Dora Tamana was born on 11 November 1901 at Hlobo, Gqamakwe. The nearest town was Idutywa, there to four hours walk to the nearest shop.
There were no buses in Hlobo, roads were extremely rough, medical facilities were non-existent, and a two-roomed mission school catered up to standard six. Dora attended this mission school up to standard four. Her father worked a small allotment on which she and her sisters helped before and after school. The nearest water supply for the family was a spring about half a mile away. Every day Dora and her sisters made several trips to collect water, working in and around their homes.
Under these conditions, Dora grew up with little or no knowledge of the outside world. Women traditionally occupied a junior position, yet increasingly, the burden of all agricultural work was falling on women and Dora was no exception.
Her father and two uncles were followers of Enoch Mgijima, and were killed in the Bulhoek Massacre (1921?), in which 163 people were shot dead. The massacre was condemned by the then United Communist Party, which distributed a pamphlet headed, 'Murder! Murder! Murder!' The Bulhoek Massacre made a deep impression on the 20-year old Dora.
In 1923 Dora married John Tamana, also from the Transkei. Living in Queenstown, Dora scraped together a meager income by fetching thatching grass from the surrounding hills to sell in the locations. By that time, she had four children, three of whom died from starvation and tuberculosis. In 1930, in desperation, she insisted on joining her husband in Cape Town, where he was working.
The family settled in the shanty area of Blouvlei, near Retreat. Dora soon became a leader of the community. They organised a branch of the ANC and succeeded in resisting attempts by the authorities to demolish their camp.
When war broke out, Dora, together with other African and Coloured women, responded to the shortage of food and the savage increases in food prices, and built the Women's Food Committees, which forced the authorities to bring food in lorries at controlled prices, not only to District Six, but to Langa, Retreat and other outlying areas.
She joined the Communist Party in 1942, met other women Party members, and appealed to them to assist her in establishing the first ever crèche for African and Coloured children in a shack at her small but clean home. This was not only a pioneering action, but a pioneering idea, with the barest minimum of facilities - a shack, cardboard boxes for the babies to sleep in, a large pot and fire cook on. She organised this creche with local mothers in 1943 - sixty years ago!
Dora fully participated as a leader and organiser in the 1940's, in every campaign against the passes, influx control, demolition of homes and against increases in bus and train fairs, in school feeding schemes for African children, and in the 1952 Defiance Campaign.
When the WIDF (?) convened the World Congress of Mothers in 1955, Lillian Ngoyi and Dora Tamana were elected as delegates from South Africa. The ANC arranged for them to go by boat, and they were dressed up like Cape Malay women going to Mecca. After all the trouble to disguise them and get them onto the boat, the Special Branch got to hear about it. They got them off the boat, but the movement then succeeded in sending them by air. They worked as a team and were a real credit to our organisation and to our struggle.
Dora, together with other comrades, organised the big contingent from the Cape Province to participate in the courageous march to the Union Buildings in 1956, when 20 000 women presented petitions carrying 100 000 signatures against the pass laws, singing the famous song:
"Strijdom, you have tampered with the women
You have struck a rock
You have dislodged a boulder
You will be crushed."
She was detained in 1960 for four months. She was from time to time harassed by the police, and on one occasion when they came to arrest her during the night, she dressed all her children and grandchildren and insisted they come with her, as she was not going to leave them alone. Her determination forced the police to leave her. She was an inspiration to all her comrades with her.
When the Rivonia comrades were imprisoned in 1964, Aunt Dora, together with other comrades, orgaised to receive their relatives when they visited the comrades on Robben Island. She organised food parcels for comrades at Christmast and on their birthdays.
She never deserted the comrades or gave up the struggle for freedom. Right through the years of reaction, she saw to it that August 9th was remembered, though in small gatherings - round fires, children were told about the big demonstration of 1956.
Together with others, she organised the big rally in Hanover Square on August 9th 1978, and helped to establish the United Women's Association, a forerunner to the United Women's Organisation.
When Cape Town women commemorated August 9th 1980 in a hall in Lansdowne, holding the pride of place at the gathering were three honoured guests, all veterans in the struggle for women's rights: Mrs Annie Silinga, Mrs Dora Tamana and Mrs Francis Baard.
On Saturday 4 April 1981, about 300 people - men and women - from all over the Western Cape gathered in the hall of the St Francis Cultural Centre in Langa. People came in from Paarl, Worcester, Wolsley, Stellenbosch, Montague, Ashton, Elsies River, in minibuses, cars and by public transport. Women from Nyanga, Gugulethu, Langa and the Cape Flats, as well as Cape Town, came and joined the spirit of the first Conference of the United Women's Organisation (UWO).
This is how UWO was formed, by Aunt Dora's leadership. She said, "I came to speak to you out of love for you.." She spoke with fire in her heart. She called on everyone present to speak out:
"You who have no work, speak.
You who have no homes, speak.
You who have no schools, speak.
You who have to run like chickens from the vultures, speak.
We must share the problems so that we can solve them together.
We must free ourselves."Men and women must share housework.
Men and women must work together in the home and out in the world.
There are no crèches and nursery schools for our children, no homes for
the aged, or people to care for the sick.
Women must unite to fight for these rights, Aunt Dora said.
"I opened the road for you.
You must go forward!The government put us in stables for horses, not houses.
There are no ceilings, no floors, no doors, but the rents are high.
We have to find a strong organisation to fight for us. This organisation is the UWO. Now that we are strong, call the women to join. Hambani Makhosikazi! Mothers, release yourselves. All people are crying for relief, people of all colours.
Senzenina? Senzenina? Senzenina?
What have we done? What have we done?
Women, stand together, build the organisation, make it strong!"
Through her family, she became personally involved in the armed struggle at an early age. He son, Bothwell, fought Rhodesian and South African troups as part of a joint campaign by the ANC and the Zimbabwe People's Union (ZAPU). He was captured, and spent thirteen years in the Smith regime's maximum security prison, only being released when Zimbabwe became independent in 1980.
During the Unilateral Declaration of Independent in Zimbabwe by Ian Smith, Aunt Dora managed to make the hazardous journey to see him and other South African prisoners in goal. At first she traveled on a South African passport. After 1976 she was told to apply for a Transkeian passport, and so she was no longer able to visit her son. For to have done this would have implied recognition of the 'independence' of the Transkey bantustan. She died without seeing him.
Comrade Dora Tamana passed away on 23 July 1983 in her Gugulethu home in Cape Town.
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