The African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME) and the African National Congress Women’s League (ANCWL) were celebrating Charlotte Maxeke on August 18 at the Zone Seven Allen Temple.
The women commemorated the day dressed in their best attire as a mark of respect for Charlotte Maxeke, who was a proud AME member and an ANC activist.
During this Woman’s Month, we remember women who played a vital role in our history and who should not be forgotten because their work lives on as we follow in their footsteps. The day started off with a church service and the female pastor delivered a sermon and said, “You are a woman of substance.”
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She addressed the assembled women and added, “A woman of substance fears God, doesn’t judge and when times are hard, she kneels down to pray.
“You are not a woman only to your children, but to the nation at large. Maxeke was an example of a woman of substance,” she said.
Maxeke became politically active while in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, in which she played a part in bringing democracy to South Africa. The church later elected her president of the Women’s Missionary Society.
At this point, her concerns were mostly related to churches and their social issues. Maxeke used to write about the political and social issues women faced during the apartheid era.
She continued to be involved in many multiracial groups fighting against the apartheid system and was a strong advocate for women’s rights her legacy continues to live on as there are sites named after her like the former ‘Johannesburg General Hospital’ which is now known as the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital.
The South African Navy submarine, the SAS Charlotte Maxeke, was named after her as well as an ANC nursery school. Maxeke is often honoured as the “Mother of Black Freedom in South Africa”.
In 2015, at an International Women’s Day celebration in at Kliptown’s Walter Sisulu Square, the Gauteng Infrastructure Development MEC planned to convert her home into a museum and interpretation centre.
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