Marginalized Gendered Histories: Murder By Necklacing during Apartheid

There has been an unsuccessful attempt to water down the place of Black women in the South African liberation struggle. This was done during the struggle itself and it continues in contemporary efforts to capture liberation history. It is therefore the intention of this paper to show how necklacing (the public execution of Black women by use of burning tyre placed over their neck, with their hands chopped off or bound) was used to create a narrative of mistrust around women. Although the act of necklacing was used to murder both women and men, who were suspected of collaborating with the police this paper shows that its use was also gendered. In cases where it was used to kill women these were mostly women who were defiant in more ways than not. These women acted out of character and needed to be used as a lesson for others who might want to do the same. Through an analysis of how families of these women and their communities experienced these events, this paper argues that the violence of apartheid like a ghost, continues to haunt the presents. Necklacing continues as a form of mob justice in contemporary democratic South Africa. Some questions that the paper grapples with is how do we heal these communities? Is clinical sociology equipped to do this healing work?