I was 18 the first time I heard about Annie Nomtshiki Silinga (1910-1984); I was totally fascinated by her life story, her fearlessness, and her defiance. I was determined to meet Silinga and to shake her hand.

Silinga’s name Nomtshiki means ‘cheeky’^[i] in isiXhosa and that could be one way of describing her during her lifetime for she refused to bow to apartheid legislation and carry a pass. At the height of the anti-pass campaign in 1956, JG Strijdom was premier of South Africa and the political leader enforcing pass laws for African women.^[ii] Refusing to carry a pass, Silinga referred to JG Strijdom’s wife^[iii] and said:

“I will never carry a pass; I will only carry one similar to Mrs (Susan) Strijdom’s. She is a woman, and I am too. There is no difference.^[iv]”

Silinga was born in 1910, at Nqgamakwe in Butterworth in the Transkei in the Eastern Cape. She only received a few years of primary schooling.

In 1937, she moved to the Western Cape to live with her husband who was employed in Cape Town. She joined a community organisation called the Langa Vigilance Association in 1948.

Later, she joined the ANC in 1952 during the Defiance Campaign and served for a brief period in jail for civil disobedience. In 1954, with the founding of the Federation of South African Women (FEDSAW), Silinga was elected to the executive and became a leader of the women’s anti-pass campaign and subsequent march to Union Buildings on 9 August 1956.

In 1955, after refusing to comply with pass regulations, Silinga was banished and transported to the Transkei under police escort. Referring to her banishment, Silinga cryptically said that her three children in Langa were orphans whose mother still lived and Matthew (her husband) was a widower though his wife was alive.^[v] Silinga refused to comply with her banishment and returned to Langa to live with her family and managed to successfully appeal her case in 1957, based on her long stay in Cape Town, which entitled her to remain there.

In 1956, Silinga was arrested for treason and taken to Johannesburg to stand trial with the other 155 accused Treason Trialists. She was the only African woman from the Western Cape accused in the Treason Trial. After the trial, Silinga was elected president of the Cape Town ANC Women’s League. In 1960, she was detained during the State of Emergency.

Although Silinga had limited formal education she participated fully in the debates of the time. For example, she asked Sarah Carneson to say a prayer and give a blessing when she (Carneson) attended church gatherings to popularize an ANC campaign. Carneson, an atheist, refused to say a prayer and give a blessing before her talks at the church. After much debate Silinga said to Carneson, ‘What you are doing is in harmony with Christianity and I am sure that God is in your heart, but you have not noticed it yet.’^[vi]

Silinga remained active in anti-apartheid politics into the 1980s. She continued to attend public meetings and it was at one such meeting that I arranged to be formally introduced to her in 1981. I was 18 and she was 71. I got to shake her hand and say, ‘I am so pleased to meet you!’ I really was. I felt humbled and privileged.

Silinga’s defiance ultimately meant that she could not access a government old age pension without a pass. She died in 1984, in Langa, Cape Town where she had lived for about 47 years. According to South African History Online, Silinga died poor and had a pauper’s burial. At the request of her family artist Sue Williamson created a piece to place at her grave in Langa cemetery. It bears Silinga’s words: “I will never carry a pass!”

Silinga has a special place in our country’s history. Her name should be celebrated and should appear in South African school History textbooks.

The Langa centenary celebrations this year should honour her as an integral part of Langa’s history. Igama lika Annie Silinga, Mailbongwe-^[vii] loosely translated means ‘the name of Annie Silinga will be praised.’