Profiles in Diversity : Women in the New South Africa

A revealing oral history collection, __Profiles in Diversity__ contains in-depth interviews of twenty-six women in South Africa from different racial, class, and age backgrounds. Conducted in Johannesburg, Pretoria, Bloemfontein, Vryburg, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, Grahamstown, Durban, and a rural section of Kwa-Zulu Natal, these life histories encompass diverse experiences ranging from a squatter in a township outside Cape Town to an ANC activist in Port Elizabeth, who lost three sons to the struggle for democracy and who herself was imprisoned several times during what many in South Africa now refer to as the "civil war." Nearly all of these women describe their formative years spent growing up in South Africa's segregated society. Three young black students discuss the hardships they experienced in an unequal educational system as well as aspects of segregation in their childhood. They are joined in their memories and hopes for the future by two mature women—one now a high court judge in Durban and the other a linguist at the University of South Africa in Pretoria—both of whom studied at Harvard in the United States. Nancy Charton, the first woman ordained as an Anglican priest in South Africa, speaks about her past and what led her, in her early seventies, to a vocation in the church. Three Afrikaner women, including one in her late twenties, speak about growing up in South Africa and articulate their concerns for a future that, in some respects, differs from the predictions of their English-speaking or black sisters. Two now-deceased members of the South African Communist Party provide disparate accounts of what led them to lives of active opposition to the discrimination that marked the lives of people of color, long before apartheid became embedded in South Africa's legal system. Also included is an account by Dr. Goonam, an Indian woman who grew up in relative comfort in the then province of Natal, while Ray Alexander discusses how she witnessed the tyranny visited on the Jews of her native Latvia before immigrating to the Cape.

A revealing oral history collection, Profiles in Diversity contains in-depth interviews of twenty-six women in South Africa from different racial, class, and age backgrounds. Conducted in Johannesburg, Pretoria, Bloemfontein, Vryburg, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, Grahamstown, Durban, and a rural section of Kwa-Zulu Natal, these life histories encompass diverse experiences ranging from a squatter in a township outside Cape Town to an ANC activist in Port Elizabeth, who lost three sons to the struggle for democracy and who herself was imprisoned several times during what many in South Africa now refer to as the "civil war."  
     Nearly all of these women describe their formative years spent growing up in South Africa's segregated society. Three young black students discuss the hardships they experienced in an unequal educational system as well as aspects of segregation in their childhood. They are joined in their memories and hopes for the future by two mature women — one now a high court judge in Durban and the other a linguist at the University of South Africa in Pretoria — both of whom studied at Harvard in the United States. Nancy Charton, the first woman ordained as an Anglican priest in South Africa, speaks about her past and what led her, in her early seventies, to a vocation in the church.  
      Three Afrikaner women, including one in her late twenties, speak about growing up in South Africa and articulate their concerns for a future that, in some respects, differs from the predictions of their English-speaking or black sisters. Two now- deceased members of the South African Communist Party provide disparate accounts of what led them to lives of active opposition to the discrimination that marked the lives of people of color, long before apartheid became embedded in South Africa's legal system. Also included is an account by Dr. Goonam, an Indian woman who grew up in relative comfort in the then province of Natal, while Ray Alexander discusses how she witnessed the tyranny visited on the Jews of her native Latvia before immigrating to the Cape.  
 

Contents 8 Preface 10 Introduction 12 Part I: Things Have Changed 18 Part II: The Afrikaners 42 “The Covenant is written out of the history books” 44 “I was brought up to think like an Afrikaner” 52 “We must try and compliment one another” 58 Part III: The So-Called Coloureds 62 “Just for one day I would like to say ‘we have got you now”’ 64 “The role of the civic associations is not to be discounted” 70 Part IV: The Jewish Women 78 “Do you belong to a union?” 80 “I never treat anyone with discourtesy” 88 “Dear Colleague, please come to a meeting” 92 Part V: The African Women 102 “At home we were very poor” 104 “That is the section for blacks” 108 “I am going to be something one day” 114 “I never knew ... I would be bullied by an eight-year-old” 118 “The future of South Africa is more than political parties” 122 “I am a sort of inspiration to the kids” 128 “1976 was bad for me” 136 “So I lost three sons in the struggle” 142 “I don’t want to get married again” and “He will take care of me forever” 150 “My family convinced me to go into nursing” 156 “Something to hold on to” 160 Part VI: The English-Speaking White Women 168 “I believe we need a whole new New Deal” 170 “Feminism is still a discredited word” 176 “I went out and I was never allowed back” 182 “I am going to get trained” 188 “I am a third-generation South African” 198 Part VII: The Indian Women 202 “How are we going to fight this government?” 204 “I always said I was going to be a lawyer” 216 Afterword 232 Bibliography 236 Index 238 "Three Afrikaner women, including one in her late twenties, speak about growing up in South Africa and articulate their concerns for a future that, in some respects, differs from the predictions of their English-speaking or black sisters. Two now-deceased members of the South African Communist Party provide disparate accounts of what led them to lives of active opposition to the discrimination that marked the lives of people of color, long before apartheid became embedded in South Africa's legal system. Also included is an account by Dr. Goonam, an Indian woman who grew up in relative comfort in the then province of Natal, while Ray Alexander discusses how she witnessed the tyranny visited on the Jews of her native Latvia before immigrating to the Cape."--Jacket