Edited by Azizi Powell
This pancocojams post presents information about South Africa's aminext [Am I Next] movement against gender based violence.
This post also showcases the song "Bambulele Uyinene" which honors nineteen year old University of Cape Town student Uyinene Mrwetyana whose brutal rape and murder on August 24, 2019 helped spark the aminext [AM I Next] movement.
The content of this post is presented for socio-cultural purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to all who are active in movements against gender based violence in South Africa and throughout the world. Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post and featured in these videos. Thanks also to the publishers of these YouTube videos.
R.I.P. Uyinene Mrwetyana and all those who were victims of gender based violence.
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ARTICLE EXCERPTS ABOUT SOUTH AFRICA'S "AM I NEXT" (#aminext) MOVEMENT
Excerpt #1:
From https://www.iol.co.za/mercury/opinion/letter-aminext-movement-the-key-to-a-safer-sa-33509361
LETTER: #AmINext movement the key to a safer SA
OPINION / 25 SEPTEMBER 2019
..."South Africa has been hit by a series of kidnappings, rapes and killing of women.
A lot of cases including that of Uyinene Mrwetyana and Jess Hess have been trending on social media with the #AmINext hashtag.
Women across South Africa were empowered to tell of their own experiences at the hands of men and some called out their alleged abusers on Twitter. Empowerment of women grew rapidly as there were marches against gender-based violence where everyone wore black to emphasise that they have had enough of women abuse and that some action should be taken.
It is often said that “when women support each other amazing things happen” and that was the case as President Cyril Ramaphosa and the Minister of Police Bheki Cele intervened.
This empowerment of women could be key towards a better and safe South Africa for women as we can be able to stand together to have our voices heard regarding matters which affect us on a daily basis.
The #AmINext movement even gained the attention of blog posts from overseas, such as “Feminists” where they posted a picture of Uyinene Mrwetyana and explained what happened to her and the xenophobic attacks in South Africa."...
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Excerpt #2:
From https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-death-of-uyinene-mrwetyana-and-the-rise-of-south-africas-aminext-movement The Death of Uyinene Mrwetyana and the Rise of South Africa’s #AmINext Movement By Rosa Lyster, September 12, 2019
"A memorial at the Clareinch Post Office, in the suburbs of Cape Town, where the nineteen-year-old Uyinene Mrwetyana was murdered, setting off widespread protests.Photograph by Rodger Bosch / AFP / Getty
...On Saturday, August 24th, in the early afternoon, a nineteen-year-old University of Cape Town student named Uyinene Mrwetyana went to the post office. The precise details of what happened when she got there won’t be heard until a trial, which is scheduled for November, but police have confirmed the following: a man behind the counter told her that the credit-card machine wasn’t working, because the electricity was down, so he wouldn’t be able to process her payment. Power outages are common in South Africa, a normal part of life that you wouldn’t necessarily think twice about. The man told Mrwetyana to come back a bit later, and he’d be able to help her then. She did so, some time shortly after 2 p.m., when everyone else working at the post office had gone home. On Monday, September 2nd, a packed courtroom heard during a pre-trial hearing that the man working behind the counter had confessed to [raping and murdering Mrwetyana]*
[...]
According to the most recent statistics released by the South African Police Service, a woman is murdered every three hours in South Africa. The country has one of the highest rates of rape in the world, and, according to the most recent data from the World Health Organization, it ranks fourth out of a hundred and eighty-three countries when it comes to femicide, or the killing of a woman or girl on account of her gender. Every week, there is a story in South Africa that should stop us in our tracks—a newspaper report detailing what feels like a freak detonation of psychotic, demented violence against women, a one-off explosion of hate that somehow just keeps on happening.
[...]
For many South Africans, the protests following Mrwetyana’s death have been an indication that there are ways of responding to this crisis that go beyond sadness and anger and the state’s promise to set up some sort of commission of inquiry at a vague time in the future. Confronted with the reality of how she died, and the knowledge that “the post office” must now be added to the long list of places to be scared of, women around the country are reaching what feels like a breaking point. At protests and vigils this week, the mood has been a combination of fury and astonishment at how distorted our definition of “normal” has become. This past Thursday, in Cape Town, thousands of people marched on Parliament to demand a more definitive and urgent response to violence against women. It would be easy to say that there have been so many marches just like it, with the same songs, the same posters with the faces and names of dead women and girls, many of the same slogans. But, walking up Plein Street to the parliamentary buildings, where President Cyril Ramaphosa was scheduled to address the protesters, the mood felt different, as if the flashover had occurred, the point when when the fire in the room becomes the room on fire. It might have been all the schoolchildren in attendance—kids maybe on their first march, as opposed to their tenth—or the hundreds of placards asking “Am I Next?,”... Mrwetyana’s death, so grotesquely emblematic of the state’s failure to protect women and children, seems to have channelled the anger that so many feel and directed it toward a clear target. The feeling that someone should do something is turning, quickly, into the conviction that someone is going to have to do something.”...
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*The details of Uyinene Mrwetyana rape and murder are given in this article.
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Excerpt #3
From https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-50431903
South Africa post office murderer given life for killing Uyinene Mrwetyana
15 November 2019
"South African post office worker Luyanda Botha has been handed three life sentences after admitting to the rape and murder of 19-year-old student Uyinene Mrwetyana.
Her killing in August sparked large protests over the high levels of violence against women in the country.
[...]
The killing led to large protests, including an attempt to storm a conference centre in Cape Town where a meeting of the World Economic Forum was taking place.
In September, the Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle, tied a ribbon at a memorial on her visit to Cape Town.
She personally passed on her condolences to the victim's mother. Meghan made the visit to "show solidarity" with protesters against gender-based violence, a post on her official Instagram account said.”...
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SHOWCASE VIDEOS
Video #1: #RIPUyinene #Uyinene #AmINext
Uyinene Mrwetyana tribute| Rhodes University community
Lentilles Reiner, Sep 4, 2019
Rhodes university community gathers together in celebration of the life of Uyinene Mrwetyana.
#RIPUyinene #Uyinene #MyBodyNotYourCrimeScene #AmINext? #UyineneMrwetyana #Nene #Stopviolenceagainstwomenandchildren #EnoughIsEnough
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The song “Bambulele Uyinene begins at 1:49 in this video.
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Here are several comments from this video's discussion thread (with numbers added for referencing purposes only). All of these comments are from September 2019 except the last comment which is from October 2019.
1. Livhuwani Malange
"i wish these students can go sing this song " bambulele Uyinene" outside the court when this man appears in court again.....
Rest in power Nene, South Africa has failed you.💔"
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2. Gift Mtsweni
"That bambulele uyinene song hits hard."
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REPLY
3. Lord Praise Thou
"It really does when I listened to the lyrics I broke down"
**
4. Kai McKenzie
"Bambulele u-Uyinene, eyothath' ipasile. Heartbroken."
-snip-
Xhosa translation for this song's lyrics: They killed Uyinene for the parcel.
Explanation: Nineteen year old university student Uyinene had gone to the post office to retrieve a package that was sent to her, but was told she had to come back later that day because the electricity in that building had gone out. When she returned she was raped and violently murdered by a postal worker.
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Video #2: “Bambulele Uyinene" students song #RIP_UYINENE
Njabulo Bright Vundla, Sep 4, 2019
LYRICS - RIP UYINENE
Yeeh Bambulele Eyothatha iParcel(a) x 2 - Leader
Bambulele Uyinene (iyooohaaa x 3) - Backers
English
"They have killed Uyinene when she was only collecting a parcel from post office"
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