Josie Palmer

Josie Palmer (* 1903 in Potchefstroom , British Transvaal Colony , South Africa , † 1979 in South Africa), also known as Josie Mpama , was a South African anti-apartheid activist and leader within the South African Communist Party .

Life

youth

Josie Palmer was born in 1903 in the town of Potchefstroom in what was then the South African colony of the Transvaal, but grew up in the Sophiatown district of Johannesburg . In 1921, at the age of eighteen, Palmer moved back to her birthplace with her mother, where she began to get involved in politics. She later joined the Communist Party of South Africa and received numerous training courses to strengthen her commitment. There she met Thabo Edwin Mofutsanyana , also a political activist, whom she married in 1930. While Palmer as "Colored" ( colored was) in racist social system, was her husband "black" ( black ) so that through their living together the racist legal system (for example, the Immorality Act injured). When they moved to a township together, she took the surname Mpama.

Political commitment

Josie Palmer was one of the leading political figures in her hometown of Potchefstroom, who campaigned against the exclusionary residence permits ( residential permits ) from 1928 . In the late 1920s and 1930s she wrote for Umsebenzi , the newspaper of the South African Communist Party. In her article she often drew the connection between the demands of black workers and the general political system of South Africa at the time. In 1928 she fought for wages increases for teachers, in 1929 she was one of the leaders in the so-called "Beer Hall Riots" in the province of Natal . Palmer continued to be involved in the party through the 1930s and 1940s. In 1935 she traveled to Moscow to study "Revolutionary Theories" at the Communist University of the Working People of the East . In the 1940s she became a member of the executive committee (committee) of the Johannesburg section of the party. This made her the first black woman to ever play a role in the Communist Party of South Africa. In 1944 she began working for the National Anti-Pass Council .

Palmer went to great lengths to make her party aware of the problems facing women in South Africa and to unite women behind the goal of national liberation and the achievement of socialism. At the International Women's Day meeting of her party in Johannesburg in 1947, she participated in a decision to found an organization for all women in South Africa. Then the Transvaal All-Women's Union was formed with Palmer as the first general secretary. Together with other fighters such as Florence Matomela and Rachel Simons (Ray Alexander), Palmer played an important role in the founding of the multi-ethnic Federation of South African Women ( Federation of South African Women , abbreviated FSAW or FEDSAW) on April 17, 1954.

After she later took over the leadership of the Transvaal section of the Federation of South African Women, the South African government tried regularly to hinder Palmer's engagement, including the women's march to the Union buildings on August 9, 1956 (see also passport laws ). The government also arrested Palmer during the state of emergency following the Sharpeville massacre .

Death and late honor

Palmer died in 1979 on the way to collect her pension when she was run over by a car.

Decades after her death, South African President Thabo Mbeki posthumously honored Josie Palmer with the Order of the Luthuli in silver on June 16, 2004 in honor of her commitment to democracy, human rights, justice and peace.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} Josie Mpama (Palmer). In: sahistory.org.za. South African History Online, August 8, 2017, accessed October 6, 2018 . 
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Kim Miller: Palmer, Josie . In: Emmanuel K. Akyeampong and Henry Louis Gates, Jr (Eds.): Dictionary of African Biography . tape 5 . Oxford Press, Oxford 2012, ISBN 978-0-19-538207-5 , pp. 75-76 .
3. ^ Josie (Palmer) Mpama (1903-1979). In: thepresidency.gov.za. The Presidency of the Republic of South Africa, accessed October 6, 2018 .