#MbokodoLeadUs: the gendered politics of black womxn leading campus-based activism in South Africa’s recent university student movements

ABSTRACT

South Africa has a patriarchal tendency to treat womxn as beneficiaries of protest and activism rather than as agents in the construction of a new socio-political order and as drivers of change through protest. This paper examines the internal gender tensions within South Africa's 2015-2016 student movements including how these tensions materialised publicly; in a sample of university campuses and in the media. The complex particularities of young black womxn who are agitating for an intersectional approach to protest - one that privileges gender - and an end to patriarchy and misogynoir in these movements is observed. Content analysis of self-articulated goals, mission statements on various media and case studies are detailed where black womxn activists constitute majority membership in movements even as they remain disenfranchised in their operationalising. To counter marginality, black womxn student activists' interventions demonstrate a new radical political autonomy that embraces an inclusive feminist ideology.

KEYWORDS:

• #FeesMustFall
• feminism
• black women
• student protest
• social movements

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 On 9 March 2021, a protest occurred at WITS University over funding and historical debt which once again sparked a national university shutdown.

2 ‘Womxn’ or ‘Womyn’ is now used in place of ‘Woman’ as a symbol of resistance to move beyond a monolithic, white-dominant, cisgender, man-centred understanding of ‘womanhood’ and move toward a more inclusive and empowered meaning. Womxn refers to all people who identity as femme, female, womxn, or transgender.

3 Iqhiya is the isiXhosa word for headwrap.

4 ‘Voetsek’ is an offensive way to say ‘go away’.

5 ‘Stabane’ is a derogatory word for a homosexual.

6 A ‘sjambok’ is a leather whip.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Alude Mahali

Alude Mahali is a Chief Research Specialist in the Inclusive Economic Development programme at the Human Sciences Research Council in South Africa. Her research expertise and experience ranges from youth social justice work employing innovative visual practices to using participatory methodologies for work in the sociology of education.

Noxolo Matete

Noxolo Matete is a lecturer in the department of Drama and Performance Studies at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Her primary research interest is the location of black womxn theatre practitioners within various intersecting identities including race, gender and class. Her doctoral thesis which explores the visibility and participation of black womxn theatre directors across three of South Africa’s six state-funded theatres, was recently passed.