We are delighted to announce our keynote speaker, Nomboniso Gasa who is a feminist, researcher and public speaker on a number of topics including politics, land, gender equality and cultural issues.
Nomboniso’s work spans a range of areas at the intersection of law, policy, gender equality and social justice. It examines the nature, content and place of customary law in South Africa, particularly regarding the tensions between unwritten “living” customary law and the autocratic colonial/apartheid versions of customary law in post 1994 law making.
Gasa’s work and activism are a continuation of her lifelong passionate commitment against oppression. During apartheid, Gasa was a student and youth activist since her teenage years, which led to her first detention without trial and police torture at the age of 14 in the former Transkei.
In the 1990s, she was executive secretary, responsible for policy development in the ANC’s Commission on the Emancipation of Women. She was closely involved in the ANC’s decisive contribution to the negotiation of a new constitution, focusing specifically on women and gender equality.
Gasa headed the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (I-IDEA) in Nigeria, where she conceptualised and drove a substantial research programme with Nigerian and international scholars. This culminated in a book published by I-IDEA “Democracy in Nigeria: Continuing Dialogue(s) for Nation Building” and multi stakeholder policy dialogues, including politicians, academics, senior religious leaders and civil society. The publication is treated by many Nigerians, other scholars and analysts as a groundbreaking work on many contemporary Nigerian issues.
Further, her publications include the book which she edited and to which she contributed Women in South African History (2007, HSRC Press), Ulwaluko, the making of a man in Xhosa cultural society. As an art critic, Gasa’s essays are in catalogues and popular media. Her political commentary is published widely in South African and international media.
Nomboniso Gasa will be speaking on the 4th November 2024 as keynote speaker at South Africa Reflects: 30 Years of Democracy Colloquium as part of the morning session, from 9.30am to 10.30am (SAST). The full programme can be found here.
Thanks to UNISA Academic Press and Third World Quarterly for sponsoring the keynote.