On International Women’s Day, the Rural Women’s Assembly (RWA) in South Africa mobilised a delegation of RWA members to support the launch of Tusimame Wanawake. International Women\’s Day is a global commemoration which seeks to highlight women’s social, economic, cultural and political achievements in all corners of the world. 

Tusimame Wanawake is a movement of immigrant women based in South Africa. The launch took place at the Centre for African Studies Gallery at the University of Cape Town. Tusimame Wanawake is Swahili for “Stand Up Women”.  Immigrant women from across the Continent are members of Tusimame Wanawake. The Rural Women’s Assembly is a regional movement based in eleven SADC countries. Movements such as the Tusimame Wanawake and the Rural Women’s Assembly presents opportunities to break down barriers imposed through colonialism and apartheid and helps in the fight against xenophobia. RWA has actively supported the establishment of the Tusimame Wanawake movement including joint commemorations for the International Day of Rural Women and World Food Day.

Also in attendance at the launch was representatives from the Western Cape Province Commission for Gender Equality and the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation. RWA member, Denia Jansen, encouraged members of Tusimame Wanawake to join RWA and/or consider collaborating with RWA with the common agenda of building women’s voice both in South Africa and across the SADC region.  Jansen stated, “I am extremely proud of the woman who stand up today because we stand up amidst war. You must have a lot of courage to stand up.”  

Jansen explained, “The Rural Women’s Assembly stands in solidarity with rural women and we fight patriarchy because this is the system which oppressed us for many years. It’s a system that makes us poor. It is a system that puts us in danger. It is system creates unemployment.”

Jansen said of RWA’s One Woman, One Hectare campaign. The One Woman, One Hectare campaign forms part of RWA’s advocacy for government to fully implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP). Jansen stated, “The Rural Women’s Assembly fights for access to land for women so that we can become independent from our abusers. We want One Woman, One Hectare so that we can send our children to university. We fight for access to land so that we can all be free because we are not free yet!”  Gender-Based Violence (GBV) is non-discriminatory since it impacts both rural and urban women. A few of the articles in UNDROP addresses rights which are pertinent to both rural and urban women,

Article 6: The right to life, liberty, and security of every person

Article 12: Access to justice

Article 16: The right to a decent income, and livelihood, and means of production

Article 18: The right to a safe, clean, and healthy environment

Jansen’s message emphasized that rural women need to stand together in solidarity and unite to fight the “war waged against” rural women.  “There are not many organisations or movements which are devoted to the cause of migrant women, so it is a very good platform for Rural Women’s Assembly to engage with,” concludes Jansen.