It has been a year when some prominent women passed on. For me, most notably the recent death of Majel Barrett is saddening. However, I discover with pleasure that she managed to record the computer voice for the next ST film thereby maintaining her presence in most if not all ST incarnations.
This memorial is lovely:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=uNNi8W8kEgw
Eartha Kitt too has gone. I well recall her individual style on numerous TV shows when I was growing up. Not until I read this article below, did I hear that she was outspoken about Vietnam causing her to be blacklisted in the states and that explains why this talented woman was so often on our TV screens.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-oped1229kittdec29,0,3382842.story
Miriam Makeba also died this year. She is another woman who refused to gloss over injustice and spoke out against apartheid which meant she lived in exile for thirty years. The obituary below is respectful and interesting.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/nov/11/miriam-makeba-obituary
There are probably other women whose lives have made a difference to the world of politics, campaigning and women’s rights, who have left us this year, but I have not heard of them. Perhaps because many women work in the background or in the spirit of much of the traditions of feminism, have not built a reputation as leaders or spokeswomen for other women and therefore are not remembered individually, but their efforts are felt and appreciated.
8 comments:
My gran and I had a long chat about Miriam Makeba as she died while I was in Sydney. I think she had been ill for a long time. I'm glad she lived long enough to see Apartheide end.
Sadly, I only have one of her albums, but I do like her music and intend to listen to it again soon.
oh and Helen Joseph who has just died was at university with my grandmother they are/were the same age 91.
I hadn't heard about Helen Joseph, so I'll look her up. Your grandmother sounds so interesting! Perhaps you can blog more about her sometime.
eeek ! helen suzeman not joeseph - I think at she too was active
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/tny/2009/01/helen-suzman-postscript.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Joseph
Thank you so much for these links. I stand in awe of these women, and all women who give their lives and energy to effecting change.
Suzman is quioted in the Newyorker thus: “The hon. the prime minister has been trying to bully me for twenty-eight years, and he has not succeeded yet.” And then, addressing him squarely across the ten yards that separated their benches, she said, “I am not frightened of you. I never have been and I never will be. I think nothing of you.”
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/tny/2009/01/helen-suzman-postscript.html
It has always struck me that for many women, the way of political change is not to toe a party line and only try for change from the inside, but to stick to their prinicples and tell it like it is whether or not they make friends or enemies.
I'm sorry to hear of the death of Helen Suzman, a titanic political campaigner during my younger days. The figures from my early adulthood are dying now, and they're seminal in one's life.
Looking at her obit, I noticed one about Norma Hotaling. I hadn't heard of her before, but as she worked against the sexual exploitation of women, just in case you missed it see
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/jan/03/norma-hotaling-obituary
Thanks for that, Jerzz, I'll check out that link as I hadn't heard of her before. I suppose it really is the case, that so many women have done great things to promote the cause of women's liberation, but too often they pass unremarked and unacknowledged.
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