ABSTRACT
Alexandra Township, located eight miles from central Johannesburg, has achieved almost mythical historical status in the minds of many black South Africans, its reputation perhaps eclipsed only by Sophiatown and District Six, both of which fell victim to apartheid bulldozers. Freedom from restrictions proved an attractive incentive for many blacks, particularly from the 1930s onward, when many Africans migrated to the urban areas in search of work in the rapidly expanding economy. This chapter explores that the complex dynamics of resistance to class exploitation and gender oppression by examining the roles played in this struggle by working women and the male township elite. Property rights, along with business ownership, provided some Alexandra residents with the material basis for forming a township elite. The township has a long history as a site of struggle for black political rights. Eddie Roux describes the 1943 boycott as a "spontaneous mass movement" that owed little or nothing to political leadership in the formal sense.
