My Spirit is not Banned:A Rhetorical Analysis of the African National Congress Women's League (ANCWL)

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Abstract

This paper is a rhetorical criticism of a speech given by Lindiwe Mabuza, an African National Congress Women’s League (ANCWL) activist, during the period when South Africa was transitioning to a triacameral parliament to include black South Africans. The (ANCWL) helped to shift South Africa to more progressive and less sexist policies regarding women. There has been extensive research on the transition of South Africa from apartheid to full democracy as well as the immense difficulty the country currently faces because of such a radical transition, but very little research addresses the most violent period leading up to the governmental transition, specifically looking at the role South African women generally, and the ANCWL specifically played in the anti-apartheid movement. This paper works as an invitation for further research on the rhetoric of the ANCWL and the importance of women’s contribution to the anti-apartheid movement.