INYATHI IBUZWA KWABAPHAMBILI, theorising South African women's intellectual legacies

246pp., illus., paperback, Mandela University Press, Gqberha, 2024

ISBN: 9781998959068

A collection of essays on African women intellectuals, activists, artists, and cultural custodians, past and present.

"I held this book close to my heart in gratitude for its receptiveness to the kinds of knowledge that have nourished me, indeed, all of us, but found little recognition in official accounts. At last, here is a collection hospitable to the breath of African women's intellectual brilliance." Gabeba Baderoon, author of Regarding Muslims: From slavery to post-apartheid

"In this collection the cohesive creativity of women as artists, administrators, healers, performers is uncovered, not in the usual 'heroism' that isolates the conventional image of the 'big men' from the pedestrian. Rather it is revealed in the everyday language of conversations entrenched in actual existence. In their daily lives women are called upon to retrieve what has always been there and then adapt it to the function of transformation. The result is a constant renewal and it yields change in all spheres." Barbara Masekela, author of Poli Poli: A memoir

Contributions include:

"The Relationship Between Theory and Practice: Reflecting on what Sarah Baartman taught me" by Yvette Abrahams

"Phyllis Ntantala and Black Women's Class Positionality" by Zaphesheya Dlamini

"Zenzile Miriam Makeba: An expansive name and legacy" by Nomfundo Xaluva

"'Make Way': Lebo Mathosa's self definition, kwaito and patriarchy" by Thulisile Msezane

"The Poetics and Aesthetics of Thandiswa Mazwai: A conversation between Pumla Dineo Gqola and Thandiswa Mazwai"

"Umcimbi: Phumzile Mambo-Ngcuka, Thenjiwe Mtintso and Bev Ditsie's conversation about 25 years of the Beijing Declaration and platform for action" by Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Thenjiwe Mtintso, Bev Ditsie and Yolande Bouka

"Pro-Vice-Chancellor Neo Mathabe: Women's leadership and the making of the post-apartheid university" by Puleng Segalo.

Babalwa Magoqwana is Associate Professor and a director of the Centre for Women and Gender Studies at Nelson Mandela University.

Siphokazi Magadla is Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Political and International Studies at Rhodes University. She is the author of Guerrillas and Combative Mothers: Women and the armed struggle in South Africa.

Athambile Masola lectures in the Department of Historical Studies at the University of Cape Town.