I wasn't sure whether I'd find the group I was looking for at the Johannesburg Botanical gardens yesterday morning - hoping there might be a dozen or so figures gathered somewhere, dressed in black and purple as was I - but as I got closer to the park, I felt quite emotional to see people arriving from all directions in their hundreds.
This just one of many gathering points around the country to support the nationwide shutdown and protest against Gender-Based Violence and Femicide, and Women for Change's demand that the awful scourge of violence in this country be declared a National Disaster... which indeed it was later, right on the eve of the G20 summit talks.
After some speeches and singing (Senzenina meaning 'what have we done?') we were asked to lie down while many names of victims of domestic and gender-based violence were read out, another moving fifteen minutes - and difficult to draw at that angle, so I finished it at home.
There is much to say about this, but this day was surely a turning point, I really hope so.
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I have tried to stop watching national news here in the U.S. - it is all so biased and the same things over and over and my blood pressure cannot take it. So I only heard about this online about the work to end femicide and the countries involved (of course, not our’s :( because we are more concerned about the latest garbage coming out of the mouths of the administration). This must truly have been an inspiring and heart-lifting time! Thanks for sharing it in drawing.
I have to stop watching the news too when it all becomes too much... the world has gone mad! I didn't realise this was an international event - sadly it happens everywhere. It was amazing to see so many come out in support of it - both uplifting and terrible as you realise that many of the attendees have been directly affected.
It's wonderful to be a part of something like that, among all the people who share concern. It's very humanizing ... So needed now!
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