Feminist solidarity against sexual violence: A political biography of the one in nine campaign

This paper examines feminist resistance against sexual violence in South Africa, tracing the political biography of the One in Nine Campaign, a boldly feminist social movement organisation formed in 2006 in solidarity with Fezekile "Khwezi" Kuzwayo, who accused then-Deputy President Jacob Zuma of rape. Through the lens of African feminist theory and social movement theories, the paper explores the genealogy of African feminist activism against sexual violence in democratic South Africa, attending to the political opportunities, strategies, and solidarities that gave rise to and sustained this movement. Grounded in feminist qualitative methodologies and thirteen in-depth semi-structured interviews with current and former members of the One in Nine Campaign, the paper foregrounds the voices and lived experiences of those who built and sustained this movement. It argues that the solidarity enacted by the One in Nine Campaign is distinctly intersectional in character: active, tangible, and public, it confronts the interlocking systems of patriarchal, racialised, and classed power that silence survivors and reproduce sexual violence. In doing so, the paper contributes to African feminist scholarship by demonstrating how solidarity, rooted in collective care, rage, and political imagination, transforms both movements and the activists who build them. Ultimately, the One in Nine Campaign offers a vital and enduring template for feminist resistance, one that insists solidarity is not passive sentiment but a deliberate call to action. In remembering Khwezi, the paper recovers an erased feminist history while reaffirming the political possibility of a future free from gender-based violence.