The importance of biographies

"Asinakuthula umhlaba ubolile" (We cannot keep quiet, the country is rotten)

These words are written by Nontsizi Mgqwetho in her poem titled Ukutula!Ikwakukuvuma! (Silence implies consent). Mgqwetho wrote for a Johannesburg newspaper Umteteli wa Bantu (The People's Mouthpiece) in the 1920s. The power of Mgqwetho's poetry is undiminished today as her work continues to be relevant to contemporary problems. I was drawn to Nontsizi because I had never heard of a Xhosa female poet before I encountered her work last year.

Writing my Honours thesis on Nontsizi Mgqwetho has made me think about the importance of biographies of black women. I was hoping to write a short biography of Mgqwetho as part of my Honours thesis because there is no information on her life, but I struggled to gather information. I decided that an Honours thesis is quite limited so I am hoping that as I continue with my studies I will be able to focus on her life.

I spoke to a retired historian during my time in the Eastern Cape doing research and as we spoke about Mgqwetho and why it is that we do not know her, she told me about other black women writers, professionals and reminded me of Dr Nomoto Bikitsha-Mahlangeni, a family relative who was one of the first women to attend Fort Hare University. One thing she said that stayed with me was "mababalwe kwigquba lamakhosikazi antsundu"(they must be remembered in the group of black women), I was inspired to document these women who lived dynamic lives. I also do not want to make the mistake of only looking at women who were writing but I want to recognise all forms of intellectual contributions made by black women. My mother often talks about ingqondo yemveli (organic intellectuals) when she talks about uneducated people who are exceptional and were respected in their communities, despite their lack of education. It would be an anomaly to only look at educated women especially considering how women have been excluded historically in society. My maternal grandparents are examples of abantu abenengqondo yemveli, they were uneducated but their contributions in the village of Gwadana eDutywa were immense.

Excavating our history also comes with challenges: searching scant historical records, the scarcity of personal records and the the silences and trauma many people faced are factors that can hinder this kind of work but perhaps telling life stories is not enough, maybe it is about setting life stories with the context of their times that will bring out a richer and complex understanding of these historical figures and our history. Excavating our history is crucial if we are to understand who were are as women, as black people and as citizens of this country and the world.

I am convinced that we cannot have a comprehensive understanding of the history of South Africa, the history of black people until we have more biographical work done on black women. The deaths of ooMakhulu uWinnie Madikizela-Mandela no Veronica Zondeni Sobukwe this year highlighted the need to re-institute and build the stories of black women, by black women.

Makhulu uWinnie Madikizela-Mandela and Zondeni Veronica Sobukwe are examples of how women can be seen as appendages in the stories of men. It was not until I began doing independent reserach that I came to know these two figures as political activists in their own right. Zikhona Valela tweeted that Makhulu Zondeni had led a nurse's strike in 1948 before she met Sobukwe. Valela did her Masters research on Makhulu uWinnie and she credits Winnie's paternal grandmother, Makhulu Seyina Madikizela and her father, Columbus Madikizela as influences in Winnie's political consciousness.

Alice Walker's essay in In Search of Our Mother's Gardens she writes "But this is not the end of the story, for all young women- our mothers and grandmothers, ourselves- have not perished in the wilderness. And if we ask ourselves why, and search for  and find the answer, we will know beyond all efforts to erase it from our minds, just exactly who, and of what, we black women are.