- During the Women of Fortitude commemoration, the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation renewed its call for help to identify the estimated 20,000 women who marched in 1956.
- The ‘Who Were the 20,000 Women? Write Her Into History’ campaign has been running since 2020 and, so far, has recovered 106 names.
- The Foundation says the work will continue beyond Women’s Month, as it seeks to identify as many of the women who took part in the historic march as possible.
As South Africa marks Women’s Month, the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation is once again calling on the public to help identify the estimated 20,000 women who marched to the Union Buildings on 9 August 1956.
This renewed appeal was part of the Foundation’s Women of Fortitude commemoration, held on 1 and 2 August 2026 in partnership with the Sophia & Henry De Bruyn Legacy Foundation.
Organisers highlighted the ongoing ‘Who Were the 20,000 Women? Write Her Into History’ campaign, which seeks to restore public memory of the izimbokodo whose names were never fully recorded in official history.
Commemoration retraced the footsteps of the marchers
The commemorative programme began with a visit to the gravesite of Mary Moodley at Wattville Cemetery in Ekurhuleni. The tribute was attended by struggle veteran Sophie Williams-de Bruyn, Ahmed Kathrada Foundation executive director Neeshan Balton and a small group of activists honouring one of the women who participated in the historic march.
The following day, Williams-de Bruyn, members of the Moosa family, activists and members of the public gathered for the Foundation’s main public commemoration. The Moosa family honoured the legacy of Rahima Moosa, who was among the organisers of the 1956 march.
Participants first paid tribute at Avalon Cemetery, where they remembered Helen Joseph and Lillian Ngoyi, before proceeding to Newclare to honour Moosa and Albertina Sisulu.
As participants retraced the footsteps of the women of 1956, the programme also recognised contemporary Women of Fortitude whose leadership and service continue to uphold the values for which the marchers fought.
Reading the names of women history forgot
A central feature of the commemoration was the public reading of names recovered through the ‘Who Were the 20,000 Women? Write Her Into History’ campaign. Organisers described the act as an effort to restore public memory of the izimbokodo whose names history has forgotten.
Anele Gcwabe, communications manager at the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation, said the organisation has recovered 106 names so far and continues to update the list as new submissions are received. She emphasised that the campaign is not a once-off anniversary initiative. “We’ve been calling for names since 2020,” Gcwabe said. “There is no reason to stop until we find all 20,000 names.”
The Foundation regards the campaign as one of its most important public-memory projects linked to the 70th anniversary of the Women’s March.
Families and communities are driving the recovery
Unlike many historical projects that rely primarily on formal archives, this campaign has largely been driven by families and communities. Gcwabe said memories often begin to surface as soon as people hear about the initiative.
“As soon as they hear about the campaign, the stories start coming in. Some remember relatives, others recall friends’ relatives, and they alert them. I don’t think this campaign would be possible without the people’s willingness to participate.”
Families frequently submit photographs, oral histories, letters and personal recollections. In some cases, surviving relatives are providing information that has never been recorded in any public archive.
The Foundation believes this community-led approach has turned the campaign into a participatory history project in which ordinary South Africans help restore the historical record.
The project is also reconnecting with living participants whose stories have not yet been fully documented. Gcwabe said the Foundation has arranged to meet Miriam Vally, a surviving participant in the 1956 march who lives in Lenasia.
Verification remains the biggest challenge
The growth of the campaign has also created its greatest challenge: verification. Gcwabe explained that the Foundation currently relies heavily on the background stories provided by those submitting names and supporting information.
As the campaign has gained traction, the number of submissions has increased significantly, making it more difficult to give immediate individual attention to each contribution.
“Verification was easier before the campaign gained this much traction,” she said. “Also, providing everyone with immediate and personal attention is challenging due to capacity.”
The Foundation says it is committed to historical accuracy and adds names only after assessing the supporting information.
Beyond symbolism
For the organisers, publicly reading the names is intended to achieve more than symbolic recognition. Gcwabe said the Foundation hopes the act of naming will reshape how South Africans view their own ability to contribute to social change.
“We hope that reading their names publicly, or making the names available, will inspire a sense of hope in people who have lost faith in their ability to contribute to something greater than themselves.”
The campaign also seeks to move beyond heroic mythology by recovering the human details of the marchers’ lives. “Hopefully, one day we’ll have enough resources to not only read out their names but also tell their stories, where they came from, how far they walked, and how long it took them to get there.”
She added that some accounts suggest women travelled long distances and made significant sacrifices to participate in the protest against pass laws. “Apparently some had their employers’ babies on their backs because they believed in the cause; they had to show up.”
Not yet in the curriculum, but in public memory
The Foundation says it does not currently influence educational curricula, but believes public remembrance is a necessary first step. “Well, we don’t have any influence on curricula for now,” Gcwabe said, “but we do believe that to honour their legacy, we should start by remembering them by name… It is said that you never truly die until the last person who remembers you is gone.”
For the organisers, the campaign is building a public archive of recognition that exists in ceremonies, community memory, family histories and digital records, even before it appears in textbooks.
Continuing Ahmed Kathrada’s legacy
The Foundation says the campaign forms part of a broader effort to deepen non-racialism and promote the values of the South African Constitution.
The initiative continues the legacy of anti-apartheid activist Ahmed Kathrada by advocating ethical leadership, social justice and an inclusive understanding of the country’s liberation history.
By recovering the identities of women excluded from official records, the Foundation believes it is helping to strengthen a more complete and democratic national memory.
The work will continue
The Foundation has confirmed that the campaign will continue beyond Women’s Month 2026. Gcwabe expressed appreciation to everyone who has contacted the Foundation and said people who have submitted names but do not yet see them on the website should not assume their emails were overlooked.
“We will get to it,” she said, adding that progress can be slow because the Foundation is a non-governmental organisation working with limited resources.
She also encouraged people who may not have names to submit, not to think they cannot contribute. “Donating to the Foundation helps us keep going,” she said.
The Foundation has encouraged members of the public to help identify and submit the names of as many of the 20,000 women as possible. Send names to info@kathradafoundation.org.
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