Karima Brown was always more than a journalist. Her outspokenness ensured that she became the story herself on multiple occasions in a tumultuous career. In more than one instance she seemed to pay the price of being a highly confident woman in a society which still mistrusts such figures. But Brown would never let criticism – from the public, media colleagues or government – silence her voice. She remained to the last indefatigable and impossible to ignore.
Born Karima Semaar in Cape Town in 1967, Brown by most accounts did not so much have a “political awakening” as she grew up with politics already flowing through her veins. Her father, Achmat Semaar, was a respected Mitchells Plain community leader and ANC activist. Brown followed in his footsteps as a youth activist, becoming active in the Cape Youth Congress (Cayco) in the 1980s as a student at the University of the Western Cape. When the South African Students Congress (Sasco) was formed, she was part of the Western C
We don’t need more reports about oppression, we need action
18 Dec 2020
The committee tasked to co-ordinate South Africa’s responses to gender-based violence and femicide, which was disbanded in April 2019, has still not been convened.
In recent years, educational institutions have been sites for public struggle against racism, sexual and gender-based violence and other forms of oppression. These struggles have played out at every level from primary to tertiary education, and across the country indiscriminately. We have seen this play out at Brackenfell High, but similar struggles have been part of our landscape as far back as the transition to democracy in South Africa. In unpacking this history, we can begin to understand the intractable nature of oppression in education, and to propose new ways we can deal with or resolve racism and sexual and gender-based violence, among other forms of oppression.
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