Regina Twala

Regina Gelana Twala (1908 – 1968) was a feminist activist, writer, researcher, evangelist, and liberation leader in what is now eSwatini.

After becoming the first Black woman to graduate from the University of the Witwatersrand, Twala became a prolific researcher and political activist, helping co-found the Swaziland Progressive Party. She was also the only female candidate for a seat in Swaziland's first Legislative Council in 1964.

Biography

Regina Twala was born in 1908, into a Zulu family.[1][2][3]

In 1948, she became the first Black woman to obtain a degree from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg.[4] She then pursued a graduate degree at the university, where her thesis focused on African beadwork.[5][6]

She became a prolific researcher, particularly on women's issues and native customs in southern Africa.[3][4][7][8] She also founded a library specifically for use by women.[4]

As a writer, Twala contributed newspaper columns to several publications in Swaziland, including Umteteli Wa Bantu and Izwi lama Swazi.[1][4] She frequently wrote under pseudonyms, including Mademoiselle, Gelana, RD Twala, Reggie, and Sister Kollie.[9] On her death, she left behind four unpublished book manuscripts.[1][4]

Twala was a pioneering African feminist and a liberation leader, active in the anti-colonial movement.[4]

Her political activity included in 1960 co-founding the Swaziland Progressive Party, in which she was an influential figure.[4][10][11]

She was a candidate for Swaziland's first Legislative Council in the 1964 Swazi general election, running as an independent in the Manzini constituency.[12][10] Twala was the only woman to be nominated in the election.[13] She did not win a seat.[10][14]

In addition, Twala was a pioneer of Pentecostal worship in the region, an active member of the evangelical Christian movement.[4][15] She is credited with introducing the Assemblies of God denomination to the area that is now eSwatini.[11]

She married her first husband, Percy Kumalo, in 1936.[5] In 1939, after the two divorced, she married fellow social activist Dan Twala, who became a significant collaborator in her work.[1][16][17] The couple was close friends with Nelson Mandela and Winnie Madikizela-Mandela.[4]

Twala died in 1968, one month before Swaziland gained independence.[4][11]

References
  1. "A Virtual Summer: CESTA 2020 Research Anthology" (PDF). Center for Spatial and Textual Analysis (CESTA) at Stanford University. 2020. Retrieved 2021-01-28.
  2. "Love Letters in Beads". The Times-Tribune. 1954-04-26.
  3. INS (1954-03-15). "African Girls Sent Boy Friends Love Letters In Varied Forms of Bead Talk". Palladium-Item.
  4. Feder, Sandra (2020-02-24). "Stanford historian's high school research transformed her life". Stanford News. Retrieved 2021-01-28.
  5. "Certificates and Publications Gallery". Visible Bodies. Retrieved 2021-01-28.
  6. Reynolds, Pamela, 1944- (1989). Childhood in Crossroads : cognition and society in South Africa. Cape Town: D. Philip. ISBN 0-86486-117-6. OCLC 21385348.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  7. Symmetry comes of age : the role of pattern in culture. Washburn, Dorothy Koster., Crowe, Donald W. (Donald Warren), 1927-. Seattle: University of Washington Press. 2004. ISBN 0-295-98366-3. OCLC 52418067.CS1 maint: others (link)
  8. Ben-Amos, Paula (1989). "African Visual Arts from a Social Perspective". African Studies Review. 32 (2): 1–53. doi:10.2307/523969. ISSN 0002-0206.
  9. "Regina Twala". Visible Bodies. Retrieved 2021-01-28.
  10. POTHOLM, CHRISTIAN P. (2021). SWAZILAND : the dynamics of political modernization. [S.l.]: UNIV OF CALIFORNIA PRESS. ISBN 0-520-36224-1. OCLC 1153633499.
  11. "Joel Cabrita". Stanford Global Studies. Retrieved 2021-01-28.
  12. "58 Candidates Nominated for Elections" (PDF). News From Swaziland. 1964-05-20. Retrieved 2021-01-28.
  13. Dlamini, N. (2007). "Shadows of Apartheid: Racial Discrimination and its Persistence, 1964-1973". Legal Abolition of Racial Discrimination and its Aftermath: The Case of Swaziland, 1945-1973 (PDF). University of Witwatersrand.
  14. Dolf Sternberger, Bernhard Vogel, Dieter Nohlen & Klaus Landfried (1978) Die Wahl der Parlamente: Band II: Afrika, Zweiter Halbband, pp. 2120−2121
  15. "Writing World Christianity: Bengt Sundkler, Titus Mthembu and the Politics of Knowledge Production in Apartheid-era South Africa". University Post. 2020-02-27. Retrieved 2021-01-28.
  16. Erlmann, Veit. (1996). Nightsong : performance, power, and practice in South Africa. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-21720-5. OCLC 31867970.
  17. "Dan Twala". Visible Bodies. Retrieved 2021-01-28.
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