A Literature Review on the State of Research on Women’s Contribution to South Africa’s Liberation Struggle
Ayanda Sphelele Ndlovu 
& Chitja Twala
Issue: Vol.5 No.8 Issue Article 15 pp.1627-1636
DOI: https://doi.org/10.38159/ehass.20245815 | Published online 30th August, 2024
© 2024 The Author(s). This is an open access article under the CCBY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
This paper presented a literature review reflecting on the state of research in South Africa pertaining to women’s contribution to the liberation struggle. It analyzed the trends in research pertaining to women’s contribution toward the liberation struggle. The paper critically reviewed existing literature that focuses on women’s role in the struggle for equality, liberation, and nationalism. Additionally, this paper reviewed literature in its relevancy to the historiography and body of historical research about South African women political activists under the following themes: women voices’ through men’s articulation; the interpretations of feminist discourse; change of historiography of women’s liberation movements; narrative theory and women’s relationship to the struggle; the politicization of women’s participation into the struggle; pedagogical approach to women history and gender justice; and gender politics as a struggle for theory and phenomenology of women’s existence. This paper’s approach in reviewing literature and the state of research on women’s contribution to the South African liberation struggle. With this paper, it is envisaged that it will greatly contribute to the ongoing debates about the liberation historiography in South Africa and further enhance research themes and scope focusing on South African women’s liberation. It concludes that through the review of literature on the role of women in the liberation struggle, an appreciation to document more of their stories might be significant for the the country’s liberation historiography.
Keywords: Feminism, Historiography, Social History, Women, Liberation Struggle, Gender Justice.
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Ayanda Sphelele Ndlovu is a lecturer in the Department of History at the University of Fort Hare, Alice, South Africa. He is a published scholar and holds a Bachelor of Social Sciences (History and Political Sciences); Bachelor of Social Sciences Honours (History) both from the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal; Master of Art (History) and the University of the Free State and Master of Science (Archaeology) from University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (present). His research interests are interdisciplinary disciplinary which are (history, philosophy, politics and archaeology). Here are the themes: race and racism, African philosophy and black existentialism in historiography, LGBTQI, rock art/engravings and burial grounds and graves. Besides being a lecturer, he is a heritage consultant and independent researcher with an interest of history and heritage.
Chitja Twala is a History Professor in the Department of Cultural and Political Studies at the University of Limpopo (UL), South Africa. He is the author of ten chapters (co-authored three) in a book series entitled The Road to Democracy in South Africa (1970–1990). He recently published a chapter co-authored with Peter Limb entitled: ‘The ICU in Free State Dorps and Dorpies’ in the book Labour Struggles in Southern Africa, 1919–1949 published in 2023. Another chapter co-authored with Mohau Soldaat is entitled ‘Lesotho migrant workers in the Orange Free State farms’ and was published in December 2023. In 2024, he co-edited a book entitled: Migration, Borders, and Borderlands: Making National Identity in Southern African Communities.
Ndlovu, Ayanda Sphelele & Chitja Twala. “A Literature Review on the State of Research on Women’s Contribution to South Africa’s Liberation Struggle,” E-Journal of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences 5, no.8 (2024): 1627-1636. https://doi.org/10.38159/ehass.20245815
© 2024 The Author(s). Published and Maintained by Noyam Journals. This is an open access article under the CCBY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
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