PHYLLIS NTANTALA

Black women, especially the African women, are the victims of threefold oppression. One dimension of this is the traditions and mores of their own communities. It is our fear of addressing these retrograde customs and traditions which lies at the root of people's opposition to the issues of women's emancipation. It is clear that this is a responsibility we can no longer shirk. Doubtless such an exercise will encounter resistance. But, as is the case with all new ideas, those who have been brought up with the old feel uncertain and threatened by this process. If these ideas have any value, they will in the end win converts and become generally accepted in our ranks. What is absolutely impermissible is that we censor or outlaw radical ideas merely because they cause some of us discomfort. Within our Black communities, it is patriarchal attitudes and insitutions that oppress and degrade our women. It is high time we had the courage to grasp the nettle and subject all these to withering criticism. The ones best suited to the task are the women from the communities in question.

-Phyllis Jordan [Ntantala], "Black Womanhood and National Liberation", Sechaba, December 1984.