Give Mbeki a book on Aids

Nog een link naar het artikel over de presentatie van het boekje Brenda has a dragon in her blood op: http://www.news24.com/.

09/08

Today is woman's day in South Africa. I had the opportunity to say a few words at Woman's Day celebrations in Goodwood, Cape Town. I put on my most beautiful African dress and here's what I said:

This is such a special day.
This is South Africa’s Women’s Day.
Vrouedag.
Abafazi Imini.

Do you know South Africa is the only nation in the world where Women’s Day is an official public holiday? All these people having a day off today, should thank us, women, for this public holiday. Shouldn’t they?

In my home country, the Netherlands, there is no such thing as a national Women’s day. Only feminists will celebrate International Women’s day in March, with workshops or lectures.

In the Netherlands women tend to say: we are citizens of the same society, we don’t need a special women’s day.
The truth is, we don’t have a moment in history, where we stood up for our rights, one day we fought for solidarity together, a day worth remembering.

But you have.

Since I arrived in South Africa, I have been comparing. I compare women in the Netherlands, with women in South Africa.
As you heard, I just did it again. I compared your National Women’s day with the days I know in my home country.

I also compare clothing, hairstyles, the way you speak, the jobs women do, women’s status in society and the way the media reports about women and women’s issues.
I can tell you, it is fascinating!

In the beginning everything looked completely different. Then everything seemed better in South Africa compared to the Netherlands.
And now I am not so sure anymore about what I see.
I see a rainbow of women. Life histories in all colours.

I want to share some of my observations with you.

The most difficult colour in South Africa’s women’s rainbow to understand, for me - for Foreign Me - is the colour I will call Madam & Eve.

This colour refers to women in South Africa, working as domestic workers. The colour also refers to women hiring domestic workers.
Domestic worker is an honest job. Both my own grandmothers were domestic workers and both of them had hilarious stories about the families they worked for. Both my grandmothers managed to give their children a secondary education and now their grandchildren go to university.
You see, they managed over the generations to improve themselves. Their children and grandchildren play in another league – as my husband would say.

So when I see a domestic worker here in South Africa, I can only hope she will have the same chance.
But I wonder.
When you are an Eve, a domestic worker, working for R1500, perhaps R2500 a month for years... how can you improve yourself?

Still, I can tell you, it happens. I know there are Eves & Madams, who discuss this together. They are both women, so yes, they should be able to understand each other’s needs and talk openly about it.
I know of one Madam who pays her Eve double the regular salary. I know of another one who built a house for her Eve and I also heard of a number of Madams who decided to save money for Eve’s children’s education.

I want to share the following thought with you.
The next time - instead of building a house - in the garden; perhaps even besides saving money for Eve’s children’s education -
The next time, Madam could also consider to let Eve work less hours for the same amount of money...
So Eve will have some time and energy left for herself, her own books and clothes, her own community and her own family.

Another colour I would like to describe, is a strong bright colour. It is the colour I will call: New South African Woman.
I just love her.
I see her in O-magazine, I see her in the train, I see her in the shopping mall and I see her in the workplace. She is making movies, she is the director of an NGO, she is an IT specialist, she is a teacher, she is a health worker.
She is working hard to make a difference.

She doesn’t always win an Oscar for her work. Her office isn’t always so fancy, and not all her learners go to university, but she believes in herself and in South Africa and that makes her stand out.

Actually, I see quite a number of her, today in Goodwood Civic Centre.

In my country, women with children will feel guilty when they go out to work. Although most families need a double income, society is not supportive of the idea women having a job, let alone, having a career.

I think it is quite different here.
From what I understand, in South Africa it is very common for women to have a job and communities and families will support her in succeeding.

But I also understand that many men find it very difficult as soon as the woman starts to earn more.
Is that true? I can’t believe that!
Who cares about who is earning more when everybody, the whole family, is better off at the end of the day?!
Let this never be an issue.
If you earn more, it is probably because – as Beyoncé would put it - ‘you’re worth it’!

I want to finish with a poem. It was written by a Belgian friend of mine.

Her name is Frieda Groffy and she is an honest hardworking woman. During the eighties she toured Belgian theatres reading poetry from South Africa.

After 1994 she finally visited South Africa for the first time and immediately fell in love. She lives on a very small pension but is always saving money for her next visit to South Africa. The last time she was here, she worked with HIV positive children and mothers in Nkosi’s Haven.

The poem I will read is named ‘The Universal Woman’. Dedicated, as Frieda would say, to all women in the world.

I’m the universal woman
With the rainbow coloured skin

I bear the pain of
All small little girls
Gang raped in the wars
The violated, beaten up women
Dying and not knowing why

I’m the fierce, tortured freedom fighter
Of all the revolutions
Long forgotten and honour denied

I’m the universal woman
Humiliated for my colour and tongue
Persecuted for my beliefs
For my true love for a woman
Circumcised in my sexuality
Killed in my womanhood

I’m the universal woman
With the rainbow coloured skin
Mother of the earth
Queen of all life
Mistress of the moon
The warmth and passion of the sun
The tree of tenderness
The source of compassion
The balance of the world

The universal woman
With the rainbow coloured skin
Am I