Women, Resistance and the Armed Struggle in Southern Africa

Abstract

We have yet to be overwhelmed by research that investigates the role of women in the armed struggles waged by the liberation movements in Southern Africa, The countless women whose stories are hidden and yet without whom liberation politics could never occur’ (Wolpe, 1994). One view was articulated in a paper, ‘The Role of Women in the Struggle for Liberation in Zimbabwe, Namibia and South Africa’ prepared in 1980 for the World Conference of the United Nations Decade for Women. The paper argued that women fought equally with men in these struggles. Although the paper was developed into a book by Richard Lapchick and Stephanie Urdang (1980: 33-34; 1982), the material remained thin on evidence and failed to explore several important issues including the under-representation of women in senior positions in the liberation movements or their armed wings (Cock, 1991).