During the oppressive era of apartheid in South Africa, merely traversing the country was a perilous undertaking for Black individuals, with international travel posing even greater challenges. This burden was particularly acute for Black women, whom South African writer Lauretta Ngcobo described as being at the "rock bottom of the racial pile." The white-minority apartheid government, which came to power in 1948 and ruled for over four decades until democracy in 1994, implemented extreme race-based policies. A central focus of these policies was controlling movement, specifically to keep the Black majority confined. From the 1950s, the state expanded its notorious pass laws, explicitly targeting Black women, and further complicated overseas travel by imposing additional bureaucratic and financial obstacles.

These severe mobility restrictions sparked widespread outcry, particularly among the burgeoning population of Black working women in South Africa's industrialising cities and towns. These women intuitively connected their everyday struggles to broader sociopolitical injustices, infusing new vitality and forms of activism into organisations engaged in the liberation struggle, including the African National Congress (ANC). Research highlights how for these women, mobility itself became a potent form of anti-apartheid resistance and a powerful act of self-assertion. A notable example is the 1954 founding of the Federation of South African Women (Fedsaw) by a collective of women working across racial lines, which subsequently drafted the pioneering Women's Charter. This crucial document laid foundational principles for the more extensive Freedom Charter, notably enshrining ideals of freedom of movement and thought: "All shall be free to travel without restriction from countryside to town, from province to province, and from South Africa abroad." Although these ideals would not be fully realised until much later, these activist women deliberately flouted apartheid's regulations by travelling, exchanging ideas, and forging connections across national borders.

These women's high-risk journeys embody the concept of a "musāfir," as described by journalist and scholar Mahvish Ahmad: an activist-traveller operating in a politically hostile environment who breaks new ground for others to achieve freedom. The mobile Black women workers whose stories are now being researched were not previously widely recognised as travellers whose journeys held significant meaning. Their diverse "travel texts" – including speeches, commentaries, handwritten accounts, interviews, letters, and memoirs – many of which reside in archives, offer invaluable insights. While some memoirs were officially published, this often occurred outside South Africa. These outputs were not products of elite education or stylised writing, but rather direct expressions produced by working women amidst the intense political climate of their time.

Numerous individuals exemplify this courageous spirit. In 1955, Elizabeth Mafekeng, then president of the Food and Canning Workers' Association, was denied a passport but, undeterred, boarded a plane disguised as a domestic helper to attend the World Conference of Workers in Bulgaria. Her journey extended to Poland, Czechoslovakia, the Soviet Union, and China, where she publicly commented on observing "the way people should live in the world" free from racial prejudice. Upon her return to South Africa, she faced severe punishment for her transgressive travel, becoming the first woman banished politically by the apartheid state. Yet again, she took mobility into her own hands, fleeing with her two-month-old baby to what was then Basotholand (today's Lesotho).

Lilian Ngoyi, a leader of the Garment Workers Union and president of the ANC's Women's League, undertook significant international travel in 1955, visiting Switzerland, London, Berlin, the Soviet Union, China, and Mongolia. Ngoyi and Dora Tamana initially attempted to board a ship using "European names" but were arrested. In a second, successful attempt, they travelled by air, leveraging affidavits and a host of explanations, eventually reaching London after stopovers in Uganda, Italy, and the Netherlands. Their ultimate destination was the World Congress of Mothers in Switzerland, which they attended on behalf of Fedsaw, where they established powerful solidarity networks. Tamana later reflected in a letter: "When I saw all these things, different nations together, my eyes were opened and I said, I have tasted the new world and won the confidence of our future." Following their return, Ngoyi and Tamana played pivotal roles in organising the 20,000-strong women's anti-pass march to parliament in 1956.

Frances Baard, a domestic worker who rose to prominence as a union organiser, notably presented the Women's March petition to the apartheid state. Despite persistent police harassment, she travelled extensively across South Africa, connecting domestic workers, factory workers, and other exploited labourers. Her tireless organising work led to her imprisonment and banishment. In her memoir, Baard powerfully articulated the mind's enduring ability to travel: "Even though they ban me... my spirit is still there... free."

The stories also include those who sought freedom through exile, such as Florence Mophosho, one of the few exiled women leaders of the ANC in the 1960s. Based for years in Tanzania, she travelled widely for the Women's Secretariat, underscoring the critical importance of travel for advancing political freedom and global women's emancipation – a view not always appreciated by her male colleagues.

Even when the apartheid government loosened some mobility restrictions in the 1980s, movement remained far from free or unencumbered. Emma Mashinini, who led the Commercial, Catering and Allied Workers Union, embarked on "a hundred and one travels" both within and beyond South Africa to further the cause of freedom for her people. In 1981, Mashinini endured six months of solitary confinement, deemed by the state to have "overreached" as a Black woman traveller-organiser. She steadfastly insisted in her memoir that South Africa was her country and she intended to come and go as she pleased.

Understanding this history of travel and writing illuminates the often-unsung contributions of Black women trade unionists and organisational leaders as anti-apartheid movers and shakers. Their insistence on mobility came at immense personal cost, yet, in a profound sense, these women never travelled alone. They embarked on these journeys to gain ground for the greater cause of freedom, simultaneously discovering new versions of themselves along the way.