC), she was the founding co-president of th ...

* Sophia Williams-De Bruyn * Annie Peters * Nosipho Dastile * Lilian Diedricks

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Women's March 1956 in South Africa 1956 protests Opposition to apartheid in South Africa Protests in South Africa Apartheid in South Africa 1956 in women's history Women's marches August 1956 in Africa