The Only Way to Free Ourselves...
To complement the above piece, we add an extract from an interview with Ellen Musialela, Assistant Secretary for Finance, SWAPO Women's Council, January 1981. The complete text is available from the Women's Committee, Anti-Apatheid Movement, 89 Charlotte Street, London W. 1
What particular problems do women face in exile, in the refugee camps, and in ttie armed struggle ?
I think I should start from the very beginning, to say that it has been proved that no revolution will triumph without the participation of women. The SWAPO Women's Council
was created in 1969 at a congress held in Tanzania, to enable women to participate fully in SWAPO and in the armed struggle. At that time there were very few women who were active . Up to 1974, when our women started to come forward in their thousands, we were still faced with a lot of problems. Inside Namibia itself, it is very hard to communicate as women. The apartheid system that we live under does not allow women to move freely. You have to have an explanation to move from region to region. We are the people who are left in the villages, and you know that the work of the woman in Namibia is just to look after children, to bear them and to bring them up. Women also have to look after animals in the villages, while our men are taken away for long months - eighteen months at a time - for the rest of their lives.
So when women came out into exile, we were like a body So when women came out into exile, we were like a body without a leader. In 1979, SWAPO decided that, as we felt we had organised ourselves, it was time to call a congress.The SWAPO Women's Council had its first congress from 20-26 January 1980. We elected a Secretary, who had two assistants and a deputy - the last being Gertrude Kandanga,who is inside the country. She was arrested when she was trying to leave Namibia. Immediately after the Congress,we felt it was our duty to continue to mobilise. We have to make our women understand the need to participate fully in the armed struggle - not by saying that we should go to work in the kitchen, or carrying guns for our men, but participating such that today there are Namibian women commanders.Some women have sacrificed their lives on the battlefield;some are very good at communications, reconnaissance and in the medical field. Of course you also find that women in the camps are taking a very active role in our kindergartens,in our medical centres, as nurses, as teachers, and in productive work.
Our women, in the battlefield especially, are faced with a Our women, in the battlefield especially, are faced with a lot of problems when it comes to sanitary towels. It's the number one problem. Also things like panties and bras, the things that women can't do without. It's very important that women from the outside world sympathise. I saw with my own eyes when I went to the battlefield in May, how women were forced to use grass during their periods, and had to go without panties. We also need warm clothing, shoes and blankets. On the same visit I saw small children sleeping in blankets. On the same visit I saw small children sleeping in the open without warm clothing. Nevertheless their spirit remains high. With the assistance of our friends in the out side world, the Namibian struggle will continue.
Because women have chosen to fight side by side with men Because women have chosen to fight side by side with men on all three fronts of the struggle - diplomatic, military and political — you find that they are accorded great respect by men. It's obvious that men, especially in African customs,have customs which hinder the progress of women and which look upon women as weak. But today you find that our men in the camps don't look at women just as women, to be separated out to do the cooking. But work is divided up among groups irrespective of sex, whether it's gardening,cooking or any of the work of the camp. If you look at the leadership of SWAPO today, you find that both men and women are coming up to be members of the Central Committee,the Executive Committee. Women are starting to appear at the international level, in campaigning for SWAPO. Inside the country also, women are playing an active role; women like Ida Jimmy, Gertrude Kandanga and Rauna Nambinga. Women are harassed because of the role they have taken as mothers, to hide our combatants, giving them shelter and food. We feel proud that, despite the traditional barriers between men and women, women have started to understand that we have to fight together to fight the system, because we are oppressed as women, and we are oppressed as blacks —both men and women.
How has the political consciousness of women changed as a as a result of their participation in the struggle ?When women first started to come out, in the early 1970s, you would rarely see a woman expressing herself. Inside Namibia, the enemy has made a point of depicting women as less than nothing, just something to be pushed into the kitchen and stay there. This has made our women think that, even if they are talented, they shouldn't show their talent. But when women started to come out, when we started to mobilise them, to prepare them to participate in any front that they are called to, you find that their consciousness has deepened.They don't feel that to take arms to go and fight, to die,is just a waste of time. They feel proud. When I visited the battlefield in May, I saw them sleeping in the open, in the cold, sometimes they didn't have enough food. I asked them :"Comrades, why did you come trained ? Why did you leave Namibia ?" They said : "We just wanted to be trained, to go back and fight, because that's the only salvation, the only way to free ourselves."
So you can see that their consciousness is very high. Their So you can see that their consciousness is very high. Their consciousness has been alerted to watch out for the enemy.In reconnaissance, you find that our women are very active.
They are the people in the forefront, bringing in information to our base commanders.
What kind of solidarity can women in their countries give to women in Namibia ?
It's very important for women in other countries to stand with us as women. As mothers, we should understand that it'sour children, whom we carry for nine months, who suffer and die. It's important that women help us by writing petitions to the South African embassy and to their own government.We want our political prisoners released, especially Ida Jimmy, Gertrude Kandanga and Rauna Nambinga, and many others whose names we don't know. It's important for women to protest, as women, that these kinds of barbaric acts, by which South Africa harasses women, should stop.
It's important that women here in the West should side with women from the liberation movements in South Africa and Namibia. We tell them our problems, because we are the people who feel the pinch, who have been affected by apartheid.
When we went to the Copenhagen Conference, we were very When we went to the Copenhagen Conference, we were very disappointed by the women from the West. I don't mean the solidarity committees, although it's up to them to put pressure on women to understand that it's we who feel the pinch. These women from Britain, West Germany and America were trying to force us to restrict ourselves to equality development and peace, on the grounds that if we were outside these topics we would be trying to bring in politics.But we can't see how we can otherwise talk about equality,because in Namibia both women and men are oppressed as people; we don't vote; we don't control our natural resources;we don't have any say. This is very well known. We can't talk about development because we have been pushed out of our land — we don't have any land to develop. Even if you are inside the country you are pushed into the bantustans.We can't talk of peace because our country is at war. All these things have to be understood, so that women in the West appreciate the importance of solidarity with the women in the liberation movements and in the struggle
Can you say something more about the conditions of women in detention?
I'll start with Gertrude Kandanga, the deputy Secretary of the SWAPO Women's Council, whom we elected at the Congress in her absence. She was arrested when she was trying to come out to the Congress. Since then we have been trying to find out where she is in Namibia, but we have very little news. What we do know is that conditions for prisoners in Namibia are very bad, whether for men or women, we go under the same conditions. People should understand that in detention in a South African prison, you don't sleep - the light is on for the whole 24 hours, and they disturb you.This has resulted in many of our people coming out of jail in a disturbed and confused state. The conditions under which people are living in jail, whether women or men, I'm sure they have last been seen in Nazi Germany. It's up to women here to protest for their release. We ourselves cannot get information from the South Africans; there are many prisoners who have disappeared.
Can you comment on the dangers that women face by the security forces ?
In Namibia today the situation is very bad. I'm not trying to exaggerate, but our country has been placed under martial law. You find the South African Police patrolling in the streets, and their work is to shoot on the spot, rape, and commit all kinds of genocide, by burning villages, and destroying food. This has resulted in many of our women leaving their villages and crossing into Angola for shelter. Our women are raped, whipped in public, tortured almost to death — some of them have been killed during torture, some of them have been thrown into jail without trial. Even those women who have left Namibia in the mass exodus with their children are still followed by South Africa, bombed and killed. South Africa announces they have killed SWAPO freedom fighters when in reality they have killed innocent people who are not armed, people who are running away from their own country.
What kind of health and welfare services exist in Namibia under the apartheid system, particularly as they affect women — childcare facilities, maternity facilities, nurseries and so on ?
I think Namibia is the worst country I have seen. The South African government has completely ignored the health of the people. That's why the people of Namibia today have taken up arms, because of the way we have been treated. If you go to Namibia today, you will find that there are still people who don't know what a hospital is, what a doctor is. This has resulted in many deaths of children before they reach the age of five. From the time that the child is in the mother's stomach, the mother won't receive any care, won't go to an antenatal clinic for examination, up to the time that the child is born in the village. Maybe she'll be lucky and that child will be born in a hospital, but the facilities are so bad that you find that in the so-called maternity hospitals, women still sleep on the floor, they are given dirty blankets, the children are not provided with enough clothes.
When it comes to the welfare of people, that has been forgotten about. Centres for the disabled, clinics for the under fives— these things don't exist in Namibia. Malnutrition,measles, whooping cough - all the diseases of children just continue. Nurseries — I have never seen a nursery in Namibia.When it comes to contraceptives, these are not known. This has resulted in many deaths. A woman will have as many children as she can, because she doesn't have any means of children as she can, because she doesn't have any means of spacing them. There's no place where our women can go to be advised on spacing their children. In Namibia children are very much needed, because we are underpopulated. But it's useless, because each year you will find a woman will have children, and they won't grow because they die of malnutrition,they die from all kinds of diseases.
It's only now, that South Africa is trying to deceive the It's only now, that South Africa is trying to deceive the world. I'm trying to point out to Western women, especially to feminist groups, that I think they have a role to play.Because the West is dumping medicines in the Third World,including Nambia. Women who decide that it is better to space their children go to a doctor for advice. These women will be stopped from giving birth — these days they are using Depo Provera on them without telling them the truth about what they are doing. It's a form of genocide and the South African government has the policy of making sure that the black population remains low. They are using Depo Provera both in South Africa and in Namibia. Women here should look into this, and fight against the companies that send these medicines to Southern Africa and sterilise our women.