One of the key themes of South Africa’s long history of struggle, resistance and protest is women’s struggle for gender equality, female dignity, respect and basic human rights. This struggle has been fought by South Africa’s black and coloured women for more than a century and, sadly, the battle is not yet won. The appalling statistics of the prevalence of gender-based domestic violence against women and girls in South Africa is of national concern. While the protest of black and coloured women against the hated passbooks that took place in Pretoria in August 1956 is probably the most well-known demonstration of its kind, it is certainly not the only one.
A similar protest took place in Bloemfontein in 1913 when black and coloured women brought their grievances to the white authorities’ attention in a very demonstrative manner. As part of the commemoration of Women’s Month 2020, the National Museum revisits this remarkable event to highlight the fact that South African women’s struggle for equality, respect and fair treatment has come a long way. To understand the plight of women today we need to understand the historical roots and context of their long struggle and also acknowledge the important role that Bloemfontein’s women of colour played more than a century ago.
Pass laws, pass books, permits and fees
The anti-pass protests of 1913 must not only be viewed in their appropriate historical context but also be linked to other important socio-political developments of that time. Since Bloemfontein’s founding in 1846, the Town Council and the majority of the town’s white residents argued that all people of colour, whether they were in born in Bloemfontein or not, were not true citizens of the town but merely “servants of the townspeople”, as it was stated in a municipal document. It boiled down to the principle that black and coloured people were only tolerated in the so-called “locations” as long as they were useful to the whites. In other words, Bloemfontein’s racially segregated locations, notably Waaihoek as the oldest and biggest location by far, but also the smaller ones, such as Kaffirfontein and Cape Stands, were considered the exclusive living areas of Bloemfontein’s servant class. Racial prejudice towards Bloemfontein’s people of colour was not limited to informal attitudes, though, but it also manifested itself in discriminatory and racist municipal rules, regulations and ordinances. Similar attitudes, rules and regulations were common in most towns of the Orange Free State, which became a Boer republic in 1854.
To obtain control over the movement of Bloemfontein’s location residents and also to ensure a steady supply of cheap domestic and other types of labour for Bloemfontein’s whites, the council felt compelled to introduce pass laws. These laws, which were first made effective in 1891, were applicable to men and women of colour above the age of 16 years. The pass laws made it compulsory to carry an up-to-date pass book at all times. A pass book was essentially a service book that contained, for example, information on the worker’s employer, years of service, place of residence, the wages he or she earned and whether or not he or she had paid rent and/or taxes. The fact that the pass laws were also made applicable to women made the Orange Free State unique in the sense that it was the only territory in the country which had imposed such restrictions on women. In practice it meant that for the “privilege” to live in the locations and to work for Bloemfontein’s whites, women not only had to carry their pass books at all times but they also had to renew them on a monthly basis at the local pass office for a fee.
In addition to those women who worked as full-time domestic servants, others did laundry work for whites on a part-time basis. Initially they fetched white people’s dirty laundry at their homes in town and then took it to their own homes in the locations to be washed and ironed there. Others took the laundry to be washed in the Kaffirfontein Spruit (now the Renoster Spruit) which, at that time, was the only water resource that could be used free of charge. During a time when the so-called “sanitation syndrome” caused widespread fear among whites of the dangers of the presumed “unhealthy” living conditions in the locations, the council and local health authorities grew increasingly concerned over the conditions in which the laundry was done. It was feared that diseases, such as typhoid and scarlet fever, could spread to the white suburbs. In 1906 the municipality decided to build a public wash house where women could do white people’s laundry in “hygienic” conditions. Not only was it compulsory for the laundry women to use this facility but they were also obliged to obtain special permits for a fee. The combined effect of the restrictive, racist and humiliating pass laws as well as the financial burden caused by the multiple fees and taxes that had to be paid, caused much indignation among Waaihoek’s women.
Matters were made worse by the fact that the new Colonial Government, which came to power after the Anglo-Boer (South African) War (1899-1902) had ended, issued new regulations which not only tightened the rules regarding the wearing of passes but also gave the police extraordinary powers to enforce them. In Bloemfontein white and black police constables were authorised to request women to produce passes and permits at any time and place. Failing to produce the correct documents could result in a fine or even random arrest. Alas, some policemen behaved badly and violated the powers entrusted to them: women complained of constables physically harassing them, publicly humiliating them and insulting them.
Even the wives of Waaihoek’s respected community leaders, businessmen and clergymen, such as Katie Louw, Martha Leshani, Catharina Simmonds, Amelia Twayi, Martha Mapikela, Cecilia Makiwane and Jane Moroka, fell victim to policemen who would “ransack their skirt pockets at anytime [sic] in the public streets”, to quote author Sol Plaatje. Inevitably, the pass laws and the behaviour of the police caused much anger and resentment. Many Waaihoek women felt that the situation had become untenable and that they had no other choice but to resist the discrimination against them.
Waaihoek’s women rise up against injustice
Since the pass laws were introduced for the first time during the early 1890s, Bloemfontein’s black residents had peacefully protested against the measures but to no avail. After the War black people used existing political organisations as vehicles for protest, such as the Cape Town-based African Political Organisation (APO) and the local Native Vigilance Committee, which became the Orange River Colony Native Congress during the colonial period (1902-1910). Petitions with a request to repeal women’s passes were sent to, among others, the mayor of Bloemfontein, Lady Gladstone (wife of the Governor-General) and even King Edward VII of England but, yet again, it did not yield any positive response.
The founding of the South African Native National Congress (SANNC) in January 1912 in Bloemfontein not only brought the women new hope but this historic event also inspired them to take up their grievances with renewed vigour. The women’s resolve to tackle the pass issue head-on was further strengthened by the presence at the proceedings of Charlotte Maxeke, a learned black woman who was elected to the SANNC executive. To demonstrate to the authorities the extent of the women’s dissatisfaction with the pass laws and police behaviour, an anti-pass law petition was widely circulated throughout the Orange Free State. Signed by more than five thousand women, this petition was taken to Cape Town by a delegation of six Waaihoek women and handed to the Minister of Native Affairs, Henry Burton. The delegation included the Waaihoek women who had by then emerged as the leaders of the anti-pass law campaign, such as Katie Louw, an Anglican minister’s daughter, and Mrs A.S. Gabashane.
Despite Minister Burton’s assurances of his sympathy with the women’s grievances and his promises of action to be taken in due course, nothing positive happened for more than a year. In fact, the number of women arrested in Bloemfontein for pass law “offences” increased dramatically and police harassment all but worsened, especially at the public wash house. In 1913, when it became clear to the women that their requests had fallen on deaf years, they decided that “we have done with pleading”, to quote them in their own words. Inspired by the philosophy of passive resistance (satyagraha) advocated by Mohandas(Mahatma) Gandhi and the British Suffrage Movement headed by firebrand Emmeline Pankhurst, Waaihoek’s women decided on a similar approach of civil disobedience.
The newly formed Bantu Women’s League (with Charlotte Maxeke as its first President) and the Orange Free State Native and Coloured Women’s Association (led by Katie Louw and Catharina Simmonds) organised a mass meeting in Waaihoek on 28 May 1913. At the meeting the women declared their unwillingness to carry passes any longer and subsequently about two hundred of them, reportedly led by Charlotte Maxeke, marched to Mayor Ivan Haarburger’s office in town to inform him of their decision. Since the mayor was not available, the women returned to Waaihoek and that night a crowd of them gathered at the local police station where they tore up their passes. Over the following two days more than eighty women were arrested and charged for not having passes.
On 29 May 1913 almost six hundred angry Waaihoek women lead by Rachel Thoka and Mrs Molisapoli – a “native Mrs Pankhurst” according to The Bloemfontein Post – marched to the magistrate’s court in St. Andrew’s Street. Some of them carried placards with slogans such as “Passes mean destitute children” and “Passes mean broken homes”. The women demanded that the magistrate drop all charges levelled against them. He agreed and ordered them back to the mayor’s office, after which the women proceed to the town hall in Maitland Street (today Charlotte Maxeke Street). By then the women had lost all patience because they got the impression that their demands were not being taken seriously. Arriving at the town hall they gathered on the steps of the building where they burst out in spontaneous singing, shouting and chanting their demands.
Instead of the mayor addressing the women, a number of town councillors made their appearance. Since only vague promises were made the women vowed to persist with their protest action. They were later informed that the mayor agreed to suspend all further arrests of women without passes. However, barely two weeks later the police, many of whom were “ruffians” according to Plaatje, broke the mayor’s promise when they attempted to arrest a woman found without a pass book. Crowds of angry Waaihoek women rushed to the scene of the arrest where a violent clash broke out between them and the police. More than thirty women were arrested and sent to prison where they were kept in appalling conditions and subjected to hard labour. For many Waaihoek women serving time in prison was a small price to pay for the sake of the greater cause, namely, to break “the shackles of oppression by means of passive resistance”, to quote Plaatje.
The aftermath
The Waaihoek women’s anti-pass campaign and the subsequent violent arrests made headlines throughout the Orange Free State. In some towns, such as Winburg, Jagersfontein and Fauresmith, similar protests were held. Black and even some white women who sympathised with their domestic servants’ plight, wore blue ribbons and rosettes as a sign of their participation and support. The extensive media coverage given to the women’s anti-pass protests put pressure on the national government in Cape Town to respond to the Waaihoek women’s grievances. It seemed as if the women’s persistence had exasperated the authorities. While the enforcement of pass law measures in Bloemfontein and the rest of Orange Free State were significantly relaxed with immediate effect, the women only won a complete victory in 1923 when women of colour were excluded from the pass laws on a national basis.
Although the government’s concession lasted only for a season and was, in fact, reversed after 1948, Waaihoek’s women demonstrated what could be achieved when women voice their demands in unity and with resolve. Despite the odds that were stacked against them, the Waaihoek women’s persistence had eventually paid off not only for the women of Bloemfontein and the Orange Free State but also for many other women of colour. Importantly, the 1913 anti-pass campaign served as an inspiration behind the Defiance Campaign of 1952 and the already-mentioned anti-pass women’s march of 1956. May the example that was set by Waaihoek’s women more than a century ago inspire a new generation of South African women activists to continue their struggle.
Sources
Anon., “South Africa loses one of her greatest women: tribute to life of late Mrs. C.M. Maxeke”, Umteteli wa Bantu, 21-10-1939, p. 4.
Botes, M. “Rachel Thoka – a forgotten heroine and leader”, Culna 73, March 2019, pp. 12-13.
Erasmus, P.A. “Waaihoek: resettlement without light”, South African Journal of Ethnology 21(3), 1998, pp. 135-139.
Free State Provincial Archives: MBL 3/1/19, Mayor’s minute 1924-1925.
Plaatje, S.T. Native life in South Africa (Johannesburg: Ravan Press, 1982).
Schoeman, K. Bloemfontein: die ontstaan van ‘n stad, 1846-1946 (Cape Town: Human & Rousseau, 1980).
Wells, J. We have done with pleading: the women’s 1913 anti-pass campaign (Johannesburg: Ravan Press, 1991).
Wells, J. “Why women rebel: a comparative study of South African women’s resistance in Bloemfontein (1913) and Johannesburg (1958)”, Journal of Southern African Studies 10(1), 1983, pp. 55-70.
Photos 1 & 2
Waaihoek’s women chanting their demands on the steps of the city hall in Maitland Street, Bloemfontein, while waiting for Mayor Ivan Haarburger to address them, dd. 29 May 1913. (Source: National Museum)
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