Joyce Piliso-Seroke

Joyce Piliso-Seroke (born 11 July 1933) is a South African educator, feminist, anti-apartheid activist and community organiser who served as the first chairperson of the Commission for Gender Equality. Quotes “I was always compelled by the simple motto of our founding mothers, ‘Lift as you climb’: help others to succeed.” Always Lifting as She Climbs (from her memoir Jwara! Induna’s Daughter) “Initially, I would always pass and be constantly reminded of what I went through there. I was stripped of my identity; they took everything from me and reduced me to a number... [but] after a while, I would walk through that gate, the same gate I was walked through by apartheid officials, and smile. I would say: ‘Hi lieutenant, what do you think of me now? I have got my independence, my liberation.’” Wikipedia (on returning to the site of her former detention) “The women always come there talking about what happened to their sons, to their husbands. They hardly tell us about what has happened and yet when you probe deeper you also find that they also experienced violations and some of them more terrible than some of the people they have come to talk about. But I’m always so struck by their bravery and the fact that for all these years they managed to keep all these stories to themselves.” SAHA – Women of Truth External links Category:Women from South Africa Category:Anti-apartheid activists Category:Feminists Category:Recipients of the Order of the Baobab Category:1933 births Category:Living people