On Heroes

Once upon a time, about 11 years ago, when I was a 16 year old Rotary Exchange Student in South Africa, my high school history teacher let me work on a history project of my choosing – which to a budding history nerd like me was a great gift. I decided to research women who opposed apartheid, including Helen Suzman – one of my first heroes.

As 2009 opened, Helen Suzman died. She was 91, and had served as a member of parliament in South Africa for 36 years. For over a dozen of those years she was the only parliamentary voice of opposition to apartheid, and for many years she was also the only female voice. As a Jewish woman in a patriarchal state the odds were stacked against her, yet she chose to speak out when few others would to a racist regime most accepted as the status quo. Where did her courage and conviction come from?

At 16 I believed it came from a special sort of ‘good person status’ I aspired to. Now, at 27, I'm suppose to know a lot more than I did then. I’ve completed an honours degree in Gender History, not just one report. I’ve traveled the world a little bit and stood up, every now and then, for what I believe in.

But along the way, as bombs drop on Gaza and poverty grows in Africa, it’s been hard to maintain faith in the ‘good people can change the world’ hypotheses. Sometimes I look at the budget for my own little cause at Emmanuel Center in Kenya and think “when we will stop struggling? How can it be so difficult just to feed 40 children?” Or I read a book on political economy and decide with so many corrupt leaders in the world peace is a hopeless dream. Or I watch the news and think - where are the Helen Suzmans in Israel right now?

Then I reflect back on that first history project and the dozens of women I read about. Not all of them where famous. Not all of them survived to see their dream come reality – but they all fought a long hard battle for a better world, and I know there are others like them out there – whether we listen to them and look to them as leaders or not.

If I remember anything that I learned from that history report 11 years ago it should be that Helen Suzman had an inspirational faith in a more just world and the courage to fight for it against the odds – we need that spirit now more than ever.