In honour of Women’s Month, the National Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences (NIHSS) proudly presents the Women of Impact Series. This series celebrates the outstanding achievements of our female graduates, partners, and project leaders in the Humanities and Social Sciences. We showcase the groundbreaking research, extraordinary dedication, and inspiring visions of these accomplished women. Through their innovative work and unwavering commitment, they have advanced in their respective fields and shaped a more inclusive and diverse future. Join us in celebrating their remarkable contributions and stories.
- Can you share a bit about your journey and experiences as a project leader with the NIHSS, and how this has influenced your work and personal growth?
I was the recipient and project leader of the African Pathways and International, Brics & Global South Mobility Programme for an ongoing biography project on Pumla Kisosonkole. This grant meant that practically I had funds to visit Uganda, where Kisosonkole spent most of her life. This gave me access to archival resources as well as interviewing people I would otherwise have had difficulty meeting if I had relied on technology. The grant also meant I could stay for extended periods of time focussing on reading and writing and concentrating on this project. I was able to make contact and establish links with colleagues at Makerere University, which has meant an expansion of my intellectual community and network beyond South Africa. In a sense, this biography project would have remained as a passion project rather than having seed funding to convert an idea into a meaningful project. Personally, I have been so enriched by this support from NIHSS as it has given me confidence as a researcher. Having a grant means getting to know university administration, which is central to research work (applying for leave, flights, writing reports, negotiating access, etc.), but sometimes taken for granted as behind-the-scenes work.
- How does your research and projects address the unique challenges and opportunities in your field, and what key insights or findings do you believe can drive meaningful change and impact in society?
This biography project falls into one of my research interests, which is life writing and the historiography of black women. One of the critiques of South Africa’s historiography has been the paucity of women’s biographies when compared to men’s biographies. At the heart of this problem is the emphasis on men as actors of history as opposed to histories that are read through the lens of women’s lives. This results in a narrowing of stories and often results in a biography of ‘the great men of history’.
One of the challenges in historical research is access to archival repositories. Typically, many researchers rely on institutional archives in universities, museums, and the state. One of the opportunities of the grant for this research has been the ability to travel in order to access archives in Uganda. When I began this project, I had a sense of only a newspaper and institutional archive in South Africa, but the more I travelled to ganda, the more I was able to get a sense of the implications of a scattered archive and the challenges in accessing stories when they lie in multiple archives across the world.
South African history has also been accused of being too insular and exceptional, which has led to a narrow view of South Africa’s relationship with the rest of the continent. In writing about a South African woman who lived in Uganda for most of her adult life and became a transnational figure in the women’s movement, I have challenged my own perceptions about a longer view of the women’s movement within the context of the broader continent.
To this end, one of the opportunities of this research has been the ability to form intellectual networks in Uganda at Makerere University and NGOs such as FEMRITE. Social networks have also been crucial to this research, as gaining interviews has largely been through social connections where people can connect to people who are less inclined to respond to a formal email from a researcher but will talk to a friend of a friend, as has been the case in this research. This is a taken-for-granted element in research, but human connection lies at the heart of research in the humanities.
- What does the celebration of Women’s Month mean to you?
I always keep my eye on the historical significance of the day 9 August 1956. The march was phenomenal for its time and for now. I am always struck that campaigns and advertising downplay the political moment of thousands of women facing apartheid power in the 1950s. In fact, sometimes I worry that women’s month depoliticises the historical moment of the march. More recently, I have been reflecting on the leaders of the march as women who were also friends and regular people. My favourite images of the march are the manyano mothers in their uniforms at the march. Women prayed for that event. They held a moment of silence in the atrium at the Union Buildings. There’s something deeply spiritual about how that was possible. A moment of pause in a grand political moment. So sometimes I pause on Women’s Day.
- What role do you see interdisciplinary collaboration playing in your work, and how has it enhanced the outcomes of your research and projects?
Interdisciplinary collaboration is at the heart of my work. I have collaborated with colleagues in literary studies, political science, and social science in order to get better at shaping the research I do in historical studies. I am also in conversations with colleagues in media studies and have experimented with podcasting using the research material I have as a starting point. I try to use a variety of conceptual frameworks that enrich the work I do. This is also reflected in the figure I have been researching: Pumla Kisosonkole was a teacher who became a community developer, an organiser, and a political figure. Her life straddled many areas, such as education, social work, and international diplomacy. It seems to me that when African women need to solve a problem, they cannot help but collaborate across disciplines and regions.