South African anti-apartheid activist (1901–1983)
Dora Ntloko Tamana OLG (11 November 1901 – 23 July 1983) was a prominent South African anti-apartheid activist known for her unwavering commitment to social justice and equality. Her life and work were dedicated to challenging the oppressive apartheid regime in South Africa. Her experiences with the injustices perpetrated under apartheid fueled her determination to fight for society where all individuals would be treated equally regardless of race or background. Tamana's efforts contributed to the eventual dismantling of apartheid in South Africa.
Early life (1901–1921).
Dora Ntloko was born in 1901 to parents Minah and Joel Ntloko. She was the eldest of four children. She described her childhood as a picture of somber and isolation, in an untouched community of Hlobo, Transkei, then part of Cape Colony. Tamana's education consisted of attending school until the fourth standard at 10 years old, however she was mainly self-educated. Much of her life consisted of living and working on her family's land, where they worked together to look after their cattle and do household chores. As a teen Dora and her family converted to the Israelite denomination, a black church that believed in Jewish and Old Testament ideals. This religious group began to inhabit an area called Ntabelanga. The South African government thought of this as illegal occupation of land and this led to the 1921 Bulhoek Massacre of Israelite sect members, where her father died. This massacre and her loss inspired her activism and fight against South African apartheid
Career (1930–1981).
Dora Tamana's particular interest in activism centered around self-help programs such as a food committee (Cape Town's Women's Food Committee), a women's sewing cooperative, and a childcare program, which sought to have local authorities provide ample supplies. The program was extremely useful during World War II when the Women's Food Committee pressured the government to bring those in need aid. She advanced women's struggles and organized her community and women in defiance campaigns against laws that limited people's movement.
Additionally, Tamana's joined a number of other political organizations as part of her activism. During World War II, she lived in the Blouvlei settlement, where she became politically active with the Cape Flats Distress Association (CAFDA), a group dedicated to improving poor living conditions for African and other communities. She was an executive member here where she set up vegetable gardens, and arranged for deliveries of fresh milk for the people in the settlements. She joined the Communist Party in South Africa (CPSA) during this time, and soon the African National Congress Women's League (ANCWL), which was created after women were allowed to join the congress. The league was used as a platform for Black South African women to advocate for national liberation and the anti-apartheid movement.
Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA) and African National Congress Women's League (ANCWL)..
She became involved with the Communist Party of South Africa (later known as the South African Communist Party - SACP) in the late 30s' and met many prominent figures like Ray Alexander, someone who would become very close to her. This movement focused on issues related to housing and rent. She officially joined in 1942 as an executive member. As part of the Athlone committee for Nursery Education in the Blouvlei settlement in Cape Town, Dora Tamana was able to create nurseries for children while simultaneously creating economic opportunities for women to provide for their families. The women of this committee were involved in establishing several schools in disadvantaged areas and they also founded the Maynardville Open-Air Theatre on December 1, 1950 (as a fundraiser for charitable projects). Dora Tamana was joined by two other ladies from that committee, fellow Communist Party member Jean Bernadt and Athlone committee chair Margaret Molteno, to build a school and health centre in Blouvlei. The three women worked to realise Dora Tamana's vision and they founded the Blouvlei Nursery School and family health centre in May 1955.
While living in Blouvlei she became more politically active, especially through the South African Communist Party (SACP). In her career, Dora Tamana eventually went on to take higher roles in the African National Congress Women's League (ANCWL). One of her first jobs was going door to door to encourage people to protest against the National Party, a party that caused problems for African Americans through highly restricted legislation. Her political career reached its height when she became acting Secretary. She understood what it meant to come from a poor, rural and working class family. She would describe her political journey as a slow burn that further inflamed as she spent more time with people, learning from them.
Federation of South African Women (FEDSAW).
It was through Ray Alexander, one of the founders of FEDSAW, in the CPSA where Dora Tamana was able to fully become involved in the anti-apartheid movement. She took a leadership role in the anti-pass movement in 1953, and in 1954 became National Secretary of the Federation of South African Women (FEDSAW). One of her first memorable actions in this role was giving the inaugural conference speech. FEDSAW had international relationships with the WIDF, which allowed her to go to the World Congress of Mothers in Lausanne, Switzerland in 1955.
World Congress of Mothers 1955.
The Federation of South African Women chose two delegates to attend the Congress of Mothers organized by the Women's International Democratic Federation (WIDF) in 1955. Dora Tamana accompanies fellow delegate and founder of FEDSAW, Lilian Ngoyi to the Congress. The journey to the Congress of Mothers was not easy. Neither she nor Ngoyi had official passports since it was hard for women associated within this work to obtain one. Tamana and Ngoyi stowed away on a boat leaving Cape Town for Britain under false identities. They had constant anxiety during their entire trip as they were often stopped and asked for papers. They would lie and say that they are accompanying their husbands for bible classes in London. Lausanne was their primary destination but the two FEDSAW delegates were able to travel together to other locations like Germany, Switzerland, Romania, China, and Russia. Traveling to other places enables the two to immerse themselves in leftist discourse. But in 1955, after attending the World Congress of Mothers in Switzerland with Lillian Ngoyi, she was banned by the South African government from attending political meetings.
Life after the Congress of Mothers.
Harassed by police and rezoned out of Blouvlei, she moved to Nyanga, where she remained for the rest of her life. In her sixties, she served two jail sentences for her activism, and her son Bothwell was imprisoned and sentenced to death, which was later changed to life imprisonment (he was later released, after Zimbabwe's independence). But she stayed actively involved with women's protests into the 1970s. In 1978 she organized a rally in Cape Town that established the United Women's Association which was the forerunner for an organization that was later made, the United Women's Organization. She spoke at the launching meeting of the United Women's Organization in 1981. Her poem exhorted the next generations of South African women to unite and act together for change:
You who have no words, speak.
You who have no homes, speak.
You who have no schools, speak.
You who have to run like chickens from the vulture, speak.
Let us share our problems so that we can solve them together.
We must free ourselves.
Personal life.
After her father's death, Dora Ntloko had moved to Queenstown by the 1930s. She married John Tamana, with whom she had four children with, but only one survived infancy. She was considered a mother to a number of children, most of whom were her sister's. After some time, Dora and her husband moved to Cape Town after spending a long time apart. Soon after, the two divorced and she began to look after her sister's children. Dora Tamana died in 1983, at age 82, from tuberculosis. In 2015, government official Nomaindia Mfeketo dedicated a park in Cape Town to Dora Tamana, and named it after her.
References.
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