Colette Solomon

Colette Solomon is a South African policy researcher, women's rights activist and the director of the feminist non-governmental organisation Women on Farms Project (WFP). Quotes You can trace back the current situation on farms to the colonial and apartheid periods. Many of the farm workers today are actually the descendants of former slaves that worked during these times. They can trace their ancestry back to the seventeenth- and eighteenth-centuries. The colonial period was followed by the apartheid period. During these important parts of our history black people, the indigenous people, were dispossessed of their land. That is the basis of the current relations that we find on farms. In South Africa, 32 years after the advent of democracy, 72% of productive agricultural land is still in the hands of mainly white men, who are probably 7 or 8% of the total population. Therefore, most of the farms that women are working on are owned by white men. The women themselves are landless. Because of the gendered and racial dynamics on farms, most of the women are employed only as seasonal workers, for around 4 to 6 months of the year, under very insecure and precarious contracts. So, irrespective of the labor conditions, they accept the situation and the terms of employment. When it comes to something like pesticides, women even work while the pesticides are being sprayed. They are literally very often in the vineyards when the pesticides are applied to the crops. And they do their work without protective clothing. On many farms, there is no toilet in the vineyard, no running water. When women have to relieve themselves during the working day they have to do so in the vineyards, or in the bushes around the vineyards that have just been sprayed with these very deadly pesticides. Women often report spikes in acute illnesses during this season, including bladder infections, skin damage, burns, and breathing problems. While some effects occur immediately during pesticide exposure, many are cumulative, persisting even after the exposure ends. External links Category: Living people