In Celebration of South African Women’s Day

Poem for South African Women

August 9, 2026

“Commemoration of the 40,000 women and children who, August 9, 1956, presented themselves in bodily protest against the “dompass” in the capital of apartheid. Presented at The United Nations, August 9, 1978.”

I was a freshman in college a bit overwhelmed on a new campus which resembled a small city especially after leaving a tiny all girl’s high school. Most of my classes were taught in large auditoriums with sliding chalkboards, except for African American Literature, the class that intimidated and developed me like none other. First order of business was to arrange our desk in a circle, immediately the constructs of first and last, front, and back were dissolved. Our instructor invited equality and balance into our space. We read, we wrote, we shared aloud. My papers were marked with red ink. I was taught to listen to my voice, the sound, the tone, the inflection and to give this same gift to my classmates. To write from an active rather than passive perspective, taught me to take ownership of my thoughts. One day my T.A. stood in front of the class to announce two things: 1. The professor was out sick and therefore she would be substituting and 2. She implored us to value the brilliance of our professor. “You have absolutely no idea who is instructing you. Glean every morsel you can from her. Your teacher, Ms. Jordan is an activist, a published author, a poet, and a change agent”. Years later I came across a quote that became a personal mantra “We are the ones we have been waiting for”. How liberating, how empowering! Who wrote these words, this commission, this poem in honor of the South African Women’s March? Ahhh, June Jordan, my professor of African American Literature. And now I feel the weightiness of my T.A.’s words.

Life is full of gifts, sometimes they’re wrapped in work and challenge. Grateful for those who came before me so that I could stand on these beaches with a heart at rest.