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ALWANDE HLELA
BEING A WOMAN, WHAT MAKES YOU POWERFUL IN THIS COMMUNITY?
"I think women in this society, especially these days are very underestimated… there are a lot of things that they think girls can do and so now because girls are trying to be better in sports and dance and gymnastics, it’s just showing everyone and men that we’re not as weak as they think and shows that were are very strong. If anything, stronger than them because we suffer the most as being born a woman isn’t easy at all."
WHAT ARE SOME PERSONAL EVENTS THAT HAVE IMPACTED HOW YOU FEEL ABOUT BEING A WOMAN?
"Back home in South Africa, our grandparents say that all women have to be the ones that clean and wash the dishes and basically just do all the chores and men just have to be the ones who help. So as I said, they were always taught that women have to wash the dishes and clean the house and stuff and my cousin and me, we always had to do that stuff and we had one cousin who was a boy, and he never had to do anything. This shows me that women are labelled as house workers and that’s not really how it’s supposed to be because we’re not supposed to be housemaids, or house moms or older. Because there’s so much more we can do to show we can do it and so that experience made me feel like that’s what we should be doing and that’s how women are labelled today."
DO YOU HAVE A ROLE MODEL, A PERSON YOU LOOK UP TO?
"This could be very cliché but it’s my mom because when she was young, she wasn’t as lucky or as privileged as I was and so then, when she wanted to go to university, no one in her family, in general, believed that she could make it into university as none of them had been to university themselves. She made it into university and she didn’t care what her other family members were telling her because they were all saying, oh you can’t get into university…” and after that, she filled her dreams and believed in her grandma, who cheered her up when she was going to university. Today, we’re way more privileged now because it all hit a point where they thought they couldn’t carry on and stuff and she was the only one that could really continue and get further. Today when her family members are the ones asking her for help she says, “you all never really believed in me and now want my help?”. So I think she’s a really powerful and good person."
TALK TO ME ABOUT YOUR FUTURE PLANS AND DREAMS...
"When I’m older, I’d love to slit like an actress and work at that because being in a theatre or like in front of cameras when I’m told what to do specifically… I find it really nice and it’s really cool just to see all these famous actors and stuff. If not, I love dancing and doing gymnastics so I’d love to carry on working with that and getting higher levels than that, just so I can make sure I can perfect that in the future and help out other people that have the same interests as me."
IF YOU WERE TO BE PORTRAYED IN A PORTRAIT OF YOURSELF, HOW DO YOU SEE IT?
"I think in general, I don’t get mad easily and it takes a lot for someone to put me in like a very dead, bad mood. And so if I were portrayed in a portrait, I see myself with just a bunch of happiness and just want myself smiling. I don’t like negativity a lot so, I tend to always look at positive situations and when people are arguing, I’m just the one to put an end to it and the one that makes them happy."
Das, Sandeepa, and Alwande Hlela. “Women in Power.” 28 Nov. 2018.
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