A Celebration of Women is held in Cape Town
A “Celebration of Women” was organized to receive the Charter & Quilt in Cape Town on September 23. Over twenty organisations participated in the celebration. There was great anxiety and excitement as the courier only delivered the package a half hour before the celebration was scheduled to start. Women of the informal sector, who had been very involved in making the South African square, dressed up in traditional Xhosa dress and led the procession of the guests and the Charter singing, chanting and dancing, the traditional South African way.
Present were the Consulate of Mozambique together with two sisters from Mozambique who brought their country’s square to add to the Solidarity Quilt. The women were also honoured to have Awa of Burkina Faso present, who was tasked with personally accompanying the precious cargo to Cameroon and other West African countries. The evening was filled with women’s voices raising women’s issues through poetry and song.
Everybody present participated in reading aloud the Charter committing themselves to the five values in the Charter. The Charter was adopted and handed to The South African Commissioner of Gender Equality who received it on behalf of the South African government. The Commissioner pledged her department’s support for the World March of Women’s actions. It was an extremely emotional evening with the sisters from Mozambique sharing their experiences with the South African women. South Africa and Mozambique pledged to work closer together in building the movement of the World March of Women in Southern Africa. The evening was indeed very memorable for all women present as the evening brought together women from Francophone, Lusophone and Anglophone Africa.