Under Cover of Darkness: Tracing stories of women in servitude under colonialism

It has been a year since the Uncovering: Women's Invisible Labour in the Cape symposium. This is an ongoing collaboration with the CCA, Iziko Museums and independent artists, researchers and activists. The exhibition, curated by Dr Carine Zaayman and produced by Josie Grindrod, and the symposium, co-convened by Dr Carine Zaayman, Nina Liebenberg, and Jade Nair, draws on the history of slavery in Cape Town from the early Cape colony. It brings to the light the history of women in servitude particularly through slavery, focusing on the lives of twelve individual women from this time. It is both harrowing and illuminating in uncovering these women’s narratives, standing in for the many stories that will never be told of women forced into slavery and the oppressive labour under colonialism. 

The online symposium which took place on 22 March, 2021 considered the lives of the twelve women slaves highlighted by the Under Cover of Darkness exhibition for further discussion on the extant or still existing relationship between women of colour and labour in the Cape. The Under Cover of Darkness team also produced a newsletter and a the digital curation "Uncovering Slavery in the City" to commemorate both Human Rights Day 2022 and the anniversary of the 2021 symposium, "Uncovering: Women's Invisible Labour in the Cape".

"Uncovering Slavery in the City" engages the public-access Google Maps platform and seeks to uncover legacies of servitude in the city and question criteria of memorialisation.