Prison Notebook

Anti-apartheid activist and ANC member Gertrude Fester was charged with treason in 1988 and spent two years in prison, with 5 months in solitary confinement. During this time she wrote a one-woman play, Apartheid's Closet: The spirit cannot be caged.

After serving a term in parliament after the first democratic elections, Fester was appointed as a Commissioner on Gender Equality. She was Professor and Deputy Director for the Centre for Gender, Culture and Development in Kigali Institute of Education in Rwanda and Professor in Sociology at Sol Plaatje University. Currently she is Professor at the Centre for African Studies at the University of Cape Town.