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Introduction
This essay seeks to bring out the life history of Mamphela Ramphele and Maria Elena Lucas by assessing the conversation that ensues from these two women when they meet at a women’s conference. Each of them is determined to learn each other’s live, communities and political activism. The discussion between these two women try to bring out their political struggles, their differences, their similarities, their family lives, their spiritual and religious lives, their relationship to men, their relationship to other women and their position on feminism.
María Elena Lucas: Brief Description
Maria has become one of the most tireless activists fighting for the rights of the Mexico’s immigrant workers in the United States. In her most famous writing, the book “Forged under the sun” there is a recollection of her most remarkable work as a Chicana woman in her survival against poverty, violence and a great range of other injustices especially because of her feminine nature. She suffered a permanent disability after an incident in a farm. She has proved that disability is not inability since she stands as an example to the rest of humanity with her condition. She is a woman who has beaten all the odds in order to survive.
Dr. Mamphela Ramphele: Brief Description
Mamphela Aletta Ramphele was born in 1947 in Polokwane. She schooled at Setotolwane High School after which she enrolled at University of the North where she pursues her pre-medical course. In 1968, the University of Natal’s School of medicine accepted her candidature as a medical student, from where she graduated as a qualified medical doctor in 1972. It is the only the University of Natal in the entire Republic of South Africa that admitted black medical students back in those days. In the university, she engaged in student politics and activism against racial segregation that was rampant in South Africa. She helped in the formation of the Black Consciousness Movement together with Steve Biko.
She is a political activist who was born in South Africa. She has a pretty impressive resume including having had acquired several degrees, diplomas as a post graduate and a PhD in Social Anthropology. She was also the assistant to the Vice Chancellor in the year 1996 and has worked in various international organizations, one of which is the World Bank. The fact that she was born in a poor African background and having fought through the lines of poverty, while working for the “white community” is an inspiration to many. She has managed to secure 10 honorary degrees which are usually awarded to exceptional achievers from various internationally recognized universities.
The two women met over lunch, just after Maria’s wonderful presentation in a women’s international conference. Both are curious to learn from each in their social role towards liberalization of the women in society. They have read and heard about each other, but never chatted face to face as activists, leaders and generally women.
Ramphele: I was fascinated by your speech this afternoon Maria, in fact at some point, I shed a tear or two at your moving story about your unfortunate incident. Maria: I am sorry that I could sometimes get so emotional about the accident. Though it was a long time ago, it is still fresh in my memory, yet, I had to move on and stay focused on my cause. Ramphele: That is just great. Please do tell me more about the fight for the migrant Chicano and Chicana workers down in Mexico. I have read just a little about their history and I know you were very much involved in their liberalization. Maria: Well Ramphela, as you have just put it, it was quite a struggle. It is always a struggle to fight for people whose minds have been clogged up into a totally different line of thinking. Ramphele: I know what you mean. Please, tell me more. Maria: Well, first and foremost, the Chicano movement started in the 1960s, as a movement by the farmers of the time. They were advocating for better working environments, the provision of unemployment benefits and relations acts in the agricultural sector. Some of the workers actually went on hunger strikes, protests that were not violent and a few matches here and there. At the same time, a group of Chicano activists that was focused on the history of the land formed an organization whose main objective was the restoration of the lost land to the Americans. Ramphele: Oh, it was more like a fight for independence, am I right? Maria: You could put it that way. There were many issues yet to be sorted out.
Crusades like the one that was called the “Crusade for justice were initiated in 1956 by one Rodolfo Gonzales, whose main goal was to establish full control of the cultural nationalism of the Chicano. It was mainly founded by the youth in colleges and focused on the younger generation. These students would later be initiated into other politically affiliated groups like the La Raza Unida. They were so influential that schools got them into the school boards. This had rippling effects through the whole of the southwestern area of America. Ramphele: You know Maria, this is almost synonymous to our own struggle towards our independence. Tell me then more about the women’s struggle for liberalization.
Maria: Oh! That would come up a bit later. A bit of conflict of interest would set in, paving way for a woman’s voice to be heard for the very first time. Ramphela: Oh, so what propagated this conflict? Maria: In a Denver Youth Conference, the role that the woman would play in the activist movement was to be addressed. Some of the women had a problem with the Chicana women, who did not want liberalization. This was the backward way of thinking we discussed earlier. In a survey, 84% of the women in a summit reaffirmed the sitting that down south, women did not receive the same packages as men did for the same amount of work they had done. It was then that the Chicana Feminist Movement was initiated. Its objective touched on issues pertaining to sexism and racism, publishing journals and exploring ways of bringing into focus the awareness of the matter. The struggle for women’s rights would last for another 20 years. It was not an easy road considering the fact that women who were up in arms against the oppression of their fellow women were considered to be traitors of the bigger goal of the Chicano movement, which was generally pre-dominated by men. Such would have no problem with abortion or reproductive choices. In other words, it was a women’s fight against some of the most powerful men, some of the Chicano women and the state itself. Ramphele: …and this is where you appeared. Maria: Precisely! I had to mobilize women all over the area, with the help of other leaders as Mirta Vidal and Anna Nieto.
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