Thread by @SABookFair

NOW LIVE: The role of women in struggles of liberation!
Facilitated by: @KaraboKgoleng
Panelists: @ChristivdWest, @Candice_Chirwa and @ShantzN
Join in as they unpack the issue of how the role of women in liberation struggles is not always documented

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.@KaraboKgoleng starts by introducing everyone and then moves on to ask them - "do you remember the first time you felt a spark in your consciousness about gender and racial oppression?"

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. @Candice_Chirwa goes first and she says she remembers the days when she was in high-school and how high-school is a microcosm of society and how women were always being taught and told to serve the man.

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.@Candice_Chirwa further states that through her love of literature, she started realising that this is not it, surely there is more to life.

She says thats when she started being outspoken.

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She says no one wanted to be friends with her because she was an outspoken feminist who was always ready to fight the Patriarchy.

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.@Candice_Chirwa acknowledges that had it not been for literature and her love for reading - she would have not been who she is now.

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.@KaraboKgoleng now asks @ShantzN about her awakening and enlightenment and how it was like.

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. @ShantzN now says it was similar to that of @Candice_Chirwa.

She says she has been having these flashbacks to when she was young and in standard 3 in a newly democratic South Africa and how the literature at school was very progressive

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She says it grew as she became a journalist and she had to take on hard news pieces.

She says she was inpired by journalists that came before her and how they confronted issues.

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.@ChristivdWest says her awakening came from her years as a journalist.

She says it definitely came from her years growing up in Boksburg in the 80's. She says they were revolutionised at school.

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. @ChristivdWest states that her awakening also came to being in a similar way as @Candice_Chirwa.
When she was a young girl and how she was somehow secondary. She says she also realised how the people who regarded her as secondary were also racist

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She says she realized this connection as a young teenager. She started seeing the connection of racism, sexism and hetero-patriachy.

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.@ChristivdWest says that the realization also came due to her sexuality, she identifies as a lesbian and it was a feeling of just never fitting in.

And out of that came an organic politic. She became an organic feminist.

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.@KaraboKgoleng now talks about issues of social justice and asks if the panelists ever considered anything else outside of this work of social justice, whether they ever considered other avenues of making money.

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.@Candice_Chirwa now speaks about how tough it was when she was doing her masters and being an activist.

She says this is because the academic space is a predominately male space and you are usually told that the topic you want to write on is not always valid.

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"People tend to forget that activism can be academia. Your writing is activism and so you are allowed to intertwine the two" - @Candice_Chirwa

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"Let your activism speak truth to power in different perspectives" - @Candice_Chirwa

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.@ShantzN says that even in journalism, where she was doing a lot of lifestyle writing. The activism finds you and it asks you whether you are going to keep perpetuating or you are going to stand up against injustices.

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.@ShantzN states that her book also came from a masters thesis.

Then Mama Winnie passed away and the conversations around that were deeply patriarchal and out of that a book about gendered narratives came to being.

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"The activism is unavoidable and it will find you" - @ShantzN

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.@KaraboKgoleng says she chose the literature space because everything else was for men in the broadcast space and after that she realized that all these books she read were all written by men too.

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Now @ChristivdWest states that she always loved writing about politics, even in high school.

She thought she would be a pop music reviewer and she managed to become that and her other big love was politics and she managed to write on that too.

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.@ChristivdWest then became the first female correspondent in Parliament for the Naspers Group.

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.@KaraboKgoleng acknowledges how wonderful it is that this dialogue is intergenerational.

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.@Candice_Chirwa acknowledges that much of her work, and even her writing's in @PatriarchyPOP are inspired by the notion that - personal is political and political is personal and that you can't ever leave that space.

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. @Candice_Chirwa also states that she wrote @PatriarchyPOP as a guide for men to understand how the system of Patriarchy affects women in every single aspect of life.

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.@ShantzN now discusses her book Women in Solitary that looks into the resistance of women during Apartheid.

She says this book was inspired by the lack of coverage in the media space about these types of women.

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.@ShantzN says in a small way she hopes this book cements these women into history and serves as a constant reminder to us that women have been fighting this fight.

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.@KaraboKgoleng steers the conversation to the direction of respectability politics as a form of punishing women and how this 'tool' cuts across different cultures in SA #OURSTORIES #SABF2020

.@Candice_Chirwa responds on a surface level by touching on what we taught as children, that speaking back to a man was seen as less attractive and chances of you getting a husband would be reduced.
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.@Candice_Chirwa goes even depper to say, we were conditioned as children to sort of shrink in the presence of elders... To be submissive! #OURSTORIES #SABF2020
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.@Candice_Chirwa drives the point home by saying: Western feminism does not make room for culture because I can still respect my culture but I can also fight the patriarchy as well. #OURSTORIES #SABF2020
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.@ChristivdWest notes how the heavy burden of 'mother of the nation' respectability, rests on women upholding moral values, through how they carry themselves and how they express the moral standing of a nation. Such a heavy burden to shoulder! #SABF2020 #OURSTORIES

.@ChristivdWest notes how men always want to control women's bodies. #OURSTORIES #SABF2020

.@ShantzN speaks to how the stories in her book touch on general trauma of struggle heroes who happened to be women and mothers. And, she points out, that the trauma can have long lasting effects on the kids. #OURSTORIES #SABF2020

@ShantzN the collective work of women struggle heroes was important and the women made up for whatever time they lost with their children in many ways. #OURSTORIES #SABF2020

.@ChristivdWest shares how sexual violence is used to silence women. How society has normalized protecting the rapist male... "you can't now interfere with the trajectory of this great man's career by exposing him" she says #OURSTORIES #SABF2020

.@ShantzN states that, there are so many gaps in our stories, and it is gaining more knowledge and understanding that we would be able to be in a position to tell them. #OURSTORIES #SABF2020