Amina Cachalia
Amina Cachalia was a struggle activist and mass organiser who brought the cause of women’s rights and dignity to the forefront of the liberation movement in a way few had before.
One of 11 children, she was born Amina Asvat in 1930, in Vereeniging. Cachalia described herself as born into the struggle, with her father Ebrahim Ismail Asvat a leading political activist who joined Mahatma Gandhi in the Passive Resistance Campaign in 1906.
A determined campaigner from her teenage years as a member of the Transvaal Indian Youth Congress, the 18-year-old Cachalia worked in establishing the Women’s Progressive Union in 1948. It aimed to assist women in becoming financially independent through skills and literacy training.
She met and married Yusuf Cachalia, also an activist and political leader, and mutually strengthened each other’s political work. He was secretary of the South African Indian Congress, and directed the Defiance Campaign of 1952 with Walter Sisulu, where Amina joined as a volunteer and was arrested for the first time.
In 1954, she united with other women leaders i n forming the Federation of South African Women (Fedsaw), where she served as its first treasurer. In this position, Cachalia, only in her twenties, and despite a heart condition, stood at the forefront of women’s emancipation and the anti-apartheid struggle.
The preparation for the 1956 Women’s March was an incredibly stressful period in Cachalia’s life. Fedsaw had no funds, so it was up to local women to raise transport funds for the march through cake sales and other activities. Cachalia oversaw the women of Fordsburg, Newlands and Langlaagte.
Cachalia, along with other women in Johannesburg, were also going to door-to-door. She worked tirelessly to convince fellow Indian women in her community to take the risk and join the protest. This was a real challenge, as many lived in strictly traditional households, and needed their husbands’ permission to attend.
Cachalia kept up this gruelling schedule of recruiting, women’s meetings and cake sales. As the march drew closer, the apartheid police found out what was planned. Cachalia had to personally reassure both the women and their husbands that they would not be harmed in the peaceful protest, all the while hoping what she said would be true.
On the day of the March, it all paid off. Women came out in unprecedented numbers: 20 000 from all over the country, showing their willingness to stand up and contest the oppression of the pass laws for women.
Cachalia was six months pregnant as she stood on the steps of the Union Buildings and addressed the protesters, joining Lilian Ngoyi, Helen Joseph and Sophie Williams-De Bruyn in physically carrying the thousands of petitions to the door of Prime Minister Strijdom’s office.
In 1963, after travelling throughout the country visiting political activists who were expelled from urban to rural areas, she was banned by the apartheid state. Her banning and house arrest lasted 15 years.
Despite this, Cachalia was involved in fighting against the Indian and Coloured Council representatives, and in forming the United Democratic Front. After liberation, she was elected as an MP in the country’s first democratic elections in 1994.
Speaking in an interview to Sibahle Malinga on the Women’s March published in 2006, Cachalia said that “people need to be more informed of the important events that shaped and altered our country’s political landscape.” She also noted the serious absence of powerful and organised women’s structures in South Africa today.
In 2004, Cachalia received the Order of Luthuli in Bronze for her lifetime of work. Her autobiography, When Hope and History Rhyme, was released shortly after her death in 2013. — Romi Reinecke
Josie Mpama (Palmer)
osie Mpama was born “Josie Palmer” in Potchefstroom in 1903 and grew up in Sophiatown, Johannesburg. She joined the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA) in the 1920s, and moved back to Potchefstroom in 1921, becoming involved in location politics. She married Edwin Mofutsanyana, a leading member of the CPSA and the ANC. The couple lived in an African area even though she classified herself as coloured. It was when they moved to this township that Palmer adopted the surname “Mpama.” She was elected secretary of the women’s section of the CPSA and was a leading figure in Potchefstroom in the 1928 campaign against residential permits. Her first-hand account as an organiser of the Potchefstroom anti-pass campaign of 1929-30 helped historians understand why women in this small Transvaal town became so highly politicised. Mpama was the first black woman to play a significant role in the CPSA. She started working with the National Anti-Pass Council in 1944. Mpama played a crucial role in the formation of the multi-racial organisation Fedsaw in April 1954. Later, as president of the Transvaal branch of Fedsaw she was served with a banning order, shortly before the 1956 Women’s March to the Union Buildings was due to take place. Mpama was also detained during the State of Emergency declared after the Sharpeville massacre in 1960. She died in 1979. In 2004, Thabo Mbeki awarded her the Order of Luthuli in Silver for her meaningful contribution to the struggle. — Fatima Asmal