6 SISTER NAMIBIA | JUNE 2014

Reflections

6

I t was 1989, Namibia was preparing for Independence and I had just moved to Windhoek, I had a baby and I was painting for my first solo exhibition. I was so happy to be befriended by an interesting, clever woman, an activist and a feminist. Her name was Karen von Wiese (she later changed her surname to Col-

lett, which had been her mother’s name). One day she came to my house and said “Have you heard, we’re starting an organisation to produce a feminist magazine in Namibia?” I said, “Can I be part of it?” Sometimes we had meetings at our house, and we pasted up the first copy of Sister Magazine on our din-ing room table. For a while the Sister office was located in an outside room behind our house, but not for long because the main movers and shakers of the new organisation, Estelle Coetzee and Jo Rogge, wrote convincing proposals to donors and secured funding.

Before long the Sister Magazine stopped being a hand-pasted, photo-copied pamphlet and became a professionally printed glossy feminist magazine, celebrating women achievers, encouraging women to take control of their reproductive health and exposing discriminatory behaviour. After a while I lost close contact with the Sister organisation, somewhere between having another baby, a demanding job and try-ing to keep my artistic life alive somehow too... The years passed, my daughters grew up, I changed jobs, I had a few more solo exhibitions and the Sister Organisation continued to grow. From feminist magazine, to established and sophisticated feminist organisation as well as feminist magazine, took place under the clear-headed and energetic leadership of two remarkable women: Liz Frank and Elizabeth Khaxas. I was in awe of them and sometimes they employed me to design posters for their passionate campaigns.

One day another interesting, clever, feminist activist friend of mine, Dianne Hubbard, who was then the chairperson on the Sister Board of Trustees, said “We need a new board member for Sister Namibia” I said, ”Can I be part of it?” By Nicky Marais

Nicky Marais looks back to 1989 Making a difference can be as simple as asking, “Can I be part of it?

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