Fatima sea

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Fatima Meer (born August 12, 1928 in Durban ; † March 12, 2010 ibid) was a South African sociologist , author, human rights and anti- apartheid activist who was president of the South African Black Women's Federation . She grew up as the daughter of a journalist and the editor of the weekly newspaper The Indian Views , the oldest Indian newspaper for Muslims in South Africa.

Life

Historic building of the University of KwaZulu-Natal

Youth and education

Fatima Meer was born in Durban as the second of eight other siblings. Her parents were Moosa Ismail Meer and Rachel Farrel. Her mother took the first name Amina after converting to Islam . The parents had a variety of social relationships in South Africa. The father's activity as the editor of the Indian Views newspaper (published from 1914 to 1972) had an early influence on Fatima Meer. The former agent-general of the Indian government in South Africa, Raja Maharaj Singh , described this newspaper as the "leading Indian newspaper in South Africa". The Indian Views were aimed at the Gujarati- speaking Muslims of South Africa. The birthplace of Fatima Meer is a center of the Indian diaspora on the African continent and the former place of work of Mahatma Gandhi .

After graduating from Durban Indian Girls' High School , she studied at the University of Natal, founded in 1910 , where she earned a bachelor's and master's degree in sociology. She was briefly represented at the Witwatersrand University in Johannesburg. Her educational qualifications were a rarity for a young woman in South Africa at the time.

Early political activity

Her political commitment began when she was still at school. Here in 1944 she participated in the organization of famine relief for Bengal . In 1946 she was among those involved in the Indian Passive Resistance Campaign against the policies of the South African state. In this context, she spoke at rallies and worked with the political leaders of this movement, Yusuf Dadoo and Monty Naicker . As a result of this political work, numerous activists were arrested and sentenced to several years in prison. In the course of these developments, she met her future husband, who was a member of the large Meer family.

Slum in Durban

When great “racial” unrest rocked the country in 1949, she decided to get involved in the political unification of colored (Indian and other minorities) and black African sections of the population. Together with Bertha Mkhize (President of the ANC Women's Association / African National Congress Women's League ) she organized aid for the slums in Durban, the establishment of a day nursery and worked for understanding, reconciliation and non-violent work among the various population groups.

The first state restriction against Fatima Meer was issued for the first time in the period from 1952 to 1954. They were banned on the basis of the Suppression of Communism Act ( Act No. 44/1950 ). This prohibited her from participating in public events and the right to publications. In addition, she was not allowed to leave the Durban metropolitan area. The political activities of her and her husband brought her into contact with representatives of the African National Congress / ANC during this time . This was of great importance for the cohesion of the Indian minority with the representatives of the liberation movement of black South Africans. This led to a friendship with Nelson Mandela's family and informal contacts with Albert Luthuli , Walter Sisulu and Oliver Tambo .

In Pietermaritzburg in 1954 she took part in several demonstrations of the anti- passport movement, as a result of which over 600 women demonstrating were arrested.

The Pass March and the Sharpeville Massacre

Union Buildings in Pretoria
Remembering the Sharpeville massacre

In 1955 she was a founding member and board member of the Federation of South African Women . This women's organization carried out the anti-pass march on the Union Buildings (government building) in Pretoria a year later under the slogan “within 'imbokodo” . This protest march by 20,000 women was about the criticism of a new state identification document ( Natives (Abolition of Passes and Coordination of Documents) Act / Act No 67/1952 ) with biometric data for domestic use, which was only issued to black South Africans and contained the respective fingerprints in addition to a passport photo. This state measure was conceived and conceived as a segregation instrument in the apartheid system serving to monitor the entire residence . With this march a petition to the then Prime Minister Johannes Gerhardus Strijdom was made public. The passport problem culminated in the Sharpeville massacre in 1960, after which South Africa declared a State of Emergency. As a result of the protests, numerous activists were arrested without a judge's order or trial. Among them was her husband, who had been the leading activist of the follow-up actions in Natal. During this time Fatima Meer organized weekly vigils in Durban and humanitarian support for the families of some of the detainees.

Period with a national impact

By 1970 she had become a nationally known anti-apartheid fighter. In this way a collaboration with the South African Students' Organization (SASO) developed under the direction of Steve Biko . During this time Fatima Meer founded the Natal Education Trust , with which she raised large sums of money among the Indian minority to build schools in the townships of Umlazi , Port Shepstone and Inanda .

In 1972, Fatima Meer founded the Institute of Black Research (IBR). As a result of its activities, it took a leading position on issues affecting the black population in South Africa. A publishing house and a private welfare organization were affiliated with the institute.

Between December 1972 and January 1973 she visited the United States as a participant in the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) of the US State Department. After their return, preparatory work began to found an anti-racist women's movement throughout South Africa. Fatima Meer attended the meeting of the Black Renaissance Convention in December 1974. In December 1975 she was elected first chairman of the newly formed South African Black Women's Federation . Her board members included Kate Jonkers , Deborah Mabelitsa , Winnie Mandela and Jeanie Noel . For the criticism of the apartheid conditions that she had brought forward, she experienced renewed state repression and, along with eleven other women, was taken into solitary confinement for six months from August 1976 onwards without conviction. Her fellow prisoners at Johannesburg Fort were Winnie Mandela and members of the South African Black Women's Federation . Shortly after her release from prison, representatives of the apartheid system attacked her home using an incendiary bomb. A guest was injured by a gunshot. In view of these threats, she has now published under various pseudonyms . In 1977 authorities banned the South African Black Women's Federation and 17 other organizations.

As a human rights activist in South Africa, she was one of the keynote speakers at the founding conference of the Institute of Black Studies in July 1976 . As a result, the South African authorities imposed a five-year ban on the publication of their works and a ban on entry into the homeland areas within South Africa. In 1979 she founded the Tembalishe Tutorial College in the Phoenix settlement of Mahatma Gandhi, disregarding the ban on activities . A Crafts Center has also been set up here to provide unemployed people with training in household chores and screen printing . Both institutions were closed by the authorities in 1982 because Fatima Meer had failed to comply with the restrictions imposed on her personally not to leave the city of Durban.

In 1981, Fatima Meer managed to get the support of the Indian President Indira Gandhi for scholarships from India so that young South Africans from the ethnic group of Indian origin could study medicine, veterinary medicine or political science there. Some of these confirmed scholarship holders did not receive an exit permit from the South African government.

In the period from 1986 to 1988, numerous school leavers received preparatory training for the purpose of studying at a South African university. The Institute of Black Research (IBR-Natal Education Organization) she founded served for this purpose . 1200 young people take advantage of this program. She managed to get a scholarship for eleven students.

Fatima Meer was able to use the great public fame and the social prestige that was shared with her for the establishment of further institutions. In 1986 she created Phambili High School , which accepted 3,000 students. A few years later, in 1993, she founded the Khanyisa School Project for children from slum areas near Durban in order to address the specific learning disadvantages and to prepare them for regular school. In 1996 she also created the Khanya Women's Skills Training Center , which serves to train 150 women in parallel in learning to write, to become a tailor and to impart practical knowledge of business administration.

Commitment to infrastructure development in rural areas

Landless movement protests in 2009
Hut dwellers protest because of their poor living conditions in Durban

As an exemplary development example in rural areas, she created the Clare Estate Environment Group project in 1992 , which served to establish fixed living conditions for internal migrants and hut dwellers from rural areas, who were not granted the right to settle in urban areas by the South African government at the time. This activity affected the Springfield, Clare Estate and Sydenham settlements to the west of Durban. This problem has not yet been solved satisfactorily.

Engagement after 1994

In the first democratic elections in 1994, Fatima Meer won a parliamentary mandate, which she did not accept. Instead, she served in several advisory functions for the new government. This included advising the Minister of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology and membership of the National Anthem Commission, the Board of Directors of the South African Broadcasting Corporation and the advisory board of President Nelson Mandela. After 1999 she directed her commitment to alleviating the hardship in the townships of Chatsworth and Phoenix on the outskirts of Durban, where many poor families of the Indian population live.

The death of her husband and their son as well as several heart attacks and strokes made her late years very difficult. Nevertheless, after 2000, she still publicly campaigned for the rights of the Palestinians and against the latest Afghan war .

Academic and journalistic activities

From 1956 to 1988 Fatima Meer worked at the University of Natal. She was the first colored lecturer at a “white” university in her country. There she taught as a lecturer in sociology until 1976 . In the same year, the South African Security Police arrested her under Section 10 of the Internal Security Act and held her in solitary confinement. Fatima Meer was officially a member of the university college until 1988. During this time she gained international recognition.

She has written several specialist articles with a political accent, including "Suicide in Durban", " Satyagraha in South Africa", "Islam and Apartheid", "African Nationalism - Some Inhibiting Factors in South Africa". She worked regularly for the Durban monthly magazine Views and News .

Selected Works

Fatima Meer has published 25 books, 18 titles as editor and numerous magazine articles. She wrote biographies , including one of Nelson Mandela . Even in old age, she took part in the political life of her country with critical contributions (2007, 2008).

  • Portraits of Indian South Africans, 1969, Durban, Avon House
  • Apprenticeship of a Mahatma (A Biography of MK Gandhi 1869-1914), 1st edition. 1970, Phoenix Settlement Trust (script banned between 1976 and 1986)
    (filmed in 1996) The book contains a foreword by Alan Paton .
  • Higher than hope: The authorized biography of Nelson Mandela, 1st edition. 1988, Skotaville Publishers
  • Tomorrow they'll hang me: South Africa - The Story of Teenage Assassin Andrew Zondo. 1989 (German)
  • The Making of the Mahatma, 1996, film by Shyam Benegal based on the book by Fatima Meer, won the National Film Award for Best Feature in 1996, film in English
  • Lecture critical of globalization The Global Crisis - A Crisis of Values ​​and the Oppression of the Weak by the Strong . (German translation by Katerina Wolf)

Functions and awards

  • Director of the Institute for Black Research at the University of Natal (now the University of KwaZulu-Natal)
  • Honorary Research Fellow (Research Fellow hc ) at the Sociology Faculty of your university

Personal

Since 1950 she was married to the lawyer Ismail Chota Meer (* 1918; † 2000), who is a cousin of her and was also repeatedly subjected to persecution by the authorities. Together they promoted the theater life of black South Africans in Durban.

The son Raschid was detained by the South African security authorities without charge or conviction for his civil rights engagement. He died in a car accident in 1995.

Her daughter Yasmin Shenaz Meer is a lawyer, became director of the Legal Resources Center in 1995 and has worked as a judge at the Land Claims Court in Johannesburg since 1996 . Since January 27, 2003, she has also served as a judge at the Cape of Good Hope Provincial Division of the High Court in Cape Town .

The other daughter, Shamim Meer, has a degree in urban planning ( Massachusetts Institute of Technology ) and is internationally active in the field of social sciences and has authored several books.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Goolam Vahed: Fatima Meer, An Example of Devotion and Fortitude
  2. ↑ a b c Taschica Pillay, Sapa: Fatima sea dies . March 12, 2010 on www.timeslive.co.za
  3. ↑ a b c d University of Natal: Conferment of the degree of Doctor of Social Science honoris causa upon Fatima Meer. on www.sahistory.org.za
  4. ↑ a b c Paul Maylam: Dr Fatima Meer . on www.ru.ac.za
  5. ↑ a b Devi Rajab: Fatima Meer (1928-2010) . In: Natalia. 40 (2010), on www.natalia.org.za (PDF; 193 kB)
  6. ↑ List of recipients of the medal 1999 (English), accessed on August 25, 2018
  7. ↑ Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award, New Delhi, 9th January, 2003, website of the Indian Foreign Ministry www.moia.gov.in ( Memento from February 4, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 26 kB)
  8. ↑ Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award ( Memento from November 25, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  9. ↑ SAWW page Annual Awards 2006
  10. ^ Paul Maylam: Citation for Fatima Sea. Rhodes Graduation . April 13, 2007, at www.sahistory.org.za
  11. ↑ Short biography on www.sahistory.org
  12. ^ Book of SA Women: Judges, on Mail and Guardian online, Aug. 4, 2009
  13. ↑ Curriculum Vitae Shamim Meer
personal data
SURNAME Sea, Fatima
BRIEF DESCRIPTION South African sociologist and anti-apartheid campaigner
DATE OF BIRTH August 12, 1928
PLACE OF BIRTH Durban , KwaZulu-Natal , South Africa
DATE OF DEATH March 12, 2010
Place of death Durban , KwaZulu-Natal , South Africa