Josie Mpama/Palmer

2020 is the centenary of the South African Communist Party; Robert Edgar taught many current South African historians; He is attached to Stellenbosch University; Edgar is one of the signal historians of SA in the last 30 years; No-one, and really no-one, outside the party and maybe some in the ANC and unions, know about Josie Mpama/Palmer.

While African National Congress narratives dominate much of the scholarship on South Africa’s freedom struggle, Josie Mpama/Palmer’s political life offers a different perspective.While African National Congress narratives dominate much of the scholarship on South Africa’s freedom struggle, Josie Mpama/Palmer’s political life offers a different perspective. Highly critical of the patriarchal attitudes that hindered black women from actively participating in politics, Mpama/Palmer was an outspoken advocate for women’s social equality. and encouraged black women to become more involved in national conversations. Mpama/Palmer was the first black woman to join the Communist Party of South Africa, and spent a year in Moscow at the Lenin School. She was an integral figure in establishing the Federation of South African Women, an organization, and served as its Potchefstroom Branch Secretary. Mpama/Palmer’s activism and political legacy is an inspiring example for women in South Africa and around the world.