Wonder Woman of the Week: Frene Ginwala

While most people understand the role of Nelson Mandela in ending Apartheid South Africa and bringing about sweeping racial civil rights reform, there is a lesser known yet equally important person who's role in the reform movement made her a national hero in the history of South Africa. But before you continue on and educate yourself about this incredible woman, check out this video on exactly what apartheid was and what it meant for South Africa.

For Frene Ginwala, and many social activists like her; the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa began when police opened fire on a group of black protestors in a town called Sharpeville- sparking decades of riots and leading eventually to the end of the apartheid laws.

But the Sharpeville Massacre was named so for good reason. With such high casualty rates among the protesters, many black activists fled the country as refugees into Angola and Zimbabwe- including Frene Ginwala who helped smuggle refugees out of South Africa and helped set up a line of communication across the nations of Southern Africa to keep divided families and friends in contact as well as maintain resistance movements intent on ending racial segregation in South Africa.

After thirty years in exile, Frene Ginwala returned to South Africa to see Nelson Mandela released from prison and set to work establishing a new system of government that would reunite the broken nation and create a new level of equality among its divided peoples. One of the biggest struggles was in maintaining that equality and ensuring the protection and rights of all South Africans- including the formerly oppressed black South Africans and the formerly oppressive Afrikaners.

Frene Ginwala was not unique for South Africa either. Women across the country led protests, organized resistance movements, smuggled refugees out of the country, and maintained lines of communication across multiple countries. Ginwala was one of only a number of South African women who made the end of apartheid possible and who helped define what feminism means in contemporary South Africa.