Where I Became

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Where I Became weaves the stories of 14 South African women who, though hailing from diverse backgrounds, all grew up under the oppressive system of Apartheid. When offered the opportunity to leave South Africa and study at Smith College under a full scholarship program, each woman summoned courage, faith, and determination in leaving home and family for the opportunity of a lifetime.

Set against the backdrop of the complex history of apartheid in South Africa, we follow the journeys of these women, narrated in their own voices and depicted in personal photos, archival footage, and present-day interviews, as they grow up in South Africa and come into their own at Smith. The tapestry of these women's stories is made richer by the indelible bonds of long-lasting friendship and sisterhood, which were forged in their resolve to leave everything that was familiar, in pursuit of education, and a chance for a better life.

Where I Became shares deeply personal reflections on coming of age, the difficulties of facing great challenges with determination and resolve, and the power of embracing one's identity and journey. In a world that so often rejects those who dress differently, speak differently, or come from a far-away place, Where I Became offers a much-needed uplifting tale of hope and courage.

"Where I Became is a compelling documentary that underscores the importance of giving people an opportunity in life through education. The stories of the 14 women featured highlights their resilience, courage, and the enduring sisterhood that sustained them. This moving tapestry of stories not only celebrates their individual growth but also underscores the profound impact of education as a force for change." —Teboho Moja, Professor of Higher Education, New York University

"This gorgeous and gripping film centers the voices, intelligence and insights of black South African women who, in defiance of the racist system of apartheid, built power and political insight at Smith College. By following the lives of these women, viewers learn about the history and broad harms of apartheid as well as the movements and individuals that helped bring that system down. A powerful testament to the power of education, perseverance and one of history's most important human rights movements." —Susan E. Eaton, Director, Sillerman Center for the Advancement of Philanthropy, Professor of the Practice in Social Policy, Brandeis University, Author, Integration Nation: Immigrants, Refugees and America at Its Best

"This is a must-see for anyone interested in the struggles of women around the world and the impact that education can have on their lives. Where I Became provides the very personal accounts of 15 extraordinary South African women who escaped apartheid and, through the power of education, realized their own dreams. Their experiences are a powerful reminder of the ways in which education can transform lives." —Nancy Clark, Professor of History, Louisiana State University, Co-author, South Africa: The Rise and Fall of Apartheid

"An engrossing and moving story....A portrait of young women, apprehensive in some cases about coming to a strange country, discovering new personal strengths and forging stronger identities." —Steve Pfarrer, Daily Hampshire Gazette

"What an important story! Where I Became provides an internal view of the impact of apartheid on the lives and education of South African women that has not often been a part of the conversation. Through their voices you'll come away with an informed perspective on the importance of education and of how relationships across socially created racial and ethnic boundaries can be a source of strength." —Valerie Adams-Bass, Assistant Professor of Childhood Studies, Rutgers University - Camden

"A powerful story. The narrative shows how Apartheid, developed by the White minority, intentionally limited the educational opportunities of indigenous Africans as a way to maintain power. This must-see movie reminds us that equal access to education elevates the lives of all regardless of race and socioeconomic status and withholding it to keep some in power and others in poverty is inhumane." —Dr. Vanessa Garry, Associate Professor of Education, University of Missouri-St. Louis

"Where I Became shares the personal stories of women who had unique experiences at a dynamic time in history - both in their own personal lives and in the history of South Africa and its relationship to the United States. Connecting these coming-of-age stories with broader history deepens our understanding of the role of women, education, and youth in South Africa. It also provides a window into the experiences of South Africans in exile during apartheid and demonstrates the importance of friendship and international networks." —Leslie Hadfield, Professor of History, Brigham Young University, Author, Liberation and Development: Black Consciousness Community Programs in South Africa

"Where I Became is an inspiring account of the South African Education Program, which changed the course of this group of women's lives by giving them an opportunity to leave apartheid South Africa and get a great liberal arts education. The film will be of interest to classes studying South Africa as well as women's education. It is a timely reminder of the importance of a liberal arts education in fostering intellectual curiosity, independence, and transformation." —Pamela Scully, Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and African Studies, Emory University

"Where I Became lovingly traces these women's journeys while providing viewers with the historical context to make sense of the politics of the time. This film is both a celebration of a beloved alma matter, as well as an inspiring account of resilience, friendship, and the power of education. I highly recommend it." —Alicia Decker, Associate Professor of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, African Studies, and History, Pennsylvania State University

"With dramatic layering and unfolding, Where I Became interweaves stories about apartheid and the limits it placed on Black life, in this instance especially education and women's empowerment, as well as the construction of racial identities formulated in America. I will assign this film in my classes. I can foresee students being utterly captivated by these complex and compelling women." —Karin Shapiro, Associate Professor of the Practice, African and African American Studies, Duke University

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Main credits

Geis, Kate (film director)

Other credits

Cinematography, Bryn Francis [and 4 others]; music, Jerome Michael, Bezuidenhout.

MARC Record See Worldcat record

Keywords

South Africa,apartheid,Smith College,education,exchange student,scholarship program,womens' voices,womens' education,higher education,social justice,Northampton,Massachusetts; "Where I Became"; Bullfrog Films

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[Upbeat brass band music]

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- Come on people, line up on
the sides, part the waters!

00:00:59.000 --> 00:01:03.520
- (Tandiwe) So we've come
back for our 25th reunion.

00:01:03.560 --> 00:01:08.120
Being on campus with Nolwandle
is absolutely magical

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because this is where we met,

00:01:10.120 --> 00:01:16.000
and we've sustained a
friendship for 29 years now.

00:01:16.040 --> 00:01:37.240
[mellow jazz music]

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- (Desiree) My journey to
Smith was such a fluke.

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I went to church with my family
on Sunday,

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and we had a guest preacher.

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He was talking about, the
international community

00:01:48.520 --> 00:01:50.640
was really coming
together in different ways

00:01:50.720 --> 00:01:53.800
to support the anti-apartheid
movement.

00:01:53.800 --> 00:01:57.200
- (Heather) One of the
lecturers
at the university told me

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about this university in
the US that was accepting

00:02:01.280 --> 00:02:04.440
two Black South African women
per year,

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and that I should definitely
apply.

00:02:07.920 --> 00:02:09.480
- (Siphokazi) "Siphokazi
is going to America.

00:02:09.480 --> 00:02:11.480
I secured a place for
her at Smith College,

00:02:11.480 --> 00:02:13.280
she has passed matric very well.

00:02:13.280 --> 00:02:18.520
So she must be at the airport
on the 20th of January, 1986."

00:02:18.520 --> 00:02:21.160
- (Verna) We're
first-generation college goers.

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My parents were proud, they were
honored

00:02:23.800 --> 00:02:25.440
- (Vuyiswa) This is an
opportunity of a lifetime,

00:02:25.520 --> 00:02:30.160
and it's up to me to
make of it what I should.

00:02:30.200 --> 00:02:32.480
- (Tandiwe) I had a desire
to go to a women's college,

00:02:32.560 --> 00:02:36.640
and I think it's a
foundation that then empowers

00:02:36.640 --> 00:02:40.480
its graduates to believe in
themselves.

00:02:40.520 --> 00:02:42.120
- (Thembekile) I was driven.

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You're going to be finally on
equal footing with everyone.

00:02:46.280 --> 00:02:48.360
- (Thilo) I think I'm a strong
woman, but I really think

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that being at Smith
made me, really strong.

00:02:52.520 --> 00:02:56.560
- (Thandeka) I learned to
own my voice as a girl child,

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but also as a woman.

00:02:59.400 --> 00:03:02.600
- (Chuma) When this decision
from Smith came through,

00:03:02.640 --> 00:03:04.600
it was like a lifeline for me.

00:03:04.600 --> 00:03:07.000
So things were looking up
already.

00:03:07.000 --> 00:03:11.840
- (Kholeka) We had a fantastic
African students organization.

00:03:11.880 --> 00:03:14.720
We had a wonderful
international community.

00:03:14.760 --> 00:03:19.280
- (Meagan) The more I had
these positive, really positive

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exposure, the more you
realize inequity exists

00:03:22.160 --> 00:03:26.000
and what that means for someone
who doesn't get this access.

00:03:26.080 --> 00:03:27.920
- (Nolwandle) It changed
the narrative from a system

00:03:27.960 --> 00:03:30.760
that was meant to keep me,

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in a certain position and place

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to being the woman that I am
today.

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Smith is that place, where I
became.

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[gentle piano music]

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- (Tandiwe) So I wasn't
born when my parents

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decided to leave South Africa.

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But we had to leave
because, they were educators

00:03:57.400 --> 00:04:01.160
and they really believed in
empowering and developing

00:04:01.200 --> 00:04:03.200
young minds to be the
best that they could be,

00:04:03.240 --> 00:04:07.040
and they couldn't do that
under Bantu education.

00:04:07.080 --> 00:04:10.440
Not wanting to be part of a
system that used education

00:04:10.480 --> 00:04:13.800
to disempower rather than
empower.

00:04:13.840 --> 00:04:16.640
[gentle piano music continues]

00:04:16.640 --> 00:04:21.880
- (Makhosazana) There we
were, teaching these subjects.

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There were no science subjects.

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And somehow we discovered
that in this school,

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there was a room that was not
being used.

00:04:31.400 --> 00:04:33.200
And my husband discovered that
actually

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it had been the science
laboratory,

00:04:35.640 --> 00:04:38.040
but it was now locked up.

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So, we decided to open it

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and start teaching science
subjects.

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But the inspectors, you know,
got hold of this information,

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and he was told to stop
teaching those science subjects,

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but to teach the children
Afrikaans.

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I remember there was a
book which they recommended

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all the time, "Laat die Kinders
Praat."

00:05:01.720 --> 00:05:04.520
- (Dr.Ellsworth) Everyone had
to have separate textbooks.

00:05:04.520 --> 00:05:05.320
As if you were Black,

00:05:05.520 --> 00:05:07.160
you could only read that
sort of history.

00:05:07.160 --> 00:05:10.360
And if you were Colored you read
that sort of history.

00:05:10.360 --> 00:05:12.160
If we were Indian you read that
kind

00:05:12.160 --> 00:05:14.440
and if we were white you read
that kind,

00:05:14.480 --> 00:05:17.400
you won't believe it, but it is
true.

00:05:17.400 --> 00:05:25.280
[solemn jazz music]

00:05:25.320 --> 00:05:26.840
- (Dr. Mangaliso) There is a
link between

00:05:26.880 --> 00:05:29.680
private issues and public issues

00:05:29.720 --> 00:05:33.960
between what we consider
to be personal experiences

00:05:34.000 --> 00:05:38.080
and structural, you know,
variables.

00:05:38.120 --> 00:05:40.960
It's not random, you know,

00:05:40.960 --> 00:05:43.760
the patterns that produce
these institutions.

00:05:43.800 --> 00:05:45.960
And then there's the social
construction of these

00:05:45.960 --> 00:05:50.480
institutions, nothing drops from
the sky.

00:05:50.560 --> 00:05:53.400
The institutions systems,
they're created by human beings.

00:05:53.400 --> 00:05:56.040
If you're studying society,

00:05:56.080 --> 00:05:59.280
you're studying people.

00:05:59.320 --> 00:06:02.480
There will be patterns
that will emerge, right.

00:06:02.480 --> 00:06:04.080
And some of those patterns,

00:06:04.080 --> 00:06:06.280
they don't just happen
overnight,

00:06:06.280 --> 00:06:10.520
they evolve over time and
that's helpful to know,

00:06:10.520 --> 00:06:13.840
to see the evolution of
some of these patterns

00:06:13.920 --> 00:06:17.800
that end up being problematic.

00:06:17.840 --> 00:06:22.960
[gentle piano music]

00:06:23.000 --> 00:06:28.000
It becomes natural for
me to look at apartheid

00:06:28.040 --> 00:06:30.520
as beginning in 1948,

00:06:30.600 --> 00:06:35.080
when the Nationalist
Party gained ascendancy.

00:06:35.080 --> 00:06:39.360
But what the Nationalist
Party did was to take

00:06:39.440 --> 00:06:43.320
racial segregation to
its logical conclusion.

00:06:43.320 --> 00:06:46.560
Racial segregation was
already there when there was

00:06:46.600 --> 00:06:50.760
the Union of South Africa,
when the British ruled.

00:06:50.760 --> 00:06:54.200
- (Peter) When the Nationalist
Government took power in the

00:06:54.200 --> 00:06:58.280
19, late 1940s, they, they
formalized all of that.

00:06:58.360 --> 00:07:02.520
So there was the whole series of
acts,

00:07:02.600 --> 00:07:05.920
Immorality Acts, so no marriage,

00:07:06.000 --> 00:07:10.280
no sex between the different
races.

00:07:10.320 --> 00:07:12.640
There were passes that were
brought in.

00:07:12.680 --> 00:07:15.360
- (Dr. Mangaliso) You could be
stopped
by any police officer

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to validate your existence in
this area,

00:07:18.680 --> 00:07:20.560
which is part of your country.

00:07:20.600 --> 00:07:24.600
Women in everyday life, they
had to deal with the impact

00:07:24.640 --> 00:07:28.880
of apartheid and the
indignities
that came with that system.

00:07:28.960 --> 00:07:32.880
Individuals who did not even
have access to good education

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and good jobs, majority of
whom, especially African women,

00:07:36.840 --> 00:07:41.480
ended up taking jobs as maids.

00:07:41.520 --> 00:07:44.160
So you are looking at a
people who were affected

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economically, educationally
and politically

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impacted by apartheid
in the same way as men.

00:07:51.800 --> 00:07:55.720
Now, you have to think
about the whole system

00:07:55.760 --> 00:08:00.240
of contracting men to the mines,

00:08:00.320 --> 00:08:03.680
hyper exploited.

00:08:03.760 --> 00:08:05.480
You're looking at a significant
number,

00:08:05.560 --> 00:08:09.240
especially of African women
who, because of apartheid

00:08:09.240 --> 00:08:11.840
were left in the position where
they had to fend for their

00:08:11.880 --> 00:08:16.640
families on very meager incomes.

00:08:16.680 --> 00:08:21.160
- (Peter) You had to have
permits
to live in certain areas.

00:08:21.200 --> 00:08:25.520
Businesses were encouraged
to move their factories

00:08:25.520 --> 00:08:29.160
and things to be out
near where the boundaries

00:08:29.160 --> 00:08:32.360
of the Bantustans were
so that people could

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live in the Bantustans
and just come and work

00:08:35.560 --> 00:08:42.640
in the white-owned parts of the
country.

00:08:42.680 --> 00:08:46.040
Hendrik Verwoerd, he came up
with this

00:08:46.080 --> 00:08:49.880
philosophical system to justify,

00:08:49.880 --> 00:08:51.680
and it was called apartheid.

00:08:51.680 --> 00:08:55.520
It was called "separate
development."

00:08:55.560 --> 00:08:58.920
- (Dr. Mangaliso) The apartheid
regime
wanted to portray this image

00:08:58.920 --> 00:09:03.240
that for South Africa, actually
apartheid, was rational,

00:09:03.320 --> 00:09:06.960
because we are looking at a
society with so many different

00:09:07.000 --> 00:09:11.200
cultural groups, that they
actually needed to be separated.

00:09:11.200 --> 00:09:15.880
They saw that also as a very
good strategy for, you know,

00:09:15.920 --> 00:09:18.200
divide and rule.

00:09:18.240 --> 00:09:19.840
When that didn't work,

00:09:19.840 --> 00:09:22.360
the rest of the world would not
buy it,

00:09:22.440 --> 00:09:24.440
then tried various strategies.

00:09:24.480 --> 00:09:27.160
And one of those strategies
was the creation of

00:09:27.240 --> 00:09:29.120
Bantustans and Homelands.

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A Homeland or Bantustan for the
Xhosas

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for the Zulus, for the Sothos,

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for the Tswanas.

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- (Peter) So it became this
elaborate system of trying to

00:09:42.880 --> 00:09:47.080
allocate tribes, supposedly
the goal was they would be

00:09:47.160 --> 00:09:52.240
separate countries in a
sort of federal type system.

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You've got 87% of the population

00:09:55.640 --> 00:09:59.280
and you're squeezing them
into 13% of the country.

00:09:59.280 --> 00:10:01.720
Needless to say that 87% of the
country,

00:10:01.720 --> 00:10:04.400
didn't appreciate it very much.

00:10:04.480 --> 00:10:07.440
- (Makhosazana) It was also
at a time when Bantu education

00:10:07.520 --> 00:10:09.960
was being introduced.

00:10:09.960 --> 00:10:11.760
The syllabuses were changing.

00:10:11.800 --> 00:10:13.760
The system was changing

00:10:13.760 --> 00:10:18.440
and obviously the system
was aimed at reducing,

00:10:18.480 --> 00:10:24.640
shall I say, the level of
education among the Black
schools.

00:10:24.680 --> 00:10:29.080
And quite a lot of teachers
at secondary school level

00:10:29.080 --> 00:10:31.720
had actually left teaching

00:10:31.760 --> 00:10:35.520
and just take up a job
like being a bus conductor,

00:10:35.520 --> 00:10:39.120
but this was all out of
frustration, you see.

00:10:39.120 --> 00:10:42.960
- (Dr. Mangaliso)
Obviously any system where,

00:10:42.960 --> 00:10:47.160
the majority of the people
are oppressed, okay,

00:10:47.160 --> 00:10:51.640
that always sows the seed
of its own destruction.

00:10:51.680 --> 00:10:56.680
People never appreciate being
dominated and oppressed.

00:10:56.720 --> 00:10:59.280
[gentle piano music]

00:10:59.320 --> 00:11:04.080
So resistance movements had to
emerge.

00:11:04.080 --> 00:11:06.280
- (Makhosazana) My husband
had been an activist,

00:11:06.280 --> 00:11:09.080
a great activist of the ANC.

00:11:09.120 --> 00:11:12.720
So we decided to go to Zambia

00:11:12.720 --> 00:11:16.360
because we felt that we
would be closer to the ANC

00:11:16.360 --> 00:11:18.520
and would be able to work with
them.

00:11:18.560 --> 00:11:21.400
O.R. Tambo used to encourage
those of us

00:11:21.400 --> 00:11:24.000
who could get jobs, to get jobs

00:11:24.000 --> 00:11:31.600
so that we could be able to
assist the movement financially.

00:11:31.640 --> 00:11:35.880
We began to see, not only
adults,

00:11:35.920 --> 00:11:41.360
young people, coming to join the
struggle.

00:11:41.400 --> 00:11:47.120
The ANC felt, "No, young
children had to go to school."

00:11:47.160 --> 00:11:49.560
- (Tandiwe) Young people were
probably the most impacted

00:11:49.560 --> 00:11:52.560
because Bantu education
was specifically designed

00:11:52.560 --> 00:11:56.040
to disempower, kind of
the counterintuitive

00:11:56.080 --> 00:11:57.760
purpose of education.

00:11:57.800 --> 00:12:00.680
Resistance to Bantu
education really then brought

00:12:00.720 --> 00:12:03.480
young people to the fore.

00:12:03.520 --> 00:12:07.320
[gentle piano music]

00:12:07.400 --> 00:12:11.080
- (Desiree) I was a student at
the
University of Durban-Westville.

00:12:11.080 --> 00:12:14.720
It was a period of great

00:12:14.720 --> 00:12:19.000
intensity regarding violence
and anti-apartheid work

00:12:19.080 --> 00:12:22.840
in South Africa during
the mid and late eighties.

00:12:22.920 --> 00:12:24.960
And our lives as college
students

00:12:24.960 --> 00:12:29.200
were very embroiled in that.

00:12:29.200 --> 00:12:33.960
We were constantly told and
reminded, if not drilled,

00:12:34.000 --> 00:12:37.880
that education is the only
way to get out of apartheid.

00:12:37.920 --> 00:12:43.720
It was such a consuming,
pervasive, oppressive system,

00:12:43.760 --> 00:12:48.080
that the only way my parents
knew of

00:12:48.120 --> 00:12:51.920
having a better life or
having access to more

00:12:51.920 --> 00:12:55.120
was for us to get educated.

00:12:55.160 --> 00:12:58.160
[gentle piano music]

00:12:58.160 --> 00:13:03.400
I was 12 when we had the
first round of big boycotts.

00:13:03.400 --> 00:13:05.200
And so the police came,

00:13:05.200 --> 00:13:07.640
you know, they were trying to
chase us out of the school.

00:13:07.640 --> 00:13:13.240
And I remember hiding under our
desks, just being petrified.

00:13:13.240 --> 00:13:17.280
And that journey that we
experienced,

00:13:17.280 --> 00:13:20.560
I think really started since
the death of Hector Pieterson

00:13:20.640 --> 00:13:22.600
in 1976.

00:13:22.680 --> 00:13:27.120
When they chose to kill a child,

00:13:27.120 --> 00:13:30.560
that was when children and young
people

00:13:30.600 --> 00:13:33.960
really decided that we're
going to do what we can

00:13:33.960 --> 00:13:40.200
and we're going to join this
movement.

00:13:40.200 --> 00:13:44.280
- (Thandeka) We were living
during very important days

00:13:44.320 --> 00:13:46.840
in the history of South Africa.

00:13:46.880 --> 00:13:51.080
So we grew to have very
strong opinions, views,

00:13:51.120 --> 00:13:54.480
which sometimes differed
from the authority.

00:13:54.480 --> 00:13:55.920
- (Protester) An injury to one!

00:13:55.920 --> 00:13:57.320
- (Crowd) Is an injury to all!

00:13:57.320 --> 00:13:58.160
- (Protester) An injustice to
one!

00:13:58.200 --> 00:13:59.680
- (Crowd) Is an injustice to
all!

00:13:59.720 --> 00:14:00.800
- (Protester) A victory for one!

00:14:00.840 --> 00:14:02.320
- (Crowd) Is a victory for all!

00:14:02.360 --> 00:14:03.160
- (Protester) Freedom!

00:14:03.160 --> 00:14:03.960
- (Crowd) Now!

00:14:03.960 --> 00:14:04.760
- (Protester) Freedom!

00:14:04.800 --> 00:14:06.760
- (Crowd) Now!

00:14:06.800 --> 00:14:11.040
- (Thandeka) I was, very much
conscious,

00:14:11.080 --> 00:14:15.640
of the fact that, I come
from a war-torn country.

00:14:15.640 --> 00:14:20.200
There is a fight for liberation,

00:14:20.240 --> 00:14:22.440
a fight for independence.

00:14:22.480 --> 00:14:25.680
The value that my parents
had instilled in me was that

00:14:25.680 --> 00:14:29.200
we're giving you an education so
that

00:14:29.280 --> 00:14:33.080
you can be independent and
autonomous.

00:14:33.120 --> 00:14:37.800
So I had a whole community
that I held in my conscience

00:14:37.840 --> 00:14:40.520
to say, "I'm not only
doing this for myself,

00:14:40.560 --> 00:14:44.480
but I'm doing this for my
country and for my people."

00:14:44.560 --> 00:14:47.400
- (Vuyiswa) I'm a Soweto
girl, born and bred,

00:14:47.440 --> 00:14:52.040
born into a family of lots of
teachers.

00:14:52.080 --> 00:14:56.080
My mother often tells a story
that she had me on her back

00:14:56.080 --> 00:14:59.080
on that fateful day on the 16th
of June,

00:14:59.120 --> 00:15:01.120
when everything went down.

00:15:01.120 --> 00:15:03.320
So Soweto for me is home.

00:15:03.360 --> 00:15:05.720
When Soweto uprisings are spoken
about,

00:15:05.720 --> 00:15:08.400
I know a lot of the spots in the
areas

00:15:08.440 --> 00:15:12.440
where things happened,
that's where I was born.

00:15:12.520 --> 00:15:48.240
[choral music]

00:15:48.280 --> 00:15:51.240
And the Soweto uprisings,
really brought to the fore,

00:15:51.280 --> 00:15:54.880
the whole issue of youth
and youth being unsafe

00:15:54.920 --> 00:15:57.600
and youth being the ones that
have always

00:15:57.640 --> 00:16:02.080
pushed the envelope, that
change the course of history.

00:16:02.080 --> 00:16:06.680
- (Danny Dube) During the
Soweto uprisings in 1976,

00:16:06.680 --> 00:16:10.000
this was the only place open,

00:16:10.080 --> 00:16:13.920
Yet, this was the time when
all Black political parties

00:16:13.920 --> 00:16:17.520
were being barred and
some of their leaders

00:16:17.560 --> 00:16:19.720
were already in prison,

00:16:19.760 --> 00:16:23.400
but thereafter, the police
came to know about it.

00:16:23.400 --> 00:16:26.800
So that's why they used to come
and surround this church and

00:16:26.800 --> 00:16:29.480
tell the students with
megaphones to disperse

00:16:29.520 --> 00:16:32.400
within some few minutes.

00:16:32.440 --> 00:16:34.680
While if they didn't,
they started throwing in

00:16:34.720 --> 00:16:40.240
tear gas canisters, as well as
shooting,

00:16:40.280 --> 00:16:42.480
as well as from inside the
church,

00:16:42.520 --> 00:16:45.320
which means that they
did force their way in

00:16:45.320 --> 00:16:49.560
and moreover using, live
ammunition

00:16:49.560 --> 00:16:52.600
but nobody was killed in this
church.

00:16:52.640 --> 00:16:55.600
Of course, there were people got
hurt,

00:16:55.640 --> 00:16:59.480
as you very well know that
the first victim in Soweto,

00:16:59.560 --> 00:17:04.040
was this 13 year, Hector
Pieterson.

00:17:04.080 --> 00:17:08.640
But thereafter most of the
students who died is from '76

00:17:08.680 --> 00:17:11.280
until late 1987,

00:17:11.280 --> 00:17:13.720
which is a period of 11 years.

00:17:13.760 --> 00:17:18.160
Now, all their funeral
services were held here.

00:17:18.200 --> 00:17:22.360
So that's why we did sustain
some damages

00:17:22.360 --> 00:17:25.200
due to the police shootings.

00:17:25.240 --> 00:17:31.600
They say, "Regina Mundi is
a church of the people."

00:17:31.600 --> 00:17:34.200
- (Kholeka) I think during the
apartheid era, I was young,

00:17:34.240 --> 00:17:36.440
young enough to be naive
about what was happening

00:17:36.440 --> 00:17:38.040
in the country.

00:17:38.040 --> 00:17:40.040
I think you knew that
there were certain things

00:17:40.040 --> 00:17:42.680
that you couldn't do,
but also young enough

00:17:42.720 --> 00:17:45.240
to just not be bothered by it.

00:17:45.280 --> 00:17:49.000
Maybe, not bothered so much,
but just, you know, it's okay.

00:17:49.080 --> 00:17:53.120
This is how life was and you
accepted it for what it was.

00:17:53.120 --> 00:17:56.360
I think it was in 1986, '87,

00:17:56.360 --> 00:18:00.840
when it really hit me how,
different we were treated

00:18:00.920 --> 00:18:02.400
from white people.

00:18:02.440 --> 00:18:05.560
When we were told that we
couldn't go into a restaurant

00:18:05.600 --> 00:18:07.560
in KZN, that's when I started

00:18:07.600 --> 00:18:13.840
thinking about, about apartheid
and the effect it had on us.

00:18:13.880 --> 00:18:17.560
I grew up with both my parents.

00:18:17.640 --> 00:18:22.600
I say that because that
is rare for most people.

00:18:22.680 --> 00:18:24.280
And especially these days,

00:18:24.320 --> 00:18:27.960
you find kids who either live
with mom

00:18:28.000 --> 00:18:31.640
or live with dad, but mostly
you find single parents.

00:18:31.720 --> 00:18:34.800
To date I still live with them.

00:18:34.800 --> 00:18:38.800
All they really wanted
for myself and my siblings

00:18:38.800 --> 00:18:42.000
was for us to get an education,

00:18:42.040 --> 00:18:46.840
which is why when I left
Joburg or Johannesburg

00:18:46.840 --> 00:18:50.320
to go to boarding school in the
eighties,

00:18:50.360 --> 00:18:54.280
after a tear gas landed at my
feet, it,

00:18:54.320 --> 00:18:58.720
it was very hard for them,
it was hard for all of us.

00:18:58.760 --> 00:19:03.720
- (Alinah Mabuya) Then we tried
to apply for boarding school

00:19:03.760 --> 00:19:09.480
in Durban, she find a space
and she went to Durban.

00:19:09.560 --> 00:19:11.160
- (Kholeka) My mother called me
actually-

00:19:11.200 --> 00:19:13.200
- (Alinah Mabuya) I nearly
called everyday.

00:19:13.200 --> 00:19:15.800
[all laughing]

00:19:15.840 --> 00:19:20.240
- (Kholeka) And how did you
feel about me going overseas?

00:19:20.240 --> 00:19:23.480
- (Alinah Mabuya) I cried a lot.

00:19:23.520 --> 00:19:25.480
- (Kholeka) I didn't know that.

00:19:25.480 --> 00:19:30.960
Nah, I didn't know that, yeah.

00:19:31.000 --> 00:19:36.160
They spent the last penny that
they had to make sure that I,

00:19:36.160 --> 00:19:38.520
I went to boarding school.

00:19:38.560 --> 00:19:40.800
I went to Ohlange high school.

00:19:40.840 --> 00:19:44.760
The school was founded
by the first ANC leader.

00:19:44.800 --> 00:19:47.640
That was John Langalibalele
Dube.

00:19:47.680 --> 00:19:49.200
[gentle piano music]

00:19:49.240 --> 00:19:51.640
He was this man who,

00:19:51.680 --> 00:19:56.240
went overseas and raised
funds so that Black kids

00:19:56.280 --> 00:19:59.840
could have an education.

00:19:59.880 --> 00:20:04.720
And I went to that school that
he founded.

00:20:04.720 --> 00:20:08.760
Nelson Mandela cast his
vote in 1994, he went there,

00:20:08.760 --> 00:20:11.920
so there's the history.

00:20:11.960 --> 00:20:14.240
It really makes me proud to,

00:20:14.320 --> 00:20:17.880
just to have gone to that
school.

00:20:17.960 --> 00:20:20.040
- (Thilo) The system in
South Africa at that time

00:20:20.080 --> 00:20:22.200
was very much, the schools
was very segregated.

00:20:22.240 --> 00:20:25.440
So if you were Indian, you
went into a school system

00:20:25.440 --> 00:20:27.640
that just didn't have the
resources

00:20:27.680 --> 00:20:29.640
that other school systems had.

00:20:29.680 --> 00:20:30.920
Whether it was about sport,

00:20:30.960 --> 00:20:33.320
whether it was about
the facilities to study

00:20:33.360 --> 00:20:37.320
or computers, the teachers
were not paid as well.

00:20:37.360 --> 00:20:40.520
So all of those, made the school
system,

00:20:40.520 --> 00:20:42.960
the Indian school system,

00:20:42.960 --> 00:20:45.560
definitely less than
the white school system

00:20:45.560 --> 00:20:48.280
in South Africa.

00:20:48.360 --> 00:20:51.400
- (Meagan) Identity was
defined and constructed

00:20:51.440 --> 00:20:55.440
by the government, in
order to privilege the few.

00:20:55.440 --> 00:20:58.840
So at a younger age, you
recognize something's wrong.

00:20:58.880 --> 00:21:00.800
Then you get a little
bit older and you know

00:21:00.840 --> 00:21:03.520
it's not just that it's
wrong, but it's also unfair

00:21:03.560 --> 00:21:04.960
or inhumane.

00:21:05.040 --> 00:21:06.680
And then at a certain point,

00:21:06.680 --> 00:21:09.600
as you gain better knowledge
or hear more conversations

00:21:09.680 --> 00:21:11.120
and understand on deeper levels,

00:21:11.120 --> 00:21:13.800
what those conversations
mean, now, what I think

00:21:13.880 --> 00:21:17.640
it awakens awareness, because
you cannot

00:21:17.720 --> 00:21:20.920
destroy someone and treat
someone

00:21:20.960 --> 00:21:23.960
in a manner like that
without dehumanizing them.

00:21:24.000 --> 00:21:27.600
It did leave multiple
generations of people

00:21:27.600 --> 00:21:31.280
grabbing onto whatever made
them a little bit more human

00:21:31.320 --> 00:21:32.440
or better.

00:21:32.520 --> 00:21:35.160
So there are people in these
different racial categories,

00:21:35.240 --> 00:21:38.320
including my own, who would
look down on others, right.

00:21:38.360 --> 00:21:40.680
Well, we're just a little
bit better than you.

00:21:40.680 --> 00:21:41.720
We get treated better.

00:21:41.760 --> 00:21:43.600
We live differently.

00:21:43.680 --> 00:21:47.520
But what people like Steve
Biko and Nelson Mandela

00:21:47.520 --> 00:21:51.720
and the Tutu's of the world
do is they help you understand

00:21:51.760 --> 00:21:56.240
that's a strategy, that is a
way of keeping you in line.

00:21:56.280 --> 00:21:59.400
- (Dr. Mangaliso) So Steve Biko
started this, you know,

00:21:59.440 --> 00:22:02.400
sense of pride of being
Black and being African

00:22:02.440 --> 00:22:07.280
and unleashing the ability
to overthrow white dominance,

00:22:07.320 --> 00:22:12.160
you know, just by being
yourself, being an African.

00:22:12.240 --> 00:22:14.160
- (Meagan) When you have
a system where race is

00:22:14.240 --> 00:22:16.960
what separates you and
puts you into a hierarchy,

00:22:17.000 --> 00:22:19.520
one of the ways you combat
that is what you call

00:22:19.520 --> 00:22:21.080
sort of umbrella advocacy.

00:22:21.120 --> 00:22:24.440
So everybody, regardless
of where you may differ

00:22:24.520 --> 00:22:27.600
on the spectrum, you push
under the same umbrella

00:22:27.640 --> 00:22:30.160
to fight the bigger common
enemy.

00:22:30.200 --> 00:22:34.200
So there are to this day,
Indian South Africans,

00:22:34.200 --> 00:22:38.280
Colored South Africans,
African South Africans,

00:22:38.320 --> 00:22:40.400
I'm speaking in sort of
the apartheid lingo now

00:22:40.440 --> 00:22:42.160
when I'm using racial
classifications,

00:22:42.240 --> 00:22:44.280
who will tell you I'm Black.

00:22:44.280 --> 00:22:47.080
It was a political
statement to say we are Black,

00:22:47.080 --> 00:22:49.400
'cause that is our
declaration to the world

00:22:49.480 --> 00:22:51.280
that we do not believe in
apartheid.

00:22:51.320 --> 00:22:55.000
It is unfair, it is inhumane,

00:22:55.040 --> 00:22:58.960
it is a constructed reality for
us.

00:22:58.960 --> 00:23:01.800
It's not who we are as humans.

00:23:01.800 --> 00:23:04.880
[indistinct chatter]

00:23:04.960 --> 00:23:09.880
[Casspir, army truck revving]

00:23:09.920 --> 00:23:13.200
[gunshots booming]

00:23:13.240 --> 00:23:26.560
[screaming]

00:23:26.600 --> 00:23:28.720
[glass crashing]

00:23:28.720 --> 00:23:32.360
- (Heather) I grew up on one of
the
streets in, on the Cape Flats,

00:23:32.400 --> 00:23:36.600
in Athlone, where much of
the struggle took place.

00:23:36.600 --> 00:23:37.840
It was Klipfontein Road,

00:23:37.880 --> 00:23:39.600
Belgravia Road and Thornton
Road.

00:23:39.600 --> 00:23:42.120
And I grew up on Belgravia Road.

00:23:42.200 --> 00:23:45.720
I was born to a father who
believed that education

00:23:45.800 --> 00:23:47.640
was the most important thing.

00:23:47.640 --> 00:23:50.120
That was the way to freedom.

00:23:50.160 --> 00:23:51.960
Him and my mother put
their savings together

00:23:52.040 --> 00:23:55.560
and put out my brother
and I in a private school.

00:23:55.600 --> 00:24:01.560
This worked for a little
while, but not for long.

00:24:01.560 --> 00:24:05.760
Many of the school children
had decided liberation

00:24:05.760 --> 00:24:07.200
before education.

00:24:07.240 --> 00:24:10.600
My bus to school, we were
the subject of stone throwing

00:24:10.600 --> 00:24:13.240
by kids who I grew up with.

00:24:13.280 --> 00:24:16.240
It created for me a
bit of a schizophrenia,

00:24:16.280 --> 00:24:19.280
because I had to sort of travel
through the burning tires

00:24:19.320 --> 00:24:22.280
and the sight of the struggle.

00:24:22.320 --> 00:24:24.480
And then trees got greener.

00:24:24.480 --> 00:24:28.720
The plots got wider, and I
would arrive in Upper Wynberg.

00:24:28.760 --> 00:24:31.920
The school at the time
refused to have us talk about

00:24:31.920 --> 00:24:34.320
what was going on at home,

00:24:34.320 --> 00:24:38.520
because I think they believed
it was too political.

00:24:38.560 --> 00:24:41.160
So we never found a way, I feel,

00:24:41.200 --> 00:24:44.400
to bring all the fragments
of ourself into one place

00:24:44.440 --> 00:24:47.960
and be accepted for that
entire experience, which was,

00:24:48.000 --> 00:24:49.440
which was soul destroying.

00:24:49.440 --> 00:24:53.280
My father, who had been
watching this brew up in me,

00:24:53.320 --> 00:24:55.680
understood exactly what had
happened,

00:24:55.720 --> 00:24:58.880
decided to move me to a
government school,

00:24:58.880 --> 00:25:01.960
which was close to where I
lived and also on the Cape Flats

00:25:02.000 --> 00:25:05.720
and there I became very
politically active

00:25:05.720 --> 00:25:08.800
and lived out my life in that
way.

00:25:08.840 --> 00:25:12.640
It was, it was dangerous and
very scary,

00:25:12.720 --> 00:25:15.480
but I felt at least whole.

00:25:15.560 --> 00:25:17.560
(Marchers singing) Oh deep in my
heart

00:25:17.600 --> 00:25:19.760
I do believe

00:25:19.800 --> 00:25:28.560
That we shall overcome one day

00:25:28.640 --> 00:25:32.320
- (Thembekile) My peers
and people just ahead of us

00:25:32.360 --> 00:25:34.680
had finally just reached
the end of their rope,

00:25:34.720 --> 00:25:38.000
that it didn't matter to be
quiet anymore.

00:25:38.080 --> 00:25:43.160
The movements were something
that happened in Johannesburg

00:25:43.160 --> 00:25:44.800
or happened in Cape Town,

00:25:44.840 --> 00:25:48.640
that took quite a long time
to reach Pietermaritzburg,

00:25:48.680 --> 00:25:51.800
I was actually probably out of
high school

00:25:51.800 --> 00:25:53.800
by the time that,

00:25:53.800 --> 00:25:56.920
students
that is, felt brave enough to,

00:25:57.000 --> 00:25:59.200
to join the movement.

00:25:59.240 --> 00:26:01.440
I wasn't part of it.

00:26:01.440 --> 00:26:06.160
And, and most of that was,

00:26:06.240 --> 00:26:10.480
our parents were absolutely
adamant that you don't,

00:26:10.520 --> 00:26:13.480
you don't stick your neck
out there, you don't,

00:26:13.520 --> 00:26:15.960
because it just invites a lot
of,

00:26:15.960 --> 00:26:18.240
of everything that they were
scared of,

00:26:18.320 --> 00:26:19.960
that the South African
government could unleash.

00:26:19.960 --> 00:26:25.160
We often went quite hungry,
because there wasn't,

00:26:25.200 --> 00:26:27.800
there wasn't food and then
you just learn how to not

00:26:27.800 --> 00:26:30.880
complain about that.

00:26:30.920 --> 00:26:36.080
And so it could be very,
a very spare existence.

00:26:36.080 --> 00:26:40.280
So the books were really
entertainment.

00:26:40.280 --> 00:26:43.920
I just was so happy to,

00:26:43.920 --> 00:26:47.400
escape into a book.

00:26:47.480 --> 00:26:50.760
When I was in high school,
an American teacher

00:26:50.800 --> 00:26:52.760
came to teach English

00:26:52.800 --> 00:26:55.160
and was,

00:26:55.200 --> 00:26:59.080
unusual in giving us

00:26:59.160 --> 00:27:02.320
respect and a lot of freedom,

00:27:02.400 --> 00:27:05.040
unusual that he sat on
top of the teacher's desk,

00:27:05.040 --> 00:27:08.760
instead of like cross-legged,
instead of standing there

00:27:08.840 --> 00:27:11.680
with the, you know, stick.

00:27:11.680 --> 00:27:13.320
In those days,

00:27:13.360 --> 00:27:15.720
as a Black person who
lived in the townships,

00:27:15.760 --> 00:27:18.320
I could not use the library.

00:27:18.320 --> 00:27:23.000
But there I was working with
these kids, white and Indian

00:27:23.040 --> 00:27:26.840
and Colored, so I would
actually read along with them.

00:27:26.920 --> 00:27:30.600
I just need to get as much as
possible out of this sort of

00:27:30.640 --> 00:27:33.160
sideways education that I was
getting.

00:27:33.200 --> 00:27:35.320
Having an education that I
wasn't having

00:27:35.400 --> 00:27:38.800
in a Bantu education system.

00:27:38.840 --> 00:27:42.360
- (Thandeka) Is it education
first or freedom first?

00:27:42.440 --> 00:27:46.760
And I think more and more
young people were saying,

00:27:46.840 --> 00:27:50.880
"Freedom first" 'cause they
didn't want to be subjected

00:27:50.920 --> 00:27:53.760
to a meaningless education.

00:27:53.800 --> 00:27:56.920
And I grew up in
Vosloorus, east of Joburg.

00:27:56.960 --> 00:28:03.440
It was the hub of a lot of
unrest and political activity.

00:28:03.480 --> 00:28:08.280
And I think my parents
did value education.

00:28:08.360 --> 00:28:12.720
So, at that point, they
made a decision to take us

00:28:12.800 --> 00:28:17.160
to boarding schools, a little
bit far out from Johannesburg,

00:28:17.240 --> 00:28:20.440
where we could get some form of
education.

00:28:20.480 --> 00:28:23.680
- (Nolwandle) Politics were
not discussed in the forms of

00:28:23.720 --> 00:28:27.400
it had to be this robust
discussion because we were
living

00:28:27.480 --> 00:28:30.840
politics, the fact that you
were denied the basic rights,

00:28:30.920 --> 00:28:33.000
the fact that you were
actually treated differently,

00:28:33.040 --> 00:28:35.000
you were Black before
you were anything else.

00:28:35.040 --> 00:28:38.080
I attended rallies, funerals,

00:28:38.160 --> 00:28:40.080
people who were actually
not part, or seen marching

00:28:40.160 --> 00:28:42.880
were actually questioned

00:28:42.920 --> 00:28:48.400
as to whether you were
working for the system or not.

00:28:48.440 --> 00:28:50.880
I was born and raised in
Guguletu,

00:28:50.920 --> 00:28:53.280
a township outside of Cape Town.

00:28:53.280 --> 00:28:58.000
Born with uncles and aunts,
all living in the same roof.

00:28:58.080 --> 00:29:00.760
Family that actually was
really involved in the

00:29:00.800 --> 00:29:04.360
community from a spiritual
point of view as well.

00:29:04.400 --> 00:29:06.760
They had very limited education,

00:29:06.760 --> 00:29:09.960
but it was very clear
that they'd made the vow

00:29:10.000 --> 00:29:13.400
that most African parents
at the time had made that

00:29:13.400 --> 00:29:17.000
despite the situation, they
will make sure that they put

00:29:17.040 --> 00:29:20.040
an effort in educating their
kids.

00:29:20.080 --> 00:29:22.880
What my parents, as well as
the teacher and the community

00:29:22.880 --> 00:29:25.440
at large emphasized that,

00:29:25.480 --> 00:29:29.720
our success will not
come from anything else

00:29:29.720 --> 00:29:32.520
at the time, but actually
liberating ourselves.

00:29:32.520 --> 00:29:33.920
That for me, was very important,

00:29:33.920 --> 00:29:36.160
even at elementary school level.

00:29:36.160 --> 00:29:38.560
At high school level, there
was the same expectation

00:29:38.560 --> 00:29:40.960
that you have to do well.

00:29:40.960 --> 00:29:42.480
- (Chuma) I think I
had an inner confidence

00:29:42.560 --> 00:29:46.200
that I just had to find
and kind of strengthen.

00:29:46.240 --> 00:29:48.640
I knew I could do whatever I
wanted.

00:29:48.680 --> 00:29:53.520
I, you know, the world be
damned, I'm gonna do what

00:29:53.600 --> 00:29:55.120
I need to do for myself.

00:29:55.160 --> 00:29:56.480
And I just needed the tools to
do it.

00:29:56.480 --> 00:29:58.280
So I started out at Inanda
Seminary,

00:29:58.320 --> 00:30:00.760
which was a community of
girls helping each other

00:30:00.840 --> 00:30:03.320
kind of grow up.

00:30:03.320 --> 00:30:06.120
Our head mistress basically
called us into her office

00:30:06.120 --> 00:30:08.320
and said, "I'm giving you an
assignment

00:30:08.360 --> 00:30:09.800
that you have to give in,

00:30:09.840 --> 00:30:12.240
here's your packet, here's your
packet, here's your packet,

00:30:12.320 --> 00:30:13.240
bring it to me."

00:30:13.440 --> 00:30:16.000
And I remember thinking,
"Oh boy, are we in trouble?

00:30:16.040 --> 00:30:17.200
This makes no sense to me,

00:30:17.200 --> 00:30:19.280
but I'm just gonna fill
out this application."

00:30:19.360 --> 00:30:21.440
And then I forgot all about it.

00:30:21.480 --> 00:30:23.840
And months later, my
father calls and said,

00:30:23.840 --> 00:30:27.840
"I got this telegram from
some school in America

00:30:27.840 --> 00:30:30.480
saying that you need to come to
school

00:30:30.480 --> 00:30:32.280
and you've been accepted."

00:30:32.320 --> 00:30:34.240
And I said, "What school?"

00:30:34.280 --> 00:30:37.600
I had no idea what had happened.

00:30:37.680 --> 00:30:46.560
[gentle piano music]

00:30:46.560 --> 00:30:49.200
- (Susan Bourque) I've been
fortunate to know and work with

00:30:49.240 --> 00:30:51.600
five presidents of Smith.

00:30:51.600 --> 00:30:54.400
I arrived on campus in 1970.

00:30:54.400 --> 00:30:58.120
Tom Mendenhall was the
president.

00:30:58.200 --> 00:31:03.160
We had never had a woman
as president until Jill

00:31:03.240 --> 00:31:05.560
and it set the campus on fire.

00:31:05.640 --> 00:31:08.720
It was like an electric
current had gone through it.

00:31:08.720 --> 00:31:11.680
When we first saw her
arrive and be part of

00:31:11.720 --> 00:31:13.520
the academic procession.

00:31:13.560 --> 00:31:17.560
For those of us who
were young and feminist,

00:31:17.560 --> 00:31:19.920
both men and women, we were
thrilled,

00:31:19.960 --> 00:31:23.000
but still thinking what
the college might become

00:31:23.000 --> 00:31:27.480
under this woman who came
in as a declared feminist,

00:31:27.560 --> 00:31:31.440
who said she wanted to make
sure that Smith's history

00:31:31.440 --> 00:31:36.360
and mission could fit the
college for the kind of
education

00:31:36.440 --> 00:31:39.080
that women would need.

00:31:39.080 --> 00:31:42.880
[gentle music]

00:31:42.920 --> 00:31:46.520
It was at the same time, a
challenging situation for

00:31:46.560 --> 00:31:48.760
a first timer, if you will,

00:31:48.760 --> 00:31:54.160
the first woman to lead
this institution that had

00:31:54.200 --> 00:31:58.080
traditionally had a small group
of men around the president

00:31:58.160 --> 00:32:00.600
who felt that they could call
the shots,

00:32:00.640 --> 00:32:02.120
a kind of kitchen cabinet.

00:32:02.200 --> 00:32:07.000
And so she met with a lot
of resistance to change.

00:32:07.040 --> 00:32:10.280
And of course her ideas
were very progressive.

00:32:10.280 --> 00:32:13.280
I mean, today it is not
unusual to hear people

00:32:13.320 --> 00:32:16.920
talk about the significance
of educating women

00:32:16.960 --> 00:32:19.600
for the social and political
development of a nation.

00:32:19.680 --> 00:32:25.600
But that simply was not the case
in 1975.

00:32:25.640 --> 00:32:29.560
It was a struggle to
get people to understand

00:32:29.600 --> 00:32:32.000
the importance of what this
might mean

00:32:32.000 --> 00:32:36.640
in the overall well-being of a
nation.

00:32:36.640 --> 00:32:40.320
And it was Jill and Mary,

00:32:40.400 --> 00:32:44.640
who sowed the seeds that
we have come to appreciate

00:32:44.680 --> 00:32:48.440
in what we see in this
wonderful college today.

00:32:48.480 --> 00:32:52.480
Jill of course, was
instrumental in making sure that

00:32:52.520 --> 00:32:56.320
Jill and Peter de Villiers came
to Smith

00:32:56.360 --> 00:33:02.160
and of course, much valued
Peter's advice in all areas

00:33:02.160 --> 00:33:05.440
of Smith life, most
particularly athletics.

00:33:05.480 --> 00:33:07.000
He was a great mover and shaker

00:33:07.000 --> 00:33:09.640
in terms of the athletic
program.

00:33:09.680 --> 00:33:13.080
And of course his deep
engagement in South Africa

00:33:13.120 --> 00:33:16.680
was critical in the development
of what would become

00:33:16.680 --> 00:33:19.960
the scholarship program.

00:33:20.040 --> 00:33:22.480
- (Peter) I was the third child
of four.

00:33:22.520 --> 00:33:25.680
My father was a influential
Presbyterian church minister

00:33:25.720 --> 00:33:27.200
in Durban, had a big church.

00:33:27.280 --> 00:33:31.360
So I grew up as a preacher's
kid and all that that means.

00:33:31.400 --> 00:33:34.560
I was the designated
successor to my father,

00:33:34.560 --> 00:33:35.400
shall we say.

00:33:35.760 --> 00:33:38.680
So there was, something I
didn't question very much.

00:33:38.760 --> 00:33:43.240
I think growing up, my father
was an active white liberal.

00:33:43.240 --> 00:33:46.200
He didn't see himself
as preaching politics,

00:33:46.240 --> 00:33:48.880
but he was very involved
with Black churches,

00:33:48.880 --> 00:33:51.560
with Indian churches in the
region.

00:33:51.640 --> 00:33:54.880
I came to Smith in 1979 with
Jill.

00:33:54.880 --> 00:33:57.720
We were primarily
recruited by Jill Conway.

00:33:57.720 --> 00:34:01.520
So in the fall of the
first year I was here,

00:34:01.520 --> 00:34:05.160
I was put on an ad hoc group to
organize

00:34:05.200 --> 00:34:08.760
the recruitment and admission
of international students.

00:34:08.800 --> 00:34:10.000
And there were very small
numbers

00:34:10.000 --> 00:34:11.680
of international students here.

00:34:11.760 --> 00:34:14.880
We established a faculty
committee on international

00:34:14.960 --> 00:34:17.240
students and as the
chair of that committee,

00:34:17.280 --> 00:34:19.720
I served on the board
of admission at Smith

00:34:19.800 --> 00:34:23.320
and Lorna Blake, who was
the director of admissions

00:34:23.360 --> 00:34:24.480
at that time,

00:34:24.520 --> 00:34:28.680
she and I read all of the
international applications.

00:34:28.680 --> 00:34:31.920
A number of American
universities and colleges

00:34:31.960 --> 00:34:35.200
established a South
African Scholarship Program

00:34:35.280 --> 00:34:37.960
and distributed Black
South African students

00:34:37.960 --> 00:34:41.440
who did not have access
to the white universities

00:34:41.520 --> 00:34:42.800
in South Africa.

00:34:42.800 --> 00:34:46.800
For two years, we were
a member of this group,

00:34:46.800 --> 00:34:48.600
but we didn't get any students.

00:34:48.640 --> 00:34:52.040
We looked at who it was
that got those scholarships

00:34:52.040 --> 00:34:56.840
and it was mostly
graduate students and men,

00:34:56.880 --> 00:35:00.760
in technical sciences,
computers, et cetera,

00:35:00.840 --> 00:35:03.680
and they were going to
the big universities.

00:35:03.720 --> 00:35:06.120
I went to Jill Conway.

00:35:06.120 --> 00:35:08.680
It was at a time when she was
negotiating

00:35:08.720 --> 00:35:11.640
with the board about
the issue of divestment.

00:35:11.720 --> 00:35:14.520
And I don't know what
her actual views were

00:35:14.560 --> 00:35:17.240
about divestment, but as the
president,

00:35:17.280 --> 00:35:20.000
she was negotiating between the
faculty

00:35:20.000 --> 00:35:23.800
and the students with their
views and the trustees.

00:35:23.840 --> 00:35:25.640
Her pragmatic approach was,

00:35:25.680 --> 00:35:27.640
let's do something with the
money,

00:35:27.640 --> 00:35:30.480
at least until we make a
decision.

00:35:30.520 --> 00:35:33.880
She went to the board with
that and they decided to

00:35:33.880 --> 00:35:37.280
establish a South African
Scholarship

00:35:37.320 --> 00:35:40.720
that was a board of trustees
scholarship.

00:35:40.720 --> 00:35:43.160
They set aside an amount of
money,

00:35:43.160 --> 00:35:46.320
so Jill said to me,
"Okay, we've got to go,

00:35:46.360 --> 00:35:47.360
how do we recruit them?"

00:35:47.360 --> 00:35:50.200
And I said, "If you want
students right away,

00:35:50.200 --> 00:35:51.800
my dad can recruit them."

00:35:51.800 --> 00:35:55.000
Okay, so in the mid 1980s,

00:35:55.000 --> 00:36:00.520
he had left his church and
was working in the education

00:36:00.600 --> 00:36:05.280
department in the province of
Natal and so he had contacts

00:36:05.280 --> 00:36:06.080
in the schools.

00:36:06.480 --> 00:36:09.000
I wrote to my dad and said,
"Smith would like students

00:36:09.080 --> 00:36:11.160
and we can, we have the
scholarship established.

00:36:11.200 --> 00:36:14.320
We can take two students this
year."

00:36:14.320 --> 00:36:18.840
What it was deciding was
simply, can they do it?

00:36:18.920 --> 00:36:26.440
Are they gonna be able to make
it here?

00:36:26.480 --> 00:36:34.400
[upbeat music]

00:36:34.440 --> 00:36:38.560
- (Thembekile) I cannot tell
you how excited I was in the,

00:36:38.640 --> 00:36:43.400
in the days leading up to my
departure.

00:36:43.480 --> 00:36:45.280
- (Thilo) Thembekile and I were
the first

00:36:45.320 --> 00:36:48.320
South African students,
we had a lot of publicity.

00:36:48.320 --> 00:36:50.360
One of the things that my
dad said to me when I went to

00:36:50.360 --> 00:36:54.640
boarding school was, "You are
representative of the whole

00:36:54.720 --> 00:36:57.600
Indian community, whether
you like it or not."

00:36:57.600 --> 00:36:59.240
And that's what this felt like
too,

00:36:59.280 --> 00:37:03.400
representative of my family,
of the Indian community

00:37:03.440 --> 00:37:07.080
being given this an amazing
opportunity to excel,

00:37:07.120 --> 00:37:12.360
to succeed, to open doors
for new opportunities.

00:37:12.440 --> 00:37:16.720
- (Desiree) My parents were very
about even entertaining this

00:37:16.760 --> 00:37:21.200
thought and it also almost
sounded too good to be true.

00:37:21.280 --> 00:37:23.000
I was leaving to come to Smith,

00:37:23.040 --> 00:37:27.160
I'd said my goodbyes to
everyone and my dad ran after me

00:37:27.160 --> 00:37:30.800
and he grabbed me and he held
my face between his hands.

00:37:30.800 --> 00:37:34.080
And he said, "Are you sure? Are
you sure?"

00:37:34.160 --> 00:37:35.640
And I'm like, [imitates crying]
"Yeah",

00:37:35.640 --> 00:37:36.880
because I was so emotional,

00:37:36.920 --> 00:37:39.800
and he said, "I can't come
pick you up next week,

00:37:39.840 --> 00:37:43.240
So you have to be sure!"
[laughing]

00:37:43.280 --> 00:37:45.120
- (Verna) I was anxious about
flying.

00:37:45.160 --> 00:37:48.080
I was distraught over leaving my
parents,

00:37:48.080 --> 00:37:50.520
I had, you know, never
left my parents before

00:37:50.560 --> 00:37:52.320
and I was going to this new
country,

00:37:52.320 --> 00:37:54.360
but I had my sister sitting
in the seat next to me, which,

00:37:54.400 --> 00:37:56.440
which helped a lot.

00:37:56.520 --> 00:38:01.200
And I got physically ill, I
was passing out, dizzy spells.

00:38:01.240 --> 00:38:04.200
When I, when I landed in,
in Johannesburg the most,

00:38:04.240 --> 00:38:05.400
it was so embarrassing,

00:38:05.400 --> 00:38:06.600
but they actually had the EMT

00:38:06.640 --> 00:38:09.440
come and take me off the plane.

00:38:09.480 --> 00:38:12.120
- (Chuma) I was flying to Boston
and they said,

00:38:12.200 --> 00:38:14.240
"We have an announcement
there's a blizzard

00:38:14.280 --> 00:38:18.080
out on the East Coast, so we
cannot land."

00:38:18.080 --> 00:38:24.320
So we got rerouted to Toronto.

00:38:24.360 --> 00:38:27.720
- (Heather) As soon as I landed,
I was
fortunate enough that my uncle

00:38:27.760 --> 00:38:29.960
was there and he took me.

00:38:29.960 --> 00:38:32.160
I said, "I just need to go to a
place

00:38:32.200 --> 00:38:36.680
where I can find clothes
for cold weather."

00:38:36.760 --> 00:38:41.480
And I went and I dressed up
and I got ready for going out,

00:38:41.560 --> 00:38:44.840
out into this, into the
snow, to my classes that day,

00:38:44.840 --> 00:38:48.040
I got fully dressed up and
as I left all along campus,

00:38:48.040 --> 00:38:50.280
I just couldn't understand
'cause everyone was asking me,

00:38:50.280 --> 00:38:52.640
"Heather, are you going skiing
today?"

00:38:52.680 --> 00:38:54.840
[interviewer laughing]

00:38:54.880 --> 00:38:58.960
And I add the full ski
outfit on with goggles

00:38:59.000 --> 00:39:01.720
and the whole thing, because I
thought

00:39:01.720 --> 00:39:05.760
this is how you prepare for
very, very cold weather.

00:39:05.800 --> 00:39:08.440
- (Chuma) I didn't have a way to
contact anybody.

00:39:08.520 --> 00:39:11.760
And so I hoped that someone
would be there when I landed

00:39:11.800 --> 00:39:14.200
and Peter was there, so
that was very reassuring.

00:39:14.200 --> 00:39:16.280
I don't know how he found
out, I didn't even ask,

00:39:16.320 --> 00:39:18.880
I was just happy to see him
and they gave me a winter coat.

00:39:18.920 --> 00:39:20.480
And so that was really good.

00:39:20.520 --> 00:39:22.640
I felt welcome.

00:39:22.680 --> 00:39:25.320
It was scary, but it was over.

00:39:25.360 --> 00:39:27.160
I was ready to start.

00:39:27.240 --> 00:39:29.680
- (Vuyiswa) And my mother, I
remember when I left home,

00:39:29.720 --> 00:39:31.520
the one thing she said
to me at the airport,

00:39:31.520 --> 00:39:33.720
"You want this?

00:39:33.720 --> 00:39:36.360
When we get to the airport,
you're not gonna cry.

00:39:36.400 --> 00:39:37.560
There are no regrets.

00:39:37.560 --> 00:39:40.120
You know what you've been
taught in this household.

00:39:40.160 --> 00:39:44.600
So go there and make it happen."

00:39:44.600 --> 00:39:49.240
- (Desiree) The person who got
on the
plane and was in tears and,

00:39:49.240 --> 00:39:52.680
you know, reassuring my dad
that I'm sure about this.

00:39:52.720 --> 00:39:55.640
And then the person who got
off the plane in New York,

00:39:55.640 --> 00:39:58.280
I really believe were
almost two different people.

00:39:58.280 --> 00:40:04.320
Like I, I felt like I had to
do a lot of growing up and

00:40:04.360 --> 00:40:09.240
have this determination in me
that this was going to work

00:40:09.320 --> 00:40:13.960
out and I was gonna make it
happen.

00:40:13.960 --> 00:40:16.200
[soft jazz music]

00:40:16.240 --> 00:40:21.160
- (Thembekile) Having left South
Africa
when it was around 82°F Degrees

00:40:21.200 --> 00:40:28.040
and arriving at Bradley and it
was 15°F.

00:40:28.080 --> 00:40:33.080
And then it was absolutely
just real, that I'm here.

00:40:33.120 --> 00:40:47.520
[soft jazz music continues]

00:40:47.560 --> 00:40:49.600
- (Thilo) Walking from Washburn
House,

00:40:49.640 --> 00:40:51.960
the snow was way above my head,

00:40:52.000 --> 00:40:54.000
like, I couldn't see, I
couldn't see where I was going,

00:40:54.000 --> 00:40:57.440
it was just follow the path,
that was it.

00:40:57.480 --> 00:40:59.840
Washburn House was where
I stayed for four years.

00:40:59.840 --> 00:41:03.240
It really was my home away from
home.

00:41:03.280 --> 00:41:06.640
My safe haven, where I grew a
lot,

00:41:06.680 --> 00:41:09.960
where I became a young adult.

00:41:10.000 --> 00:41:14.480
I mean, I really came from a
household,

00:41:14.520 --> 00:41:15.520
[clears throat]

00:41:15.600 --> 00:41:21.520
where we had a maid, that
was always there really.

00:41:21.560 --> 00:41:22.960
I never made my bed.

00:41:22.960 --> 00:41:26.960
So the opportunity to be here
and learn

00:41:27.000 --> 00:41:28.680
like most other college
students,

00:41:28.760 --> 00:41:29.520
[laughs]

00:41:29.640 --> 00:41:30.840
how to make your bed and how to
cook.

00:41:30.840 --> 00:41:34.000
Being a part of a house like
Washburn,

00:41:34.040 --> 00:41:36.240
and the feeling that I had there

00:41:36.240 --> 00:41:37.640
was where it was my safe haven,

00:41:37.680 --> 00:41:41.480
where had amazing group of
people,

00:41:41.480 --> 00:41:44.520
a community that taught me a
lot.

00:41:44.520 --> 00:41:47.120
- So now I am, I'm
waking up in my own room

00:41:47.120 --> 00:41:51.040
and in an absolutely, you know,

00:41:51.120 --> 00:41:57.440
lovely space and, you know,
Jill would pack care packages

00:41:57.480 --> 00:42:02.360
for us, you know paperwhites
on the window sill.

00:42:02.400 --> 00:42:05.120
So there were, you know,
there was a lot of care.

00:42:05.200 --> 00:42:08.520
- (Desiree) Peter and Jill de
Villiers they would cook

00:42:08.600 --> 00:42:11.880
South African curries
for us and we got to know

00:42:11.880 --> 00:42:15.040
their children, they just,
they opened up their lives

00:42:15.080 --> 00:42:19.320
to us and we felt very
comfortable in their home.

00:42:19.320 --> 00:42:22.200
It was almost like a home away
from home.

00:42:22.280 --> 00:42:24.840
- (Thembekile) In those days,
they used
to call us foreign students.

00:42:24.920 --> 00:42:28.000
I didn't find that pejorative,
there was a lot of curiosity,

00:42:28.040 --> 00:42:30.800
about you know, "Who are
these people from, you know,

00:42:30.840 --> 00:42:31.760
South Africa."

00:42:32.000 --> 00:42:36.840
But it was sort of describing,
having to describe to,

00:42:36.880 --> 00:42:41.440
most Americans, both Black and
white,

00:42:41.440 --> 00:42:46.080
who we were and, you
know, someone asked Thilo,

00:42:46.080 --> 00:42:47.680
"Why do you sound different?"

00:42:47.680 --> 00:42:51.920
And we sound different because I
speak,

00:42:51.920 --> 00:42:55.760
English is my second language
and so on

00:42:55.800 --> 00:42:59.400
and we have, we had just huge
life,

00:42:59.440 --> 00:43:01.560
different life experiences.

00:43:01.560 --> 00:43:03.800
- (Chuma) I remember writing a
letter to my mother saying,

00:43:03.800 --> 00:43:05.960
"I have a roommate, she is
white."

00:43:06.000 --> 00:43:07.000
[laughing]

00:43:07.240 --> 00:43:10.440
And I know to a lot of people
doesn't seem like a big deal,

00:43:10.440 --> 00:43:14.040
but it kind of was, it was a
very,

00:43:14.080 --> 00:43:16.920
it was like an immersion
into something that I'd never

00:43:16.960 --> 00:43:18.640
imagined would happen.

00:43:18.680 --> 00:43:20.840
And she was very nice to me

00:43:20.880 --> 00:43:22.960
and we still keep in touch to
this day.

00:43:23.000 --> 00:43:25.320
Washburn House was a
very interesting house.

00:43:25.320 --> 00:43:27.480
There were a number of
international students there,

00:43:27.520 --> 00:43:29.960
so it felt kind of welcoming.

00:43:29.960 --> 00:43:33.640
Thilo Simadari, who was the
class of 89,

00:43:33.720 --> 00:43:35.160
was also at Washburn House,

00:43:35.160 --> 00:43:37.800
so I had a fellow South
African in the house.

00:43:37.800 --> 00:43:40.400
And I remember my second day at
Smith,

00:43:40.440 --> 00:43:43.000
Thembekile came through to visit

00:43:43.000 --> 00:43:46.600
and I remember thinking,
"Finally, I get to meet someone

00:43:46.640 --> 00:43:49.120
I can kind of relate to
and speak the same language

00:43:49.200 --> 00:43:54.120
and you know", it's, so that
felt like I wasn't on my own.

00:43:54.160 --> 00:43:58.000
And Thandi Mvakali was in the
same high school I came from.

00:43:58.080 --> 00:44:02.520
So I felt like I had a
built-in community already.

00:44:02.520 --> 00:44:07.720
[gentle piano music]

00:44:07.760 --> 00:44:10.160
- (Nolwandle) When I left, I
was
excited, I was only 18.

00:44:10.200 --> 00:44:12.000
I was quite determined.

00:44:12.000 --> 00:44:14.840
Interestingly, my mother
was probably the one

00:44:14.880 --> 00:44:17.400
who was in denial about
this whole thing that

00:44:17.440 --> 00:44:19.000
I had gotten a full scholarship,

00:44:19.040 --> 00:44:20.280
they didn't have to pay a dime.

00:44:20.320 --> 00:44:21.920
I just had to get on the plane.

00:44:22.000 --> 00:44:23.280
She asked a lot of questions,

00:44:23.280 --> 00:44:24.080
"What are you going to do?

00:44:24.160 --> 00:44:25.320
You're very young, you don't
know."

00:44:25.400 --> 00:44:28.080
I said, "Here's an opportunity,
it's a lifetime opportunity

00:44:28.120 --> 00:44:30.600
that I don't have, I
don't think you are able

00:44:30.680 --> 00:44:31.880
to provide for me."

00:44:31.920 --> 00:44:33.520
'Cause I mean, I wouldn't
have been able to afford

00:44:33.560 --> 00:44:34.760
to go to Varsity.

00:44:34.840 --> 00:44:37.960
The foundation and the
commitment
those teachers had on us

00:44:37.960 --> 00:44:40.600
enabled me to actually get a
full scholarship for four years

00:44:40.640 --> 00:44:42.200
at Smith College.

00:44:42.240 --> 00:44:44.440
And to an extent, what
was meant to be a curse

00:44:44.480 --> 00:44:46.880
was a blessing.

00:44:46.960 --> 00:44:51.120
And coming on campus in an
environment where for once

00:44:51.200 --> 00:44:53.840
I felt I was Nolwandle,

00:44:53.880 --> 00:44:56.960
a brilliant student and
someone with actually

00:44:57.040 --> 00:44:59.560
a prospect in the future.

00:44:59.640 --> 00:45:01.440
- (Tandiwe) When I came to
campus
it was important for me

00:45:01.480 --> 00:45:02.960
to seek out my community.

00:45:03.000 --> 00:45:05.200
See it wasn't as important
for me to seek out

00:45:05.280 --> 00:45:07.520
the South Africans as it
was for me to seek out

00:45:07.520 --> 00:45:10.160
the Africans and I think
that's just a factor of

00:45:10.200 --> 00:45:12.200
my experience having grown up in
exile

00:45:12.240 --> 00:45:15.040
and then having gone to
school in New Mexico.

00:45:15.120 --> 00:45:17.560
And then once I had
established myself there,

00:45:17.600 --> 00:45:20.640
I could then go out and
seek new relationships.

00:45:20.680 --> 00:45:24.440
I knew a lot of people but I
really found that the African

00:45:24.440 --> 00:45:28.920
students network was my, was
my support base and my home.

00:45:29.000 --> 00:45:31.080
- (Nolwandle) I just felt it was
actually effortless,

00:45:31.080 --> 00:45:33.320
whether we were coming from
exile,

00:45:33.360 --> 00:45:35.280
whether we're actually
coming from South Africa,

00:45:35.280 --> 00:45:37.520
whether we're coming from
other parts of Africa,

00:45:37.520 --> 00:45:40.120
there was a shared purpose
around,

00:45:40.120 --> 00:45:42.920
we are there to actually better
ourselves

00:45:42.960 --> 00:45:45.040
for the benefit of our
community.

00:45:45.120 --> 00:45:47.600
- (Tandiwe) So every year we'd
host
what we called, Africa Day,

00:45:47.640 --> 00:45:49.960
because we'd put on a cultural
show.

00:45:50.000 --> 00:45:52.400
[African drum music]

00:45:52.440 --> 00:45:56.240
The African students at my
time were a very close knit,

00:45:56.280 --> 00:45:58.440
grouping of women and in my
other life

00:45:58.440 --> 00:46:00.000
I'd have been a performer on
stage,

00:46:00.040 --> 00:46:03.240
'cause I really love the
African cultural expression.

00:46:03.240 --> 00:46:08.240
[African drum music]

00:46:08.280 --> 00:46:12.680
We would spend hours and
hours practicing gumboot dance

00:46:12.720 --> 00:46:16.760
and practicing our songs
and practicing Indlamu,

00:46:16.760 --> 00:46:18.400
which is a traditional
South African dance.

00:46:18.440 --> 00:46:22.360
And those were the, some of
the greatest moments at Smith.

00:46:22.360 --> 00:46:24.800
I mean, there's never gonna
be a time in your life,

00:46:24.800 --> 00:46:28.280
as the four years in college.

00:46:28.360 --> 00:46:30.000
[gentle piano music]

00:46:30.000 --> 00:46:33.640
- (Heather) I left sort of a
very
angry, disillusioned,

00:46:33.680 --> 00:46:36.160
still trying to gather myself
up.

00:46:36.240 --> 00:46:39.840
And when I arrived at Smith,
I was very much in that state.

00:46:39.880 --> 00:46:42.120
Still being surprised
that you could see

00:46:42.160 --> 00:46:47.520
Mandela's face without a
big, big bar across his eyes.

00:46:47.520 --> 00:46:52.160
It took me a day or so to
figure
out that I was one of many

00:46:52.160 --> 00:46:55.760
people for whom this was a new
experience.

00:46:55.800 --> 00:46:58.600
- (Kholeka) I met people from
all over the world

00:46:58.600 --> 00:47:02.680
and those were part of the
community that I belong to.

00:47:02.760 --> 00:47:06.280
- (Desiree) I clearly remember
during my period of

00:47:06.320 --> 00:47:10.880
intense homesickness,
I was on the PVTA bus

00:47:10.880 --> 00:47:14.040
and I saw a car with a
bumper sticker that said,

00:47:14.080 --> 00:47:15.880
"End apartheid!"

00:47:15.880 --> 00:47:19.360
And I almost felt like
something lifted off me

00:47:19.400 --> 00:47:23.160
because it was still
in my very early weeks.

00:47:23.160 --> 00:47:25.760
And I was still getting to
know the place and the people

00:47:25.800 --> 00:47:29.840
and you know, trying to
figure out how safe I am here.

00:47:29.880 --> 00:47:32.400
And I'd never been in,

00:47:32.400 --> 00:47:38.040
in this type of context with
being a minority, so to speak.

00:47:38.040 --> 00:47:41.520
I felt like, "Oh, you know,
people know,

00:47:41.600 --> 00:47:45.840
they know that that's
wrong, I'm in a safe place."

00:47:45.880 --> 00:47:48.240
[soft music]

00:47:48.280 --> 00:47:52.120
- (Peter) There were very
active
movements in the five colleges

00:47:52.160 --> 00:47:56.200
and they involved both
faculty and students.

00:47:56.240 --> 00:47:59.960
I was part of a faculty
group that were urging

00:48:00.000 --> 00:48:02.560
the college to divest.

00:48:02.600 --> 00:48:05.240
We had meetings with the
trustees.

00:48:05.280 --> 00:48:08.240
We had information meetings with
students.

00:48:08.280 --> 00:48:11.040
We had a big rally in John M
Greene.

00:48:11.080 --> 00:48:13.600
But our meetings were typically
with the finance committee.

00:48:13.640 --> 00:48:15.720
So there were lots of issues
around

00:48:15.800 --> 00:48:17.560
fiduciary responsibility.

00:48:17.640 --> 00:48:20.240
I will remember that term
for the rest of my life,

00:48:20.280 --> 00:48:22.720
because those were what
the arguments were about.

00:48:22.760 --> 00:48:25.920
What it took it at Smith, was in
1986,

00:48:25.920 --> 00:48:32.040
there was a group of students
sat in on College Hall.

00:48:32.120 --> 00:48:35.560
- (Elizabeth) Growing up in
Kenya, we were very cognizant

00:48:35.560 --> 00:48:37.560
and I grew up in a mixed race
family,

00:48:37.600 --> 00:48:39.760
so we could never go to South
Africa.

00:48:39.800 --> 00:48:45.040
And so I don't think I
was very educated about
divestment

00:48:45.080 --> 00:48:46.640
Mary Maples Dunn was the
president,

00:48:46.640 --> 00:48:48.040
it was her first year as
president

00:48:48.080 --> 00:48:50.840
and she had made a lot of
time to have meetings with us

00:48:50.880 --> 00:48:53.480
and so on, but it really
came down to this meeting

00:48:53.480 --> 00:48:56.960
with the trustees and the
trustees did not divest.

00:48:57.000 --> 00:49:00.680
And we went into College
Hall and we just sat down

00:49:00.720 --> 00:49:02.360
and we didn't leave.

00:49:02.400 --> 00:49:04.760
- (Mona) I think I got very
caught up in the excitement

00:49:04.760 --> 00:49:06.920
of being a protester.

00:49:06.960 --> 00:49:10.640
I was invited to join by
friends who were mostly white

00:49:10.680 --> 00:49:13.440
because they wanted some
diversity in the protest.

00:49:13.480 --> 00:49:17.240
I joined because I just wanted
that feeling of solidarity.

00:49:17.240 --> 00:49:19.800
I wanted that feeling of
women supporting women

00:49:19.840 --> 00:49:21.200
in raising up a cause

00:49:21.240 --> 00:49:23.760
but we just got swept into it.

00:49:23.840 --> 00:49:26.640
- (Siphokazi) Yes, I did join
the march demonstrations,

00:49:26.680 --> 00:49:31.800
we sat in and I was asking the
questions before I even went,

00:49:31.880 --> 00:49:33.680
"Why are we going to sit in?"

00:49:33.720 --> 00:49:35.160
"Why is this important?"

00:49:35.200 --> 00:49:37.320
"What is divestment?"

00:49:37.360 --> 00:49:39.160
"Why do trustees have investment
there?"

00:49:39.160 --> 00:49:41.160
"How do we know they've
got investments there?"

00:49:41.160 --> 00:49:44.200
So I was like asking the basic
questions,

00:49:44.200 --> 00:49:46.600
why this was so important to
Americans?

00:49:46.640 --> 00:49:49.400
[gentle piano music]

00:49:49.400 --> 00:49:52.680
- (Siphokazi) Arriving in
America,
the height of apartheid.

00:49:52.720 --> 00:49:55.520
The international
community is very awakened

00:49:55.600 --> 00:49:57.480
to what's happening in South
Africa.

00:49:57.480 --> 00:50:00.480
They are supporting, they're
pushing for divestment.

00:50:00.480 --> 00:50:03.160
There's a lot of stuff
going on across the world

00:50:03.200 --> 00:50:05.520
to free Mandela.

00:50:05.520 --> 00:50:07.760
Being only 16, having
spent the past five years

00:50:07.800 --> 00:50:11.160
in a very sheltered all girls
school.

00:50:11.200 --> 00:50:13.160
And then I arrive in America

00:50:13.160 --> 00:50:15.440
and everyone is talking
about South Africa,

00:50:15.520 --> 00:50:19.200
asking me questions, "What
about this? What about that?"

00:50:19.240 --> 00:50:20.680
And I had grown up in a
Homeland.

00:50:20.760 --> 00:50:26.240
So Homeland was sort of a
separate development arrangement

00:50:26.240 --> 00:50:28.440
of an independent state,

00:50:28.480 --> 00:50:31.480
that the South African
government had set up.

00:50:31.480 --> 00:50:33.880
So this was supposed to
be all Black communities

00:50:33.880 --> 00:50:37.080
based on racial or ethnic
groups.

00:50:37.080 --> 00:50:41.920
[soft music]

00:50:41.920 --> 00:50:47.560
- (Siphokazi) So I grew up in
the Transkei.

00:50:47.560 --> 00:50:49.760
We had a Black president,

00:50:49.800 --> 00:50:52.800
Black cabinet, professors were
Black,

00:50:52.800 --> 00:50:54.760
university had Black
administrators.

00:50:54.800 --> 00:50:57.400
Then I went to a school where
we had a Black principal,

00:50:57.440 --> 00:51:00.240
very good school, very smart
Black kids.

00:51:00.240 --> 00:51:02.480
And then I went to America

00:51:02.520 --> 00:51:04.680
and I was being asked about all
of these.

00:51:04.680 --> 00:51:08.080
So I only learned about
apartheid really from America.

00:51:08.080 --> 00:51:11.920
'Cause then I had to understand
how people perceived,

00:51:11.960 --> 00:51:15.360
where I came from, which
was not how I perceived

00:51:15.400 --> 00:51:18.960
or how I had experienced
where I came from.

00:51:18.960 --> 00:51:20.840
So I had to learn very quickly
that

00:51:20.920 --> 00:51:23.200
this is how the world works.

00:51:23.240 --> 00:51:25.760
- (Heather) So, I had great
friends from India

00:51:25.800 --> 00:51:28.280
and Nepal and different
parts of our continent,

00:51:28.360 --> 00:51:32.040
but it was interesting that
our common experience of

00:51:32.040 --> 00:51:35.800
exclusion is what pulled us
together.

00:51:35.840 --> 00:51:38.280
We hardly spoke about it,

00:51:38.280 --> 00:51:40.840
but somehow there was that
connection.

00:51:40.880 --> 00:51:44.920
And those were the people that
we had become friends with.

00:51:44.920 --> 00:51:48.480
- (Thembekile) One of the
differences
that we found with

00:51:48.520 --> 00:51:52.200
people who had not grown up
under such an oppressive regime,

00:51:52.240 --> 00:51:57.040
they felt free to speak their
mind and,

00:51:57.080 --> 00:52:00.800
and they would just, it
would impress me and stun me.

00:52:00.800 --> 00:52:07.280
One of the women we befriended
was Florence Mwangi's

00:52:07.320 --> 00:52:11.480
daughter, she was the first
African to come to Smith

00:52:11.520 --> 00:52:14.920
and her daughter was this, this
firebrand,

00:52:14.960 --> 00:52:20.120
she just spoke her mind, in
Literature of the Commonwealth

00:52:20.160 --> 00:52:24.440
and just was critical of
"Heart Of Darkness" as a book

00:52:24.520 --> 00:52:26.960
that we would have to read and,

00:52:26.960 --> 00:52:29.960
and it was always very
inspiring
to have people like that

00:52:29.960 --> 00:52:32.560
because we know they were

00:52:32.600 --> 00:52:35.800
an example of how liberated you
can be.

00:52:35.800 --> 00:52:39.000
And that this is your opinion,
and this is your voice.

00:52:39.040 --> 00:52:42.920
And if you can, you know, stand
behind it,

00:52:43.000 --> 00:52:47.120
then that's really,
that's really powerful.

00:52:47.160 --> 00:52:50.800
- (Tandiwe) A woman's education
and
a woman's voice matters.

00:52:50.880 --> 00:52:54.320
And that a woman can be an
engineer, can be a doctor,

00:52:54.320 --> 00:52:56.800
can be a mathematician,
can be an economist.

00:52:56.840 --> 00:52:59.920
And to have been taught by the
caliber of professors that we

00:52:59.960 --> 00:53:02.560
were taught by and to
never have been doubted

00:53:02.560 --> 00:53:05.280
or second guessed, but been
allowed to,

00:53:05.360 --> 00:53:08.000
to aspire and to achieve.

00:53:08.000 --> 00:53:12.240
- (Nolwandle) And you can also
dream
bigger than who you are.

00:53:12.240 --> 00:53:15.000
The starting point is
not, you are a woman,

00:53:15.040 --> 00:53:19.240
but you are actually an equal
participant.

00:53:19.280 --> 00:53:20.880
[upbeat music]

00:53:20.880 --> 00:53:23.480
- (Heather) Smith attracts all
manner of women.

00:53:23.520 --> 00:53:26.280
I mean, I think every single
walk of life,

00:53:26.320 --> 00:53:29.120
I think every sexual
orientation,

00:53:29.120 --> 00:53:32.120
women who couldn't have an
education when they were
younger.

00:53:32.160 --> 00:53:35.120
for whatever reason and were
returning as older students.

00:53:35.160 --> 00:53:38.280
So when we socialized
and had this time, we,

00:53:38.360 --> 00:53:40.240
we got to know each other.

00:53:40.280 --> 00:53:42.200
- (Verna) See, I don't believe
there's
another place on this planet

00:53:42.200 --> 00:53:44.440
that looks and feels and tastes
and smells

00:53:44.440 --> 00:53:45.880
and it's a unique place.

00:53:45.920 --> 00:53:49.600
More than that, it's the
relationships that you build

00:53:49.640 --> 00:53:50.840
at Smith.

00:53:50.880 --> 00:53:56.480
- (Thembekile)You know, it made
me
sad at some point when

00:53:56.480 --> 00:54:03.160
there were random, blatant
acts of racism on campus

00:54:03.200 --> 00:54:06.520
and that I did not personally
experience,

00:54:06.560 --> 00:54:10.560
but it sort of started
to create a separation

00:54:10.560 --> 00:54:14.600
of the whole because now
everybody was suspicious

00:54:14.640 --> 00:54:20.920
or feeling that they might
be in a not safe house

00:54:21.000 --> 00:54:25.880
and some houses were more
famous than others for

00:54:25.880 --> 00:54:30.960
being exclusive, you know, or
cliquey.

00:54:31.000 --> 00:54:33.960
I did join the Black Students
Association,

00:54:34.000 --> 00:54:39.440
which advocated on different
aspects of

00:54:39.520 --> 00:54:42.960
Black culture, Black
scholars, I really relished

00:54:42.960 --> 00:54:45.880
being part of that Black
sisterhood, part of it as well

00:54:45.960 --> 00:54:50.520
because those women were
just fierce and confident.

00:54:50.600 --> 00:54:54.400
So that was a supportive
environment for me.

00:54:54.440 --> 00:54:57.320
You know, apartheid was
such a break, you know,

00:54:57.360 --> 00:55:00.480
when we broke away from that.

00:55:00.520 --> 00:55:03.960
I had let my shoulders relax
after I left South Africa

00:55:04.000 --> 00:55:07.560
and so I wasn't about to start,
you know,

00:55:07.600 --> 00:55:11.760
getting fearful about
my environment, again.

00:55:11.760 --> 00:55:14.360
- (Thandeka) So when I first
arrived at Smith,

00:55:14.360 --> 00:55:16.360
there was a Black Students
Association,

00:55:16.360 --> 00:55:19.600
which was a sort of
predominantly Afro-American.

00:55:19.600 --> 00:55:23.840
So myself and my other fellow
Africans,

00:55:23.840 --> 00:55:26.640
we kind of assumed that
we can be part of this

00:55:26.640 --> 00:55:28.720
because we Black, you know.

00:55:28.800 --> 00:55:33.480
But later on, I then learned
that there's a differentiation

00:55:33.480 --> 00:55:36.080
in identity.

00:55:36.080 --> 00:55:39.400
So there's Afro-American
and there's African,

00:55:39.480 --> 00:55:41.520
but we're all Black

00:55:41.520 --> 00:55:46.560
and our agendas and what
we're going for is different,

00:55:46.560 --> 00:55:48.320
you know?

00:55:48.360 --> 00:55:51.080
So I had to come to terms with
that.

00:55:51.160 --> 00:55:53.560
It came with a little bit of
pain,

00:55:53.600 --> 00:55:56.400
but I accepted it eventually.

00:55:56.440 --> 00:55:59.080
And I actually formed very good
relations

00:55:59.120 --> 00:56:02.720
with some of my Afro-American
sisters.

00:56:02.800 --> 00:56:06.680
- (Vuyiswa) I was attracted to
African-American studies because

00:56:06.720 --> 00:56:09.080
it was teaching us about the
struggle

00:56:09.120 --> 00:56:11.120
of Black people in America.

00:56:11.120 --> 00:56:15.720
And for me, it reminded me of
the struggle and apartheid.

00:56:15.720 --> 00:56:18.800
So it was almost a way of
connecting in that level and

00:56:18.840 --> 00:56:24.160
really gleaning some of the
similarities of, you know,

00:56:24.160 --> 00:56:27.000
the Civil Rights movement,
looking at apartheid

00:56:27.000 --> 00:56:30.920
and because a lot of the Civil
Rights movement leaders were

00:56:31.000 --> 00:56:35.040
very involved in the
freeing of South Africans.

00:56:35.080 --> 00:56:38.840
So I think for me, it was
almost that socialist in me

00:56:38.880 --> 00:56:41.440
that was saying, "I also wanna
understand

00:56:41.480 --> 00:56:43.600
the struggle of Black people in
America

00:56:43.680 --> 00:56:46.920
and learn from that and what
are the things we could do

00:56:46.960 --> 00:56:48.720
in South Africa and learn from."

00:56:48.720 --> 00:56:51.560
- (Desiree) With being outside
of
South Africa and being here

00:56:51.600 --> 00:56:57.480
at Smith, I had more of an
opportunity to,

00:56:57.560 --> 00:57:02.800
to learn more of the
complexity and the diversity

00:57:02.800 --> 00:57:05.040
of what it means to be Black.

00:57:05.040 --> 00:57:09.480
It was really a time of
self-discovery and
self-empowerment

00:57:09.520 --> 00:57:14.760
and the educational, as well
as the social experiences

00:57:14.840 --> 00:57:18.320
that I had at Smith really
prompted that,

00:57:18.360 --> 00:57:21.320
it stimulated that and it
challenged that.

00:57:21.320 --> 00:57:24.760
Being away from home within
me, kind of strengthened

00:57:24.800 --> 00:57:27.560
and solidified my identity
even more, it was like

00:57:27.560 --> 00:57:31.560
I wanted to hold on to it even
more 'cause I wasn't home.

00:57:31.600 --> 00:57:33.000
[upbeat music]

00:57:33.000 --> 00:57:34.000
- (Dr. Brenda Allen) So
Smith is a big family

00:57:34.000 --> 00:57:35.840
in and of itself.

00:57:35.880 --> 00:57:38.880
And then there are
families within the family.

00:57:38.920 --> 00:57:41.000
You know, the students from
South Africa

00:57:41.040 --> 00:57:42.440
are a little farther away from
home,

00:57:42.440 --> 00:57:45.880
And then, you know, a few of
them were psychology majors

00:57:45.880 --> 00:57:48.480
and so you begin to
develop the relationships

00:57:48.480 --> 00:57:50.280
with them in that way.

00:57:50.320 --> 00:57:52.560
I taught here... taught a course
called

00:57:52.600 --> 00:57:54.720
Psychology of the Black
Experience.

00:57:54.760 --> 00:57:56.960
I didn't live through Jim Crow.

00:57:57.000 --> 00:58:00.840
I grew up in the North, you
know, racism was there, but,

00:58:00.920 --> 00:58:04.400
you know, manifests differently
than what I studied when I,

00:58:04.400 --> 00:58:06.480
we talk about the South.

00:58:06.560 --> 00:58:08.960
But you know, those are examples
of,

00:58:09.000 --> 00:58:11.600
of things that we had to talk
about in my course

00:58:11.640 --> 00:58:15.880
Apartheid is really modeled
on racial segregation

00:58:15.920 --> 00:58:17.320
in the South.

00:58:17.360 --> 00:58:20.160
I especially learned
that from students who were

00:58:20.240 --> 00:58:23.360
a part of the group that came
from South Africa because they

00:58:23.440 --> 00:58:26.560
were coming, you know,
straight out of, you know,

00:58:26.600 --> 00:58:29.520
a country that was in
turmoil and in a fight.

00:58:29.560 --> 00:58:32.240
And they just had a different
way of being in the world

00:58:32.320 --> 00:58:37.080
about, um, truth and, and
equality and,

00:58:37.160 --> 00:58:41.000
and all the things that I think
because of where I skirted

00:58:41.000 --> 00:58:45.640
through in my era, sorta took
for granted.

00:58:45.640 --> 00:58:46.640
And, and I have to say,

00:58:46.640 --> 00:58:49.840
I no longer take any of that for
granted.

00:58:49.880 --> 00:59:12.760
[gentle piano music]

00:59:12.800 --> 00:59:16.040
- (Meagan) So my entry into
college was more American.

00:59:16.080 --> 00:59:18.440
but I had a sense of growing
up in both countries.

00:59:18.440 --> 00:59:20.920
So I grew up in South
Africa, my youth was there,

00:59:21.000 --> 00:59:24.160
then I came here also during
a formative part of my youth

00:59:24.240 --> 00:59:25.440
and grew up here.

00:59:25.480 --> 00:59:27.160
I had the American
experience, I went to an

00:59:27.240 --> 00:59:30.920
American high school, I knew,
you know, what the music was.

00:59:30.960 --> 00:59:34.720
So I fit in, in many places
because I can,

00:59:34.760 --> 00:59:36.960
I'll use the word code switch,
right.

00:59:37.000 --> 00:59:38.600
I can switch my accent.

00:59:38.640 --> 00:59:41.960
but just that sense of
fluidness to be able to do that

00:59:41.960 --> 00:59:46.240
is my unique experience having
grown up in both places.

00:59:46.280 --> 00:59:47.800
It's also isolating,

00:59:47.840 --> 00:59:53.040
because you have to then
become very conscious about,

00:59:53.040 --> 00:59:55.400
well, what is my identity then?

00:59:55.440 --> 01:00:00.840
So I can make this it,
I can fit in over there.

01:00:00.880 --> 01:00:03.080
So there's, that's part
A, of the struggle of

01:00:03.080 --> 01:00:04.320
where do I really fit in?

01:00:04.320 --> 01:00:07.760
But part B is then everything
else that other people project

01:00:07.800 --> 01:00:10.160
onto you and having to in
essence,

01:00:10.200 --> 01:00:12.160
survive in both places, right.

01:00:12.160 --> 01:00:16.160
And then come onto a Smith
College campus.

01:00:16.160 --> 01:00:17.000
[soft music]

01:00:17.240 --> 01:00:20.840
- (Heather) In certain classes,
there was a score

01:00:20.880 --> 01:00:23.280
for class participation.

01:00:23.360 --> 01:00:26.480
And that changed my life
entirely

01:00:26.520 --> 01:00:31.680
because I realized that you have
to speak.

01:00:31.680 --> 01:00:34.120
Whenever I put up my hand,
it was very carefully

01:00:34.160 --> 01:00:37.000
because I wanted to be sure
I had something to say.

01:00:37.080 --> 01:00:40.720
And then secondly, the minute
I got to my third word,

01:00:40.720 --> 01:00:43.960
the entire class would
stop and turn around

01:00:44.000 --> 01:00:46.000
to see who was speaking.

01:00:46.040 --> 01:00:49.360
And then I had to really steel
myself

01:00:49.400 --> 01:00:52.200
to make sure I made my point.

01:00:52.200 --> 01:00:53.000
- (Thembekile) I was taking
class,

01:00:53.160 --> 01:00:55.360
it was education and child
development,

01:00:55.400 --> 01:01:00.040
and I wasn't speaking in the
class because

01:01:00.080 --> 01:01:02.200
I had a terrible stutter.

01:01:02.240 --> 01:01:05.080
Got to the middle of the
semester and the professor said,

01:01:05.080 --> 01:01:07.480
"You know, if you don't speak,

01:01:07.480 --> 01:01:11.280
I'm going to have to give you a
C minus."

01:01:11.320 --> 01:01:16.120
I just did absolutely what
happens in "The King's Speech,"

01:01:16.120 --> 01:01:22.400
just went over things until
I was able to overcome.

01:01:22.440 --> 01:01:24.680
- (Desiree) In South Africa,
when
you are in high school,

01:01:24.760 --> 01:01:27.600
around the age of 14,
you choose your subjects

01:01:27.600 --> 01:01:30.800
that you study for the
next two to three years,

01:01:30.840 --> 01:01:33.240
and that's what, that's
your path for college

01:01:33.280 --> 01:01:34.720
and then your career.

01:01:34.800 --> 01:01:39.920
And here I was with this
liberal arts education,

01:01:39.960 --> 01:01:43.640
my mind and my life opened
up in ways I hadn't expected.

01:01:43.680 --> 01:01:44.600
- (Siphokazi) When I arrived at
Smith,

01:01:44.680 --> 01:01:47.600
I was preparing to be
a pre-medical student.

01:01:47.680 --> 01:01:53.200
I'd been studying physics, cell
biology, advanced calculus,

01:01:53.240 --> 01:01:54.640
organic chemistry.

01:01:54.720 --> 01:01:57.880
In my third year, a friend
invited me to go to a class

01:01:57.960 --> 01:02:00.600
with her, Thembekile.

01:02:00.640 --> 01:02:02.600
And just listening to this
Italian woman,

01:02:02.600 --> 01:02:06.600
talking about Black
literature, blew my mind,

01:02:06.640 --> 01:02:09.200
I was like, "What on earth is
this?"

01:02:09.240 --> 01:02:11.440
I'd always loved to
read, but I did not know

01:02:11.480 --> 01:02:12.920
you could actually study
literature,

01:02:12.960 --> 01:02:15.720
the discipline in class,
that you can sit in a class

01:02:15.760 --> 01:02:18.680
and discuss and analyze
books and talk about ideas.

01:02:18.720 --> 01:02:21.320
So this really excited me, it
opened up a whole new field

01:02:21.360 --> 01:02:25.560
and I changed my major
from Pre-med to literature,

01:02:25.600 --> 01:02:28.160
studying African-American
literature.

01:02:28.160 --> 01:02:29.360
- (Chuma) A woman professor

01:02:29.360 --> 01:02:32.200
in the geology department,
Connie Soja,

01:02:32.200 --> 01:02:33.680
I worked with her

01:02:33.760 --> 01:02:36.640
going to Alaska for about
seven weeks in the summer

01:02:36.680 --> 01:02:38.840
to do research and it was three
women

01:02:38.880 --> 01:02:41.680
out in the middle of nowhere,
Alaska.

01:02:41.720 --> 01:02:45.920
I had never done anything
that daring in my life.

01:02:45.960 --> 01:02:47.120
I learned to drive a boat.

01:02:47.160 --> 01:02:50.520
And the first time we had to
empty the RV,

01:02:50.520 --> 01:02:51.520
[laughs]

01:02:51.560 --> 01:02:56.360
and we unlatched the
thing for the bathrooms

01:02:56.400 --> 01:03:00.160
and everything just went out
and we all laughed and laughed,

01:03:00.160 --> 01:03:03.160
and I said, "The flood
gates of hell had opened."

01:03:03.200 --> 01:03:05.880
And we had such a great time
and,

01:03:05.960 --> 01:03:09.200
but it was one of those where
you think anything is possible

01:03:09.200 --> 01:03:12.040
after this, I can do anything.

01:03:12.040 --> 01:03:14.440
- (Heather) I think I really
became a feminist in,

01:03:14.440 --> 01:03:18.160
in the broadest sense of the
word that I really began to

01:03:18.240 --> 01:03:21.680
understand a woman's
equal place in the world.

01:03:21.720 --> 01:03:26.800
And that together with this
class participation score

01:03:26.880 --> 01:03:31.200
sort of forced me into some
articulation.

01:03:31.240 --> 01:03:35.200
And I think that idea
of expressing myself, I,

01:03:35.240 --> 01:03:38.840
I don't think I would
have gotten anywhere else.

01:03:38.880 --> 01:03:49.880
[soft jazz music]

01:03:49.920 --> 01:03:52.480
- (Vuyiswa) We were walking
around campus,

01:03:52.480 --> 01:03:56.480
I looked at this young
woman coming towards me.

01:03:56.520 --> 01:03:59.920
She looked like someone from
home.

01:03:59.920 --> 01:04:00.720
And I asked her, I said,

01:04:00.920 --> 01:04:03.400
"Are you by any chance from
South Africa?"

01:04:03.480 --> 01:04:05.560
And it so happened to be Dada.

01:04:05.560 --> 01:04:07.760
And she was very ecstatic and
said,

01:04:07.760 --> 01:04:08.760
"Yes, yes, yes, no I am."

01:04:08.760 --> 01:04:10.680
So I introduced myself.

01:04:10.760 --> 01:04:14.200
And from that day on, I
was Dada's big sister.

01:04:14.200 --> 01:04:19.240
What a bubbly and what a bunch
of energy.

01:04:19.240 --> 01:04:22.600
She knew about Smith because
her elder sister Siphokazi,

01:04:22.640 --> 01:04:25.480
had, was a graduate of Smith.

01:04:25.520 --> 01:04:27.080
- (Siphokazi) Dadawele was
extremely brilliant.

01:04:27.120 --> 01:04:29.280
She was really just a gifted
actor,

01:04:29.280 --> 01:04:30.720
but also a brilliant person.

01:04:30.720 --> 01:04:31.920
She was witty.

01:04:31.920 --> 01:04:33.320
She wrote poetry.

01:04:33.360 --> 01:04:34.360
She was just really sharp.

01:04:34.400 --> 01:04:36.080
Very, very quick.

01:04:36.120 --> 01:04:37.960
She came back to South Africa.

01:04:37.960 --> 01:04:41.000
She started working, acting
in the local soapies,

01:04:41.040 --> 01:04:44.400
She was in "Generations,"
she was in "The Lab."

01:04:44.440 --> 01:04:47.200
- (Vuyiswa) Dada and I were part
of a production

01:04:47.240 --> 01:04:50.000
about domestic workers in South
Africa,

01:04:50.000 --> 01:04:53.720
really wanting to educate
the Americans about

01:04:53.800 --> 01:04:55.520
the realities of apartheid.

01:04:55.600 --> 01:04:59.360
Dada was a bunch of energy and
so vibrant

01:04:59.440 --> 01:05:03.480
and a voice. May her soul rest
in peace.

01:05:03.480 --> 01:05:13.040
And I think she's doing
great things wherever she is.

01:05:13.120 --> 01:05:16.520
- (Thembekile) When I was 19,

01:05:16.560 --> 01:05:21.200
I called home and my father
said,

01:05:21.240 --> 01:05:23.280
"Aren't you done with that
program yet?"

01:05:23.360 --> 01:05:24.240
[laughing]

01:05:24.280 --> 01:05:28.640
I was thinking I've only been
here for,

01:05:28.640 --> 01:05:31.280
less than 20 months.

01:05:31.280 --> 01:05:34.080
And then he said, "Oh, you
can get a very good job

01:05:34.080 --> 01:05:36.760
as a domestic worker here."

01:05:36.840 --> 01:05:41.120
And now imagine, am I going
to actually walk out of

01:05:41.160 --> 01:05:44.800
Smith College and take
my bags and go and work

01:05:44.840 --> 01:05:48.160
for some white family,
taking care of their babies

01:05:48.200 --> 01:05:51.000
and cleaning up their house?

01:05:51.040 --> 01:05:55.200
No, and, but I remember being so
upset

01:05:55.200 --> 01:06:01.240
that they didn't have this faith
that,

01:06:01.240 --> 01:06:05.280
you know, success would
come in a different form.

01:06:05.280 --> 01:06:08.680
My, my own voice was
getting a little stronger.

01:06:08.680 --> 01:06:13.320
I said, "Okay, this is it, I'm
not,

01:06:13.360 --> 01:06:16.920
I'm not falling for that."

01:06:16.920 --> 01:06:20.160
I felt a strong sense of
responsibility to

01:06:20.160 --> 01:06:26.280
contribute to my family's, you
know, situation financially,

01:06:26.360 --> 01:06:29.000
just would send money all the
time.

01:06:29.040 --> 01:06:35.320
And so that started to make
sense to them that I was

01:06:35.400 --> 01:06:37.320
an industrious person and I was,
you know,

01:06:37.360 --> 01:06:41.680
able to save money and I
was able to support them

01:06:41.680 --> 01:06:43.480
so that some of the things,

01:06:43.520 --> 01:06:48.960
the hardships that I
experienced growing up,

01:06:49.000 --> 01:06:53.160
were not so real anymore.

01:06:53.160 --> 01:06:58.600
[gentle piano music]

01:06:58.600 --> 01:07:01.680
- (Tandiwe) Sacrifice came in
many
different forms under apartheid,

01:07:01.760 --> 01:07:04.400
I think people in the
country sacrificed a lot

01:07:04.400 --> 01:07:06.320
from the stories that are very
well known,

01:07:06.400 --> 01:07:09.880
the Nelson Mandela's 27 years in
jail.

01:07:09.920 --> 01:07:15.680
Winnie Mandela, 491 days
in solitary confinement.

01:07:15.680 --> 01:07:18.920
One is just the sacrifice of
your comfort,

01:07:18.920 --> 01:07:22.200
the others, the sacrifice of
time away from your family,

01:07:22.280 --> 01:07:23.720
from your children.

01:07:23.760 --> 01:07:27.560
And I think the other sacrifice
is just being in those

01:07:27.600 --> 01:07:31.200
situations and not being able
to be a normal functioning

01:07:31.200 --> 01:07:34.080
citizen, that that makes
a contribution every day

01:07:34.160 --> 01:07:35.680
to society.

01:07:35.760 --> 01:07:38.240
For families, other
families, they sacrificed,

01:07:38.240 --> 01:07:41.080
they lost people, you
know, lost people in,

01:07:41.120 --> 01:07:44.120
in the war against apartheid
and my parents put their

01:07:44.160 --> 01:07:47.080
careers on hold and
they did full-time work

01:07:47.080 --> 01:07:49.080
with the ANC, as did many
people.

01:07:49.080 --> 01:07:51.320
They were working full
time for an organization

01:07:51.320 --> 01:07:55.480
that could only provide them
with subsistence living.

01:07:55.520 --> 01:07:58.200
Young people left the
country and came into exile,

01:07:58.240 --> 01:08:02.120
their families didn't know
where they were, you know,

01:08:02.160 --> 01:08:04.200
that was also a sacrifice for
the family.

01:08:04.240 --> 01:08:07.800
So, there's just so many layers
to it.

01:08:07.800 --> 01:08:10.760
And I think at the time
you don't really,

01:08:10.800 --> 01:08:12.640
you don't see it as sacrifice,

01:08:12.680 --> 01:08:15.640
but I think when you look
back and you just think of,

01:08:15.640 --> 01:08:21.160
of what people went through
and what became the norm.

01:08:21.240 --> 01:08:24.720
- (Freedom Park tour guide)
Okay, the section that
you see here represent

01:08:24.760 --> 01:08:28.400
political executions.

01:08:28.480 --> 01:08:35.960
163 people were executed
for political activism.

01:08:36.000 --> 01:08:39.440
- (Tandiwe) So I have four
siblings
and the sibling closest to me

01:08:39.480 --> 01:08:43.000
passed away in Angola in 1988,

01:08:43.000 --> 01:08:48.040
which is where the military
wing of the ANC was based.

01:08:48.040 --> 01:08:51.120
Okay, so these are all MK.

01:08:51.160 --> 01:08:54.520
So he said he wanted to have
a more meaningful impact

01:08:54.560 --> 01:08:56.840
on the fight against apartheid,

01:08:56.880 --> 01:08:58.880
which my parents found very
difficult

01:08:58.920 --> 01:09:02.160
because they had planned for all
of us to,

01:09:02.200 --> 01:09:05.920
pursue a tertiary education
after high school.

01:09:05.960 --> 01:09:10.600
The darker brick, so one,
two, three, four, five...

01:09:10.640 --> 01:09:13.560
I just found my brother's name
on the Wall of Remembrance.

01:09:13.600 --> 01:09:15.400
How do we get a photo?

01:09:15.400 --> 01:09:18.040
- Easy.
- (Tandiwe) Okay, come stand
here.

01:09:18.040 --> 01:09:20.280
- I've lost him.
- (Tandiwe) Oh, number 10,

01:09:20.320 --> 01:09:23.320
from this wall.

01:09:23.400 --> 01:09:24.320
- Okay.

01:09:24.680 --> 01:09:28.040
- (Tandiwe) It's 30, 40 years
since
he passed away in 1988

01:09:28.080 --> 01:09:31.680
in Angola, he was part of a,

01:09:31.720 --> 01:09:34.280
a MK mission to take food up to
one of the

01:09:34.320 --> 01:09:37.720
ANC camps there and they were
attacked by UNITA rebels.

01:09:37.720 --> 01:09:40.640
And he was in the front of
the convoy so he lost his life

01:09:40.720 --> 01:09:42.560
along with about eight others.

01:09:42.600 --> 01:09:46.840
They were buried in,
right there at the site.

01:09:46.880 --> 01:09:49.080
He was very young when
he went to MK, he was 18,

01:09:49.160 --> 01:09:50.920
and he died at 20.

01:09:51.000 --> 01:09:53.840
So it was pure conviction
and I'm just really glad that

01:09:53.880 --> 01:09:57.040
he's, his name is etched in our
history.

01:09:57.080 --> 01:09:59.240
This is really special.

01:09:59.280 --> 01:10:00.280
[camera clicks]
Oh, my parents

01:10:00.280 --> 01:10:01.520
would have been so happy.

01:10:01.560 --> 01:10:04.720
As he grows older, we'll be
able to put the pieces together

01:10:04.720 --> 01:10:07.520
for him so that he understands
exactly who his uncle was

01:10:07.560 --> 01:10:10.000
and what he, what he did, yeah,

01:10:10.080 --> 01:10:16.560
and what he stood for.

01:10:16.560 --> 01:10:19.400
- (Reporter) There's Mr.
Mandela, Mr. Nelson Mandela,

01:10:19.400 --> 01:10:25.840
a free man taking his first
steps into a new South Africa.

01:10:25.880 --> 01:10:27.120
- (Nelson Mandela) Amandla!

01:10:27.200 --> 01:10:29.280
- (Crowd) Awethu!

01:10:29.320 --> 01:10:30.960
- (Nelson Mandela) Amandla!

01:10:31.040 --> 01:10:32.680
- (Crowd) Awethu!

01:10:32.720 --> 01:10:37.240
- (Nelson Mandela) Your
tireless,

01:10:37.280 --> 01:10:41.360
and heroic sacrifices,

01:10:41.400 --> 01:10:46.400
have made it possible
for me to be here today.

01:10:46.440 --> 01:10:52.440
[upbeat music]

01:10:52.480 --> 01:10:56.000
- (Tandiwe) In 1990, after
the unbanning of the ANC,

01:10:56.000 --> 01:10:59.320
people started returning from
exile.

01:10:59.400 --> 01:11:01.640
My family was included in that.

01:11:01.680 --> 01:11:04.720
Once the repatriation of
exiles in South Africa

01:11:04.760 --> 01:11:07.080
was complete, there was
a regrouping of the ANC,

01:11:07.080 --> 01:11:10.480
and they started to position
themselves to govern.

01:11:10.520 --> 01:11:15.280
[upbeat music continues]

01:11:15.320 --> 01:11:19.000
And my mother and a number of
her colleagues from Lusaka,

01:11:19.040 --> 01:11:20.760
went into parliament

01:11:20.800 --> 01:11:24.000
and became part of the first
parliament.

01:11:24.040 --> 01:11:26.680
[upbeat music continues]

01:11:26.760 --> 01:11:28.400
- (Vuyiswa) The 1994 elections,

01:11:28.440 --> 01:11:30.560
which were the first democratic
elections

01:11:30.600 --> 01:11:32.800
of South Africa, happened.

01:11:32.840 --> 01:11:37.640
We participated and was
able to cast my vote

01:11:37.640 --> 01:11:40.680
and voted for Nelson Mandela to
be the

01:11:40.720 --> 01:11:44.320
first democratically elected
president of South Africa.

01:11:44.320 --> 01:11:46.720
A very proud moment for us.

01:11:46.720 --> 01:11:48.680
- (Nolwandle) Tandiwe was our
designated driver.

01:11:48.720 --> 01:11:51.720
And it was supported
from, and bless her soul,

01:11:51.720 --> 01:11:52.960
Mary Maples Dunn.

01:11:53.000 --> 01:11:57.440
The hope that our parents had,
the hope that we also had,

01:11:57.520 --> 01:11:59.200
even though we couldn't
actually physically

01:11:59.200 --> 01:12:02.400
be in the country, we
lived through that moment.

01:12:02.400 --> 01:12:04.480
- (Heather) Entering my final
year,

01:12:04.520 --> 01:12:08.320
my father was posted by Mandela
to be the

01:12:08.400 --> 01:12:11.040
South African Ambassador to the
US.

01:12:11.080 --> 01:12:13.880
He was the first South African
Ambassador

01:12:13.880 --> 01:12:15.840
as a free South Africa.

01:12:15.880 --> 01:12:19.000
The activists that I had
seen as I left South Africa,

01:12:19.080 --> 01:12:21.160
sort of with big beards and
liberation,

01:12:21.200 --> 01:12:24.800
struggle t-shirts, now
we're seeing them coming

01:12:24.840 --> 01:12:27.000
clean-shaven and in suits,

01:12:27.040 --> 01:12:28.760
and they were representing
various

01:12:28.760 --> 01:12:30.160
ministries of the country.

01:12:30.200 --> 01:12:33.400
So that shaped me also
in a significant way

01:12:33.440 --> 01:12:35.600
to know that there's work to be
done.

01:12:35.600 --> 01:12:38.000
- (Nolwandle) At the same time,
South Africa was actually

01:12:38.040 --> 01:12:40.040
taking such a significant step,

01:12:40.040 --> 01:12:42.920
we were also taking our own
personal significant step,

01:12:43.000 --> 01:12:46.280
it's the year of my graduation.

01:12:46.280 --> 01:12:58.560
[soft piano music]

01:12:58.600 --> 01:13:02.240
- (Desiree) The part of the hope
and the
goal of the program was for

01:13:02.320 --> 01:13:05.040
South African students to
return and to participate

01:13:05.080 --> 01:13:08.400
in community life there.

01:13:08.400 --> 01:13:11.280
There was no pressure.

01:13:11.320 --> 01:13:14.240
Peter and Jill and folks
were really like, you know,

01:13:14.240 --> 01:13:16.800
"So you have lots of options."

01:13:16.840 --> 01:13:20.480
It was exhilarating.

01:13:20.480 --> 01:13:21.840
- (Thembekile) South Africa was
changing,

01:13:21.880 --> 01:13:27.560
but not in a way that
would be sustaining to me

01:13:27.600 --> 01:13:32.360
and realizing that I may not
return there.

01:13:32.360 --> 01:13:35.760
- (Thandeka) It was a bit of a
tough
choice, you know, to say,

01:13:35.800 --> 01:13:39.800
"Do you stay and pursue
further studies in the US

01:13:39.840 --> 01:13:42.160
or do you go back to South
Africa?"

01:13:42.200 --> 01:13:45.920
'Cause now, actually I was
dating a guy who was in exile

01:13:46.000 --> 01:13:50.840
and he was now allowed to
go back into the country.

01:13:50.840 --> 01:13:55.280
I also didn't want to
miss the excitement of

01:13:55.320 --> 01:13:56.720
the transitioning.

01:13:56.760 --> 01:13:58.880
I wanted to be part of it.

01:13:58.920 --> 01:14:01.400
- (Verna) It was never our
intent
to stay in the US you know,

01:14:01.480 --> 01:14:03.320
the goal was really to go back
home.

01:14:03.320 --> 01:14:06.120
I went on and got a masters in
education.

01:14:06.160 --> 01:14:08.840
I was interested in change
efforts, so,

01:14:08.920 --> 01:14:11.480
curriculum reform and cultural
diversity

01:14:11.560 --> 01:14:14.400
was the focus of my masters
program.

01:14:14.440 --> 01:14:15.400
And then life happened.

01:14:15.760 --> 01:14:20.640
I met my husband, Sergio, who
is actually from West Africa,

01:14:20.640 --> 01:14:21.640
from Guinea-Bissau.

01:14:21.680 --> 01:14:23.200
You know, we were just
meant for each other.

01:14:23.240 --> 01:14:25.080
We've been married for many
years,

01:14:25.120 --> 01:14:27.280
and then kids came along and,
you know,

01:14:27.280 --> 01:14:28.680
when kids come along,

01:14:28.680 --> 01:14:32.520
that changes your trajectory
tremendously.

01:14:32.520 --> 01:14:35.920
- (Desiree) I was just very
grounded
in Smith and I think,

01:14:35.920 --> 01:14:38.960
I felt like I didn't
wanna leave home again.

01:14:38.960 --> 01:14:39.760
[laughs]

01:14:39.840 --> 01:14:41.160
So I stayed here, I did my
masters

01:14:41.160 --> 01:14:43.320
and then I worked here and,

01:14:43.360 --> 01:14:49.040
and then I left to do my
doctorate, but I didn't go far.

01:14:49.080 --> 01:14:51.280
I went to Amherst to UMass so,

01:14:51.320 --> 01:14:53.640
so I stayed in the area and
I fell in love with Smith,

01:14:53.640 --> 01:14:56.880
and I fell in love with
the area and the community

01:14:56.920 --> 01:15:00.080
that embraced me.

01:15:00.080 --> 01:15:04.280
- (Chuma) So I went to grad
school,
I got married, had kids,

01:15:04.280 --> 01:15:05.360
and here we are.

01:15:05.400 --> 01:15:09.680
I never did go back to
South Africa until 2003,

01:15:09.720 --> 01:15:11.520
when I got a job with De Beers.

01:15:11.560 --> 01:15:13.960
I was in Joburg for about five
years.

01:15:13.960 --> 01:15:16.640
My mother was always my big
supporter.

01:15:16.720 --> 01:15:18.880
She said, "You can do anything
you want."

01:15:18.960 --> 01:15:21.640
She didn't finish high school.

01:15:21.680 --> 01:15:24.000
She was a nurse, but
she was a tough woman.

01:15:24.000 --> 01:15:26.480
She, she went for what she
wanted

01:15:26.520 --> 01:15:28.640
and I think without really
meaning to,

01:15:28.640 --> 01:15:31.080
or without overtly doing it,

01:15:31.120 --> 01:15:33.680
she kinda gave me that sense of,

01:15:33.720 --> 01:15:36.240
"I can go get whatever I want."

01:15:36.280 --> 01:15:38.080
- (Heather) My dad always said
to us that, you know,

01:15:38.120 --> 01:15:40.120
"Some people are going to fight
now

01:15:40.120 --> 01:15:42.160
and others need to fight later,

01:15:42.200 --> 01:15:45.240
maybe you need to be part of
the crowd that fight later."

01:15:45.320 --> 01:15:50.360
Everything that I did outside
of the country was to gather

01:15:50.360 --> 01:15:54.400
the skills and experience
as to what I would need

01:15:54.440 --> 01:15:56.680
when I went back.

01:15:56.760 --> 01:16:00.680
- (Meagan) I've moved between
industries seamlessly

01:16:00.720 --> 01:16:02.520
and I've had successes in all of
them.

01:16:02.600 --> 01:16:04.880
Now I work for New York City
Government.

01:16:04.880 --> 01:16:07.480
I wanted to eventually go back
to South African Government

01:16:07.480 --> 01:16:10.240
as well, but I felt that New
York City,

01:16:10.280 --> 01:16:13.120
as a training ground, as a
practice ground would be
amazing.

01:16:13.120 --> 01:16:16.720
I can have lengthy
conversations about what's wrong

01:16:16.720 --> 01:16:19.560
in the US right, or how
US society has changed,

01:16:19.600 --> 01:16:22.440
how the political process
is a mess and a disaster,

01:16:22.520 --> 01:16:24.880
but, I still defend it.

01:16:24.960 --> 01:16:31.000
I still think it is a
beacon of decent democracy.

01:16:31.000 --> 01:16:35.120
Government service is
really also about service.

01:16:35.200 --> 01:16:39.640
- (Verna) At heart we still
consider
ourselves South African and

01:16:39.680 --> 01:16:43.320
find ways to make sure that
the work that I'm doing right

01:16:43.360 --> 01:16:46.280
now really just contributes
to society, you know,

01:16:46.320 --> 01:16:49.320
regardless of where that society
is.

01:16:49.320 --> 01:16:54.760
[gentle piano music]

01:16:54.760 --> 01:16:57.840
- (Tandiwe) I think education
has given us choice,

01:16:57.920 --> 01:17:00.840
and that's really what's
been able to drive

01:17:00.880 --> 01:17:02.800
our ability to grow and develop.

01:17:02.800 --> 01:17:04.840
And that goes across all the
beneficiaries

01:17:04.880 --> 01:17:05.840
of the scholarship.

01:17:06.040 --> 01:17:09.040
I think education was the
base and the foundation

01:17:09.040 --> 01:17:11.240
that gave you options.

01:17:11.280 --> 01:17:12.840
- (Nolwandle) You wonder how our
parents did it,

01:17:12.880 --> 01:17:15.160
because they worked longer
hours,

01:17:15.240 --> 01:17:17.080
they traveled to far
destinations.

01:17:17.080 --> 01:17:20.680
They never had an opportunity
to do homework with us.

01:17:20.720 --> 01:17:24.160
And I look at the privileges
that through education

01:17:24.200 --> 01:17:27.040
afforded me, to be able to be a
mother,

01:17:27.120 --> 01:17:30.960
but also being supported
through that process

01:17:31.000 --> 01:17:35.200
in a different way than
my mothers will have had.

01:17:35.200 --> 01:17:38.400
I've been very fortunate
in my working life

01:17:38.400 --> 01:17:41.720
to have actually had mentors and
leaders,

01:17:41.800 --> 01:17:46.320
male leaders, who understood
the importance of creating

01:17:46.360 --> 01:17:47.840
an opportunity.

01:17:47.880 --> 01:17:50.680
Gave me an opportunity
to realize my potential.

01:17:50.680 --> 01:17:52.920
We need more of that in a
consistent way.

01:17:52.920 --> 01:17:56.120
- (Vuyiswa) Am I raising a
feminist in my son?

01:17:56.120 --> 01:17:57.800
Absolutely.

01:17:57.880 --> 01:18:00.560
It will only make him a better
person.

01:18:00.600 --> 01:18:03.760
And they see us as those
mothers that are really

01:18:03.760 --> 01:18:05.800
doing it every day.

01:18:05.800 --> 01:18:08.080
They must understand the journey
of women

01:18:08.160 --> 01:18:11.200
and how it impacts everybody in
the world.

01:18:11.240 --> 01:18:13.840
-(Kholeka) I studied biology at
school.

01:18:13.840 --> 01:18:17.040
I am currently in the finance
industry.

01:18:17.040 --> 01:18:20.280
But Smith taught you that you
don't have to be stuck in a

01:18:20.280 --> 01:18:23.080
certain lane, you know,
you can do different things

01:18:23.080 --> 01:18:25.920
with your life.

01:18:25.920 --> 01:18:28.320
- (Thandeka) In the main South
Africa is still a very

01:18:28.320 --> 01:18:30.400
patriarchal society.

01:18:30.480 --> 01:18:34.760
More and more women, are
making different choices.

01:18:34.800 --> 01:18:39.200
And those choices are
around setting up their own
businesses

01:18:39.200 --> 01:18:43.240
So I think I'm also one of
those that exited corporate

01:18:43.280 --> 01:18:46.800
at executive level and then
set up my own business.

01:18:46.840 --> 01:18:49.840
So I've been running my own
consultancy for almost 20 years.

01:18:49.880 --> 01:18:52.280
- (Siphokazi) I started doing
research independently,

01:18:52.280 --> 01:18:54.640
which stems from my interest in
academia,

01:18:54.680 --> 01:18:56.440
but now it was independent
research,

01:18:56.480 --> 01:18:58.280
which allowed me also as a
mother

01:18:58.320 --> 01:19:00.200
to have more time with my
children,

01:19:00.280 --> 01:19:03.360
but also be able to run
a company successfully,

01:19:03.400 --> 01:19:06.760
doing research, which I love.

01:19:06.760 --> 01:19:10.960
- (Thandeka) Apartheid is still
buried in the institutions,

01:19:11.000 --> 01:19:14.240
whether it's corporate or even
our own government, you know,

01:19:14.280 --> 01:19:16.800
there's still a lot of
barriers within that.

01:19:16.840 --> 01:19:21.000
The biggest damage that
the apartheid system caused

01:19:21.040 --> 01:19:23.840
was on the psyche.

01:19:23.840 --> 01:19:27.480
- (Vuyiswa) We have been
profiled
as a country that is

01:19:27.480 --> 01:19:30.040
most violent against women.

01:19:30.080 --> 01:19:35.320
Because where you have
such high unemployment,

01:19:35.320 --> 01:19:37.600
and a lot of the time when
the men who's supposed to be

01:19:37.680 --> 01:19:41.160
the head of the family
cannot even provide,

01:19:41.200 --> 01:19:42.000
what do they do?

01:19:42.400 --> 01:19:45.000
They will now be lashing out
at the next person that they

01:19:45.040 --> 01:19:48.360
supposed to be loving, because
they've failed themselves.

01:19:48.400 --> 01:19:50.400
And there's no system that then
says,

01:19:50.440 --> 01:19:51.920
"How are we gonna help you?"

01:19:52.000 --> 01:19:55.040
So as a society we continue to
fail women.

01:19:55.040 --> 01:19:57.280
And it is just about the sense
of security

01:19:57.320 --> 01:20:01.640
that is not there and it must be
fixed.

01:20:01.680 --> 01:20:14.560
[traditional South African hymn]

01:20:14.560 --> 01:20:16.320
- (Tandiwe) It's a country that
is beautiful,

01:20:16.360 --> 01:20:18.640
it's a country that has a
great diversity of people,

01:20:18.680 --> 01:20:21.000
but I think it's also a
country that's really facing

01:20:21.040 --> 01:20:23.560
probably one of the most complex
times

01:20:23.600 --> 01:20:26.040
in the post-apartheid era.

01:20:26.040 --> 01:20:29.640
- (Nolwandle) At the core is
actually
the psyche of the people,

01:20:29.640 --> 01:20:31.440
the psyche of violence in the
country,

01:20:31.480 --> 01:20:34.360
in terms of what people
have been exposed to,

01:20:34.440 --> 01:20:37.560
what they actually consider a
norm.

01:20:37.640 --> 01:20:41.120
How people cope with
victimization.

01:20:41.120 --> 01:20:43.520
Allow people to deal with the,

01:20:43.560 --> 01:20:47.960
the sense of hurt in a way
that prevents that from

01:20:47.960 --> 01:20:51.160
actually being perpetuated
onwards.

01:20:51.200 --> 01:20:55.400
- (Thandeka) People still don't
have
a lot of self-belief.

01:20:55.440 --> 01:20:57.400
So as a psychologist,

01:20:57.400 --> 01:21:01.640
that's what I'm working
with, with shifting that,

01:21:01.680 --> 01:21:04.040
the conscious to say, you're
capable.

01:21:04.040 --> 01:21:08.280
You can do it, and you can.
You are created in God's image

01:21:08.280 --> 01:21:16.000
and you're so capable, and go
for it.

01:21:16.080 --> 01:21:18.600
- (Heather) If we asked what are
the
qualities of that leader?

01:21:18.640 --> 01:21:22.200
I think first and fore mostly,
it's heart.

01:21:22.240 --> 01:21:24.760
You really have to have heart.

01:21:24.760 --> 01:21:27.400
So I think it's also
about being courageous.

01:21:27.400 --> 01:21:29.800
And then I think it's about
your willingness to get

01:21:29.800 --> 01:21:32.600
uncomfortable and really to say,

01:21:32.640 --> 01:21:35.840
"I'm prepared to lose everything
I have,

01:21:35.880 --> 01:21:39.440
because I believe so firmly
that walking this path

01:21:39.480 --> 01:21:41.880
is gonna make it better for more
people."

01:21:41.920 --> 01:21:44.280
And I think, you know,
that's what we all want.

01:21:44.280 --> 01:21:46.560
And that's, it's not a
South African problem.

01:21:46.600 --> 01:21:49.920
If you, if you read the
reports on inequality globally,

01:21:49.920 --> 01:21:51.480
it's a global problem.

01:21:51.520 --> 01:21:54.800
And the opportunity that
South Africa presents is that

01:21:54.840 --> 01:21:58.600
it's a microcosm to be able to
test some of these business,

01:21:58.600 --> 01:22:03.600
financial ideas, which
have application globally.

01:22:03.600 --> 01:22:06.640
I'm orientating my life in that
direction

01:22:06.640 --> 01:22:10.440
because I'm a child of
Mandela, as we all are.

01:22:10.480 --> 01:22:15.720
It's something that I'll die
trying.

01:22:15.760 --> 01:22:19.320
- (Tandiwe) Home is South
Africa,
I think just because

01:22:19.320 --> 01:22:22.520
I want to protect that part of
my life

01:22:22.520 --> 01:22:25.960
that I didn't have for so many
years.

01:22:25.960 --> 01:22:27.160
[upbeat music]

01:22:27.160 --> 01:22:29.160
- (Kholeka) I met some of the
people that

01:22:29.160 --> 01:22:32.160
I love dearly at Smith

01:22:32.200 --> 01:22:35.640
because of the history that we
share

01:22:35.680 --> 01:22:41.120
and how Smith empowered
us, to think broadly.

01:22:41.200 --> 01:22:42.640
- (Thilo) And to have an amazing
amount of people

01:22:42.680 --> 01:22:45.280
standing behind us,
that's when the tears come

01:22:45.280 --> 01:22:47.520
to my eyes and I think, "Oh my
gosh,

01:22:47.560 --> 01:22:49.520
it's amazing what people did for
us."

01:22:49.560 --> 01:22:50.920
Oh my gosh!

01:22:50.960 --> 01:22:53.920
Thembekile you look so good!

01:22:53.920 --> 01:22:56.760
- Oh! Thank you.

01:22:56.800 --> 01:22:59.320
- (Thembekile) Now we're,
giving back in various ways

01:22:59.360 --> 01:23:03.160
to Smith and our environments,

01:23:03.200 --> 01:23:09.000
because we realize just
how fortunate this was.

01:23:09.000 --> 01:23:13.200
- (Chuma) My longest held
friendships,

01:23:13.240 --> 01:23:15.400
came from my high school in
South Africa

01:23:15.440 --> 01:23:17.640
and my time at Smith.

01:23:17.680 --> 01:23:20.720
And those are the ones I hold
dearest.

01:23:20.760 --> 01:23:31.960
[upbeat music]

01:23:31.960 --> 01:23:35.160
- (Tandiwe) The network
is just impenetrable.

01:23:35.200 --> 01:23:38.800
It's solid, it is genuine, it's
authentic.

01:23:38.840 --> 01:23:41.680
That that network is very, very
strong.

01:23:41.760 --> 01:23:44.400
- (Nolwandle) The investment in
the
education of a girl child,

01:23:44.400 --> 01:23:46.040
remains a very critical part.

01:23:46.080 --> 01:23:49.200
I do feel as a woman leader,

01:23:49.240 --> 01:23:53.280
I've got a responsibility
to lift others as I climb.

01:23:53.280 --> 01:23:56.680
To ensure that I also create
the same opportunities

01:23:56.720 --> 01:23:58.720
that were availed to me.

01:23:58.760 --> 01:24:00.360
To ensure there's many of us.

01:24:00.400 --> 01:24:03.880
We can never be comfortable
only having two of us

01:24:03.920 --> 01:24:06.400
in the room and think that's
okay,

01:24:06.440 --> 01:24:09.360
because when you educate a
woman, you educate the society.