After 3 days of workshops and round tables which examined the root causes of the undocumented violence against women - rape, mutilation, exile,abuse and oppression, last night the 300 or so women who had participated had their numbers swelled to over 1,500 as a mass demonstration of 'women in black' took to the streets of down town Cape Town, the business district, to demand a permanent end to violence and oppression. It comprised of women from over 50 countries and a massive contingent of black South African women, all bearing banners and posters, who lined the streets with music, dancing and singing. Some of us who come from northern europe were dying for the women to block the road - it was only our collective courage and a few police with guns that were stopping us, but it's not something you feel totally chill about suggesting to a bunch of people who have experienced far more than their fair share of state oppression. But after about 45 minutes it happened organically, and women surged onto the dual carriageway. Women from Chiapas, Afghanistan, the Pacific basin, Palestine, Cambodian mine casualites, mothers from Bosnia who had spent 5 years on a crusade to find their childrens remains in the concentration camp mass graves were to found in small groups with women from other countries, sharing photos of the loved ones they had lost, the love and sympathy clearly communicated between them and needing no translation.

Today, over 2,000 women gathered in a township sports stadium transformed into a visual odessy reflecting the unimaginable life journies that the women who had come to give testimony, had travelled in their quest to survive and heal themselves. Over the course of the day, we heard harrowing testimonies from over 30 women - never mind the hype or the cynicism that you read in your daily rag - these women brought us the human face of manifest forms of global oppression, with compassion and courage, rage and resistance, but above all love. Their stories were unspeakbly shocking - the audience keened, screamed and cheered in turn - personally I have rarely cried so much, or been so profoundly touched. I found myself translating for french speaking Rwandan women who had lived through the genocide, and who also told us of the grassroots community initiatives to reconcile their country and build a enduring peace based on justice.
Forms of violence against women that many people have not even imagined possible were shared today but almost more importantly, a united resolve to end them, for good and for our dreams of a new political imagining to be realised.
the court continues tomorrow, as we meet to begin building a solid foundation for the changes that must come.
There's a strong wind blowing and it's coming from the South.