The March Still Resonates

SIXTY-FIVE YEARS AGO, ON August 9, 20,000 women and girls of all races, classes, color and creed marched, singing and chanting, some with babies on their backs, and climbed up the steps of the Union Buildings in Pretoria, the seat of the apartheid government in South Africa’s capital city, to deliver petitions to the then Prime Minister J.G Strijdom, against the introduction of apartheid pass laws.

In the throes of apartheid in 1952, the South African government introduced the Native Laws Amendment Act. It was an offence for any African to be in any urban area for more than 72 hours unless they were in possession of a pass that had details of the holder’s identity, employment, place of legal residence, payment of taxes and permission to be in the urban areas. For the first time in South African history, black women were expected to carry passes too.

The march was led by four