[WA-News] Intersections =?UNKNOWN?Q?=96?= Covering Gender @ the WCAR NGO Forum, Durban 2001

[jradloff at iafrica.com]

Intersections – Covering Gender @ the WCAR NGO Forum, Durban 2001
Issue 3 – Part 2
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This bulletin is an APC-Africa-Women project, implemented by Women’sNet South 
Africa. 
For the full version or to add your stories and information please go to:
http://www.apc.org/intersections

About us:
Women’sNet is a joint project of the Southern African Non-Governmental 
Organisation Network (SANGONeT) and the Commission on Gender Equality. It is a 
vibrant and innovative networking support program designed to empower South 
African women to use the Internet to find the people, issues, resources and 
tools they need for Social Action.
http://www.womensnet.org.za
 
APC-Africa-Women is a network of organisations and individuals that work to 
empower African women's organisations to access and use Information and 
Communication Technologies (ICTs) for equality and development. (APC stands for 
Association for Progressive Communications)
http://www.enda.sn/synfev/apcfemafr/indexapc.html

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In this Issue:

1. Women Call for the Recognition by Governments of Forms of Racial 
Discrimination that Links with Gender 
By Mary Wandia, FEMNET

2. Interview with Rehana Ebr. Vally, author of Kala Pani, Colour and Caste in 
South Africa
Sarita Ranchod, of APC-Africa Women, interviewed the author. 

3. WACR NGO FORUM… A Personal Perspective
 BY Miriam Menkiti

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Women Call for the Recognition by Governments of Forms of Racial Discrimination 
that Links with Gender 
By Mary Wandia, FEMNET

The Women’s Caucus brought together women NGOs globally under the Gender 
Commission. The Commission was set up to strategise on how to influence, from a 
gender perspective, the text and language of the NGO and government’s 
declarations and programmes of action. 

The meeting also aimed at coming up with post WCAR strategies for women to 
monitor and lobby for the elimination of racism, racial discrimination, 
xenophobia and related intolerances.

The Commission noted that the Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing 
identified how women are marginalized in similar and distinct ways from men. 
However, it was noted that forms of racial discrimination affecting women and 
men in similar ways are recognised as human rights violations and measures put 
in place to address them. On the other hand, forms of racial discrimination 
affecting women are not. They are seen as domestic issues yet women’s rights 
are human rights. Governments have to acknowledge this difference and reflect 
it in the WCAR outcomes in order to eliminate racial discrimination against 
women.

The Commission appreciated the fact that the declaration and programme of 
action from the WCAR were not legally binding. However, governments had a moral 
obligation to implement their commitments to eliminate racism. Non-governmental 
organisations had the task of bringing pressure to bear on governments to 
honour their commitments. From the government declaration and programme of 
action, issues and recommendations relating to women were outlined. 

There is a need to list the victims of racism as given in the International 
Convention On the Eradication of Racial Discrimination (ICERD). The current 
list is an exhaustive list and this makes it difficult to include other groups 
that could be victims of racism. There is a need to put in place mechanisms to 
enforce and monitor governments implementation of the commitments they make in 
eliminating racism- particularly forms that affect women and children 
distinctly. 

The Commission also called for the recognition and protection from racial 
discrimination of both documented and undocumented migrants, especially women 
and children. They have been termed as illegal and thus exposed to racism and 
racial discrimination. Reparations were necessary as compensation for the moral 
and psychological, and economic rehabilitation of the victims and survivors who 
have continued to suffer from the legacy of slavery and colonialism. On 
indigenous peoples, the footnote indicating reservations on the use of the 
word ‘peoples’ should be removed to ensure that the term retains the form 
recognized by international human rights laws. 

Lastly, the Commission emphasised the recognition of the link between gender 
and race throughout the government’s declaration and programme of action, which 
has not been done. In the form of a metaphor, Kimberle Crenshaw illustrated the 
multiple forms of discrimination experienced by women. She said that the 
different forms of discrimination could be illustrated by a network of roads 
crisscrossing each other from the north to the south, west to the east and 
intersecting at one point. The different street signs could be racism, sexism, 
post-colonialism, structural adjustment programs, homophobia and other ‘isms. 

The traffic on Racism Street would be slavery, massive race discrimination, 
discrimination in access to education, economic justice and employment. The 
traffic on Sexism Street would be sterilization of women, forced marriages, and 
sexual violence. Structural adjustment programs, globalisation, and lack of 
basic infrastructure would constitute traffic on the Post-colonialism Street. 
At the point where all these roads intersect, women are trying to cross and 
many accidents occur. These forms of discrimination cannot be separated and are 
the causes of the marginalisation of women. Racism and racial discrimination 
cannot be eliminated without the recognition of the intersectionality of gender 
and race and specific measures must be established to protect women.

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Interview with Rehana Ebr. Vally, author of Kala Pani, Colour and Caste in 
South Africa
Sarita Ranchod, of APC-Africa Women, interviewed the author. 

Exploring South African ‘Indian’ identity is what Rehana Ebr.-Vally’s new book, 
Kala Pani, aims to do. She explores the relationship between the caste system, 
transported from India to South Africa by ‘indentured labourers’ and ‘passenger 
Indians’ during the nineteenth century. Ebr.-Vally argues that the caste system 
found fertile ground under apartheid because the two systems of separation and 
hierarchy created a mutually reinforcing system of “surveillance and control”. 
The Apartheid Group Areas Act allowed “a system of control which allowed 
the “community” to ensure people went to the mosque, temple or church, that 
social stratification could be maintained”, she said.

 While all black people were oppressed under Apartheid, Ebr.-Vally 
argues, “Indians benefited from the social stratification of Apartheid because 
they had the opportunity to perpetuate caste system values which they brought 
from India. The experience of the caste system allowed ‘Indians’ to understand 
Apartheid,” she said. 

“While Indian immigrants were not able to transport the caste system wholly 
intact because the system was linked to the village and social structure of 
India, they were able to transport some criteria, reinvent and manipulate it to 
maintain some level of stratification, an inherent part of their cultural 
baggage”.

Ebr.-Vally says the question of skin colour is of particular importance to 
the ‘Indian’ community in South Africa, in India and throughout the Indian 
diaspora. “The lighter you are, the greater your chance of being pure and 
beautiful”. The obsession with skin colour continues today both in India and 
throughout the Indian diaspora. “If you look at the Lonely Hearts columns 
for ‘Indians’ on the Internet, you will notice the important stress on a light 
complexion”. Ebr.-Vally argues that skin colour has always been a big issue in 
India, dating to pre-history, and that the coloniser manipulated this existing 
reality to their advantage.  “While the issue of skin colour may once have been 
fluid, under colonialism it was made categorical.”

There is an urgent need for a critical reflection of the political and social 
roles that ‘Indian’ South Africans have played. Ebr.-Vally argues, “we need to 
burst a bubble” about the role of ‘Indians’ in the Anti-Apartheid struggle. “We 
can’t build a mythical idea of an entire community. We need to acknowledge that 
there were sell-outs cohorting with the Apartheid government, and that there 
were people who fought the system.” 

Asked why she chose to work on ‘Indian’ identity, she said,  “My experience as 
a student in France was a defining period during which I became interested in 
exploring South African ‘Indian’ identity. People in my class would ask me if I 
was Indian (from India), and I would say I was South African. They would ask 
how it was possible for me to be a South African when there were only black and 
white people in South Africa. When I said I was a black South African, they 
would say I was not black, but brown.” This experience of an identity under 
challenge prompted her to explore the formation and meaning of identity 
further. “Being a student in France allowed me an objective distance to look at 
my own country through different eyes.” The result of that exploration is the 
book, Kala Pani, meaning dark waters. 

Commenting on identity debates in contemporary South Africa, she argues that 
South African identities are fluid and constantly changing. “The cultural 
diversity of democratic South Africa allows every individual a multiplicity of 
identities. We can be South African, Zulu, Sotho, female, and every one of 
those identities will be right.”

Speaking to her own sense of identity, Ebr.-Vally said, “I left South Africa as 
a black South African, and I came back as a South African. I no longer need a 
hyphenated identity. We come from a segregated past. We haven’t before had the 
possibility and pride of being one. I am an ardent believer in the need for a 
South African identity. That doesn’t make me a nationalist, but a guardian of 
democracy.” 

Kala Pani was launched on Thursday, 30 August at the Art Gallery at Durban City 
Hall. Rehana Ebr.-Vally is a lecturer in the Social Anthropology Department at 
Wits University.
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WACR NGO FORUM… A Personal Perspective
 BY Miriam Menkiti

World conferences organised by the United Nations are regular events, 
reports of which appear in the media. Yours truly has relished in reading 
such stories but has never had the privilege of attending any meeting of 
that nature.

Mother luck smiled on me with the opportunity to attend the WCAR 
NGO Forum leading to the government’s World Conference Against  
Racism taking place in Durban, South Africa 31st August –2nd September.

Not knowing what to expect at the NGO Forum where over seven  
thousand delegates from civil society organisations from all over the
world would be meeting to finalize their program of action for the World
Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia And 
Related Intolerance, I was thrilled at the thought that I will be part of the 
meeting.

On arrival in Durban on Sunday 26th August, I was surprised that rather 
than being checked into a hotel which was supposedly reserved for me, I 
was driven by a shuttle bus to the home of a nice couple. In my country
Nigeria, we are not used to the idea of guests being checked into private
Homes for paid accommodation.

On Monday 27th August at the forum venue, Kingsmead Cricket Stadium, 
I paid a hundred dollar 

registration fee for the meeting and I was given my accreditation badge, a 
conference bag with relevant materials and two T-Shirts.

At the tents for each region of the world, meetings were going on. The 
African regional meeting was short but interesting.

Workshops were being held at various centres and flyers were distributed
by representatives of groups and caucuses urging  participants to  attend 
their workshops. The activities were too many and too scattered that I 
was at a loss as to what I could do to meet up with the demands. 

However I had to be at one meeting  at a time. It was fun anyway.
……..the events continue today.

* Miriam Menkiti is  Chairperson Nigeria Association Of Women Journalists 
[NAWOJ] Enugu State Chapter and Controller Editorial Unit Radio Nigeria Enugu 
National Station, Suothe East Nigeria.

[End Issue 3 Part 2]

 




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