Strike a Woman, Strike a Rock

Strike a Woman, Strike a Rock

On August 9 1956, 20 000 women marched on the Union Buildings in Pretoria to protest the extension of apartheid pass laws, leaving behind the famous phrase that has echoed through South African life ever since – wathint’ abafazi, wathint’ imbokodo (you strike a woman, you strike a rock). Seventy years on, as the country marks National Women’s Day, that image of women as the rock beneath the nation’s progress finds an unexpected echo across the c…