We are told the story of the historic Women’s March in 1956 against the Pass Laws in a way that teaches us to respect their courage and moral standing. What interests me is the story of the other women of urban Johannesburg in 1956 who were not qualified nurses and teachers women who were not politicians, or the wives of politicians, but women who played a significant role in hosting and protecting our liberation and artistic movements.
The urban woman of 1956 Johannesburg was not living Sex in the City like the woman of 2011; yet there are some important lessons that we might forget when made to feel guilty about our successes and accomplishments by men who quote Mandoza’s 50/50 at the drop of a dinner bill at Privé. City-life in 1956 was a life of struggle, and most black families lived below the bread line. It was difficult for black women to find employment in the formal sector as the Apartheid system did not allow for black workers to reside in the city. Black families were more often than not separated with the wife and children in the rural areas, and the husband living in the cities.
African women who dared to follow their husbands into the cities in order to keep their families together were not as easily controlled as African men (African women did not have to carry passes until 1956). African women therefore relied on work in the informal sector; they brewed beer and ran shebeens many took in laundry (washing) or worked as hawkers.
The work of the Shebeen Queen was hardly glamorous, although it may have certainly appeared that way. The average Shebeen Queen would brew her skokiaan during the day in holes dug in the ground and covered by sheets of metal (there were Liquor Laws that prohibiting black people from buying and brewing liquor). Shebeens were the only places that harboured artists, politicians, and gangsters in the same environment. They were safe-houses for politicians hiding out from the law, or people who migrated to the city without passes, seeking to carve out a life in the City of Gold.
The “shebeen ... was the melting pot of rising black sophisticates ... Budding writers, poets, painters …Probably the birthplace of South Africa’s black consciousness movement![i]”
Shebeens, being the only public houses, similar to restaurants where musicians would entertain, seemed the only practical places where large groups of like-minded people would meet. The Shebeen Queen was as adept with the Okapi as any tsotsi on the street, and was therefore afforded respect from the street. She was not a woman you easily held down; so you can imagine how the pass laws clamped down on her business and family life.
In her we met a fierce urban warrior woman; her femininity notwithstanding, she was a proficient nurturer and go getter; and no one made her feel guilty for that. So why would you want to downplay who you are at the expense of someone else’s ego? I wrote this to remind you of who you are of what stock you came from
So when someone quips, “but why do we celebrate Women’s Day?” we may retort, “lest we forget from whence we come” for there are women in corners of this country who are drowning in the silence of survival.
- They may not speak in the presence of a man; unless permitted to do so
- They may not look a man in the eye when speaking to him
Yet they are entrusted the responsibility to be the vessel that bears him his children and nurtures them I do not take my liberties for granted; they are not even that far removed from me. I celebrate the freedom to voice my opinions at will.
I celebrate Womanhood [and Shebeen Queens]
[i] Heyns, Jack. 1994. Down the Hatch! From Shebeens Take a Bow : A celebration of South Africa’s Shebeen Lifestyle. Bailey, Jim; Seftel, Adam (Ed). Bailey’s African History Archives. Lanseria.
Photographer // Lillith Leda Model // Desiree Moila
