Week in Week Out | Liberation Women

At a time when even peaceful protests were banned, this documentary hears the views of women in South Africa who campaign against apartheid. The programme examines the history behind the legal segregation of races within the country, as well as the arguments in favour of international sanctions against South African trade.

Women had a long history of leading resistance to apartheid. In 1956, 20,000 females marched in Pretoria to protest about the Urban Areas Act, which was designed to control the movement of black African women through pass books and compulsory medical examinations. The freedom song that they sang referred to women as a rock, or 'imbokodo', which became an image representing their courage and fight for rights.