Last week we closed the chapter of Youth Month for the year, after celebrations and commemorations of 43 years since young people took to the streets to protest Afrikaans being the medium of instruction in their schools. Every year this sees to the masculinisation of the resistance of young people, at best the young women being mentioned in passing and at worst completely erasing the efforts of young female leaders in the students’ Soweto Uprising.

Did you know Sibongile Mkhabela? She was a young female student who led the 1976 Soweto uprising. At the time she was an executive member of the Soweto Students’ Representative Council (SSRC), she was also the General Secretary of the South African Students’ Movement (SASM). She spent nearly two years in solitary confinement as a result of her contributions and involvement in the Students’ June 16 Soweto Massacre.

After being apprehended by the brutal police force of the apartheid regime, she was left in a room that was only just about twenty metres long with a broken and a weak chest at the infamous John Voster Square. Many of us were never told about her.

Did you know Antionette Sithole? The one who was always just mentioned in passing as Zolile Hector Peterson’s sister. She made a conscious decision to join the uprising of the students in Soweto, but she is passed on as “the hysterical lady running next to Mbuyisa Makhubu as he carries young Zolile Hector Peterson’s body, the first boy child to be gunned down and die in the uprising”.

Her erasure is so extreme that the only tie you find about her to the Soweto Uprising is her being young Zolile’s sister. There is absolutely nothing about the torment and harassment that is subsequent to Sam Nzima’s picture of her, Makhubu and Zolile.

Did you know Naledi Kedi Motsau? In 1976 she was doing her matric at Naledi High School in the south western end of Soweto. You would think that she would be mentioned on the blank pages of history for the mere fact that even though she was done with secondary school she thought of those coming behind her, those who would be affected by Afrikaans being a medium of instruction and she took to the streets on the 16th of June and was on the front receiving line of the hail storm of bullets that were bestowed unto them by the police on the fateful day. If not for that, then at least for the pun in the fact that her name is Naledi and at the time was a learner at Naledi High school, but history has disposed of her.

Did you know Dikeledi Motswene? She was a grade nine pupil in 1976 at Ithute Senior Secondary School. She was only just a child, and she did not only take a conscious decision to be part of the march, she was in the front and overflown with vigour and the chutzpah to fight the oppression of black youth like your Tsietsi Mashinini. She has been completely erased, the internet echoes nothing when her name is summoned.

Did you know Priscilla Msesenyane? She was only just a grade four pupil at St Matthews Roman Catholic School in 1976 and she was part of the Soweto Uprising, but the pages of history have been obliterated of her presence even though she took a bold stand against a very abusive system. She took a bold stand that even big grown men at her age would never fathom to. As young as she was, she knew what it meant for her to take to the streets and speak up against Bantu Education. She knew what it meant to speak out against oppression. Today, history is completely silent on her as if she never took to the streets.

I dare not speak of Martha Matthews, because she is not known and her efforts and involvement in the Soweto Uprising only but remains a bitter memory for her family and loved ones. She was a grade twelve pupil at Kelekitso Secondary School in 1976.

This is less than a handful of then young girls who sacrificed their time and safety to fight a very violent system and an even more brutal administration. We were denied them and they deserve to be spoken about as much as Zolile Hector Peterson, Tsietsi Mashinini, Mbuyisa Makhubo and many other masculine figures of the uprising are.

This is not to say that male figures who are present in liberation struggles and resist are not important, but this simply explicitly says that the female figures’ presence should not be dumbed down and made non-existent. If anything, we should begin by being comfortable in not just mentioning it but putting it on an equal footing with that of men.

If not, then we will remain with the same problem that we are still faced with today. Where a girl, Shaeera Kalla, who was the President of the University of Witwatersrand’ Students’ Representative Council, led the SRC that started the Fees Must Fall movement under her term. She was a fearless leader who continued to lead and had the undying spirit of Queen Nzinga even after she was shot 13 times. Nompendulo Ulo Mkhatshwa. Sarah Mokwebo. Jodi Williams.

All the young women who fought, went bare-breasted and got shot, if only I had a piece of paper long enough I would write the biggest list and put it inside the covers of Das Kapital because maybe just then you would be interested enough to read it. My heart bleeds for them, but apparently theirs could have bled a little longer.

The Google definition of colourism point that it is “prejudice or discrimination against individuals with a dark skin tone, typically among people of the same ethnic or racial group”

I want to make it clear to Pearl Thusi and others who choose to be in denial and ignorant towards the existence of the subject, that it is definitely not some kind of a launched campaign for personal attack or erasure of the amount of work they put in whichever field or space they occupy. Most importantly the views which some of us hold on the subject are definitely not directed to undermine your blackness, to make you feel less of a black person, in particular a black womxn.

Pearl Thusi is being a reactionary in this whole genuine topic. She is seeing it as an attack on her blackness and as a human being. It is totally disturbing that we still have to educate each other on the subject that’s been happening right in front of our eyes for years now. In our families, places of work and community. This is the kind of subject that gave birth to the “Yellow bone” phenomenon – used in black communities to describe a light skinned person.

It is our duty to confront all subjects whether sensitive or not as much as we have to raise consciousness on every issue affecting our progress particularly the black society.

It is no secret that light skinned black womxn are considered to be much prettier with good skin, and as Naledi Chirwa mentioned that they are also afforded more respect which doesn’t seem forced compared to dark skinned black womxn. It is also the reality we live in that they can be afforded more privilege in the workplace and society. We’ve seen this happening in the entertainment industry every year.

Almost every one of us have had friends who were considered ugly and not deserving of attention and admiration simply because of their dark complexion. I mention specifically the intersection of colourism and black womxn because these are standards most likely put up for womxn, not men. Assessments of this nature are mostly done on womxn in the entertainment industry and the communities we live in.

However, all of these views are not meant to erase the amount of work all black womxn do in any field as we all strive to dismantle the unjust system put up against us. But rather to make people aware that there is something called “light skin privilege” which is mostly considered pretty and it helps no one to convince oneself that it does not exist.

The truth is your looks can open doors for you that you wouldn’t have otherwise gotten irrespective of your talent and work ethic. I’ve had friends who have not been afforded the opportunity to even audition for a role because while queuing outside, they had been told that only a light skinned person should audition for the role. Such is not a lie but the daily reality aspiring actors have got to go through.

It is unnecessary for Pearl and many other light skinned black womxn to see this as some kind of an attack on them. Because as much as it is personal on them, it is also personal on dark skinned womxn for the numerous times we’ve been told we are ugly, we’ve been told we are not deserving, denied jobs and opportunities and seen as dirty and not deserving of any admiration and affection all because of our skin tone.

We need to have such conversations because young black girls are forming identities and a self-esteem. As much as we are eager to discuss race dynamics of our country, the social ills and gender dynamics, we must show the same commitment on this discourse. We must firmly resist such discrimination in all spaces even when it seems impossible to do so. Light skinned black womxn should also recognize the challenges raised by dark skinned womxn on a plight to not undermine or bully them but seeking to be treated fairly to the other. Seeking the attainment of an agenda should come in the recognition of the entire female discourse.