Amina Desai

Amina Desai (c. 1920 - 10 June 2009) was South Africa's longest serving female Indian political prisoner.

In 1996, aged 76, she was a witness for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

In 2013 she was posthumously awarded South Africa's national Order of Luthuli.

Arrest and incarceration

Amina was arrested and accused by the apartheid government of conspiring with her lodger, Ahmed Timol, (who was arrested just days before) to further the aims of the then-illegal African National Congress. Following Timol’s arrest, on 23 October 1971, at 3 am, in the early hours of the morning, the Security Police raided Desai’s home. She was then taken to the notorious John Vorster Square prison in Johannesburg, where she was interrogated for the next four days.

One afternoon, she heard furniture being thrown about in the next room, followed by screams. It was the “most terrible moment of my life” she told the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in 1996. Later, it emerged that Timol had fallen from the tenth floor window of the John Vorster Square prison. The police claimed that Timol had jumped to his death.

Amina

Amina (also Aminatu; d. 1610) was a Hausa Muslim Warrior Queen of Zazzau (now Zaria), in what is now north central Nigeria. She is the subject of many legends, but is believed by historians to have been a real ruler. There is controversy among scholars as to the date of her reign, one school placing her in the mid-15th century, and a second placing her reign in the mid to late 16th century.

The Arabic female name Amina means truthful, trustworthy and honest.

History and sources

The earliest source to mention Amina is Muhammed Bello's history Ifaq al-Maysur, composed around 1836. He claims that she was "the first to establish government among them," and she forced Katsina, Kano and other regions to pay tribute to her. Bello, unfortunately provided no chronological details about her. She is also mentioned in the Kano Chronicle, a well-regarded and detailed history of the city of Kano, composed in the late 19th century, but incorporating earlier documentary material. According to this chronicle, she was a contemporary of Muhammad Dauda, who ruled from 1421–38, and Amina conquered as far as Nupe and Kwarafa, collected tribute from far and wide and ruled for 34 years. A number of scholars accept this information and date her reign to the early to mid-15th century.

Amina (film)

Amina is a 2012 Nigerian psychological drama film written, produced and directed by Christian Ashaiku, starring Omotola Jalade Ekeinde, Van Vicker and Alison Carroll. Amina was shot on location in London.

Cast

Reception

Amina received generally mixed to negative reviews; many critics criticized the casting of the film. NollywoodForever gave it a 45% rating, and also commented negatively about the casting.

References

Amina (magazine)

Amina is a monthly French-language woman's magazine aimed black women in Africa, Europe, the Antilles and North America. It was founded in 1972 and is headquartered in Paris.

History

In 1970, Michel de Breteuil followed the example of the South African magazine Drum and founded several women's magazine in different African countries, before uniting all of them into one magazine named Amina in April 1972. Senegalese Simon Kiba was the cofounder of the magazine. For the first three years, its headquarters were in Senegal, before they were moved to Paris in 1975. Initially aimed at black women in Africa, it expanded its readership to Black women in the Antilles, Europe and North America over the years. The first edition contained a thirty-two page fotonovela in black and white, with only the first and the back page being in color. Reportages about social issues and fashion have been added gradually since. Amina has got the highest circulation of French-language magazines for black women with several ten-thousand copies per month.