Gently Shaking

After spending the majority of the day at the Freedom Park museum, we decided to stop off at the Union Buildings here in Pretoria (side note: this is where President Jacob Zuma was inaugurated for his second term this past weekend!).  It was a quick trip, and it was beautiful, but I didn't know at the time quite the significance that the location held.

In 1956, the lawn of the Union Buildings found upon it the feet of 20,000 women.  Twenty thousand!  At this time in South African history, women didn't have many rights to begin with.  The laws of Apartheid enforcing curfews with passbooks made it even worse for women of color.  These women were tired of being messed with; they had been oppressed for far too long and weren't going to take it anymore.  They marched in that day, ready with their petitions for their voices to be heard.  But then here's what gets me.  Their plan, should the police try to stop them, was to kneel down and surround the leaders in prayer.  If anyone was to be arrested, they all would be.

Sophia Williams de Bruyn, 18 at the time she led her fellow females, recalls the day.  “I remember that – as we the women who were sitting there, were positioning ourselves – I felt a lump in my throat. I looked at this large army of women. Dignified women. Courageous women. And I felt so humbled to be a part of such bravery, an act that encouraged the greater struggle. The song we sang that day, Bathindi Bafasi, it warned that if you strike a woman, you strike a rock.”

Women weren't even supposed to be on the lawns in front of the Union Buildings, and yet they were there.  This story reminds me of a Gandhi quote:  "In a gentle way, you can shake the world".  Sometimes it takes the most courage to be peaceful.

(www.21icons.com)

Love Always,

Lorien