Commemoration of the 40,000 women and children who,
August 9, 1956, presented themselves in bodily protest against
the “dompass” in the capital of apartheid. Presented at The
United Nations, August 9, 1978.
And in case you think the Pass Laws went away at the end of apartheid, here’s a 2016 article on the use of a similar ID card that represents a slight reworking of the oppression of yesteryears.
The police is unjust, and they cause harm in communities and to individuals already punishingly neglected or preyed upon by other social, political and economic systems. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for, and we have to keep going, keep fighting.
Poem for South African Women by June Jordan
