As with so many Actionists, Norma Mbele found her calling through her own traumatic experience.
Whilst staying in a women's shelter, as a survivor of a rape for which she never got justice, she experienced the way that many women are treated while seeking protection from the perpetrator.
The long ordeal of getting justice for gender-based violence is a lonely and isolating experience that Norma vowed she would not let other women go through alone. So she started the NGO Tosunga Baninga.
Tosunga Baninga is a Lingala phrase from the DRC that means ‘helping you to help others’. As a passionate believer in diversity, it was important for Norma to name the organisation with a phrase that was not from one of the South African languages. She wanted it to reflect the positive cultural diversity which she experiences in her community and which she seeks to promote through her work.
Tosunga Baninga is a Gender-Based Violence support organisation. Their mission is to assist the victims of GBV whilst also educating the broader community. Their approach, however, is slightly different than you might imagine…
When Norma left the shelter she committed to helping other women who were victims of gender-based violence. She had no idea how she was going to achieve her goal, but she was steadfast in the conviction that such a lonely road to justice needs support. From visiting the court proceedings she observed that the perpetrators often had many more supporters in the courtroom than the victims and she watched as, on multiple occasions, the authorities treated the perpetrators more kindly than the victims.
Norma started to turn up at the trials holding hand-written cardboard signs outside the courthouse containing generic messages of support for the victims. As the trials progressed, she started to include quotes from the court proceedings in her messaging. In time, her team began sitting inside the courtroom wearing t-shirts with quotes from the previous day's proceedings on them, making it clear that every word was being heard and noted by the victim’s support team.
When it became clear that these techniques were having an impact Norma started experimenting with even more powerful ideas. What began as a need to show solidarity and to prove that supporters were watching and ready to hold the authorities accountable, quickly evolved into a very powerful form of visual activism.
In 2018 Tosunga Baninga recreated their first crime scene outside a court. They wanted to raise public awareness of the crimes and, more importantly, to force a sense of accountability and shame onto the perpetrators and their supporters as they entered and left the courthouse.
Working with the full consent of the victim's families, they use “bodies” under blankets, crime scene tape, props and clothing to stage the scenes informed by the details that were available about the crime.
“The first one was Nomatjala in 2018 on the street outside the court of Sebokeng. Her mother had never seen her body at the scene. We recreated it and the mother almost collapsed. We started at 7.30 am so that everyone going to work would see it. It was a way for the mother to get closure. She walked into the court with anger and sat on the front row for the first time.”
They also “carry the bruises and the scars of the victims”, often sitting in the courtroom with bullet wounds and bruises painted on them in the positions of the original injuries.
“We are in solidarity with all women who have been assaulted and are covering bruises under their makeup. We are carrying these bruises so that other women are not alone. I walked the journey alone and I made the promise that no other woman would walk the journey alone. “
Although Norma has nearly been killed, her home shot at and her windowsill smudged with blood, she is not going to back down. She knows that there are voices that she needs to make heard and memories that she needs to keep alive for justice to be served.
“Sometimes you fear for your life but, at the same time, you cannot walk away. In this country, whether you fight or don't fight the statistic of women being killed is very high. It’s better for women to make noise and fight. “
For more information, Norma can be contacted at +27 79 034 2676 or via email at mbelenorma@gmail.com.
This story is one of a series of articles produced by The Actionists in collaboration with the Heinrich Boell Foundation's Cape Town office to highlight the incredible work of organisations and activists across South Africa in their pursuit of justice and equal rights for all.