Outspoken feminist to launch book tackling rape

Renowned professor and outspoken feminist Pumla Dineo Gqola will launch her book Rape: A South African Nightmare at the Steve Biko Centre in King William’s Town tomorrow and again at Rhodes University on Thursday night.

In the book, Gqola unpacks the country’s relationship with rape and why we are losing the battle in combating it.

Speaking to the Daily Dispatch, the Alice-born Gqola said although the book was launched last year, she felt the conversation was pertinent to the Eastern Cape.

“I generally try to launch my books not just in Gauteng where I live, but in different places in the country and continent as well.

“This is hard to do, though, because multiple book launches and events require a lot of money and organisation in a context where there isn’t much money to be made from book sales.”

She said that forming partnerships and networking helped.

“I’m very grateful to the Steve Biko Foundation and Dr Richard Pithouse at Rhodes University for making these two launches possible this week.

“I think it’s important to have this conversation outside the large metros as well.”

Gqola holds MA degrees from the universities of Cape Town and Warwick in the UK and a PhD from the Ludwig Maximillian University of Munich in Germany.

She is associate professor of African literary and gender studies at the University of the Witwatersrand.

Gqola said when deciding on what to write about she only chose topics that interested and intrigued her.

“I’m particularly curious about how power works, and as a feminist and anti-racist, intersecting race, gender, class and sexuality matter to me,” she said.

Gqola said the motivation behind her latest book was a desire to contribute to moving a largely “stagnant” discussion on rape into the public domain.

“There are people doing amazing work in intervening in the rape crisis, from research to legal frameworks to survivor and victim support,” said Gqola, but added that some of these insights barely affect the largely repetitive public conversation on rape which is characterised by people claiming not to understand how rape happens.

“I wanted to bring some of those conversations together, including some of my own earlier work, to contribute to understanding rape in ways that help create solutions rather than being caught up in the Ferris wheel,” she said.

Gqola’s book launch will take place at 6pm. Entry is free.