How Can Naked Protest Be Effective?

Naked protests are a form of public demonstration in which individuals, mostly women, use the symbolic power of their naked bodies to challenge injustices. These protests have become an increasingly visible form of resistance, particularly in response to state violence, economic exploitation, and the oppression of women by men.

While naked protests may seem provocative or shocking, they have a long and storied history in Africa. They are not only a powerful statement, but also a direct challenge to society’s norms of politeness, control, and vulnerability.

As a research psychologist, I was interested in studying naked body protests because of their deep emotional power. That is, I examine how emotions such as anger, fear, joy, and empowerment are expressed and experienced by both protester and observer. I have interviewed many South African women who have participated in naked protests over the last decade.

My work, which takes an African feminist approach, shows that these protests are not just acts of desperation or shock tactics. Rooted in a long tradition of resistance and decolonization, they draw on the power of generations and emotional expressions. They are a feminist tactic that uses the body as a site of resistance and empowerment, embodying both vulnerability and strength.

Naked protests are complex and, in my opinion, a powerful tool to reclaim the agency, dignity and voice of African women.

Colonialism and nudity

During colonialism, European countries dominated African nations. The colonists imposed their own values, laws, and social systems, including rigid ideas about how women should behave and dress. These replaced many traditional African practices and beliefs. African women were required to cover their bodies because nudity was considered shameful or indecent by European moral standards.

By protesting naked, African women reject these colonial ideas and take back their bodies as a form of resistance. They say they refuse to be controlled by these outdated beliefs. So naked protests are an anti-colonial action.

African feminism sheds more light. It highlights the unique historical and social conditions that shaped the struggles of African women. It acknowledges that African women’s bodies have long been sites of both oppression and resistance, subject to patriarchal and colonial control.

Naked body protests in South Africa

In South Africa, colonialism was followed by white minority rule. Apartheid was a system of racial segregation and segregation that was enacted from 1948 to 1994. Black South Africans They were denied political rights, restricted from owning land in white areas, and subject to laws that controlled their movements. Black women bore the brunt of this oppression.

1959 in Durban, South Africa women protested In 1908 they defied the Home Beer Act, which prohibited them from brewing traditional beer. Protesters attacked pubs across the state and paraded their bodies as they confronted police barricades in a bold act of defiance. Police were often reluctant to confront or harm women.

In 1990, during the Dobsonville housing protest, women in Soweto stripped down and protested the demolition of their shacks by municipal police. They successfully managed to draw media attention to their demands.

Such protests persisted even in the country’s democratic era. As recently as 2024, women from the South African Cleaners, Security and Allied Workers Union staged a naked protest against the sudden termination of their contracts by private security companies.

study of psychology

However, the primary focus of my research was South Africa. student protests This started in 2015. The #FeesMustFall movement saw students protesting against sexual violence and the high cost of education. There were naked protests at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg and #RUReferenceList protests against rape at Rhodes University in Makhanda.

My PhD study set out to understand naked body protests and contribute to their psychological understanding. I particularly wanted to find out why women used this form of anti-colonial protest and what their emotional and social role was during and after the protests.

I interviewed 16 women who participated in the protests, as well as drawing on podcast interviews with two other participants and a video of the 1990 Dobsonville protests.

Anger and confrontation

I found that anger and confrontation played a central role. The decision to use women’s naked bodies during the #FeesMustFall protests was a deliberate, transgressive act aimed at disrupting the structures that seek to silence them.

They weaponized their vulnerabilities and exposed the contradictions within these systems, where women’s bodies are often sexually objectified but deemed unacceptable when used as tools of protest. Revealing their bodies, these women challenged the state, universities, and society at large, placing their physical bodies in direct opposition to deeply ingrained social hierarchies.

The anger expressed in these protests is not random; It is based on a collective and historical sense of injustice. Women told me they were responding to both the immediate issue of exclusion from higher education opportunities and broader generational experiences of gender-based violence, racism, and economic disenfranchisement. Anger became a way to assert control over their bodies in spaces where their presence was marginalized, ignored, or actively suppressed.

By channeling their anger, these women redefined their relationships with both their own bodies and the public spaces they occupied. Their protests highlighted the connection between personal anger and systemic oppression.

joy in struggle

Another important factor in these protests is joy. Women often experience a sense of joy and empowerment when they achieve their goals. protests.

This joy is not only a personal feeling, but also a collective feeling that binds us together. women together. Joy is itself a form of resistance because it challenges the narrative that women are passive victims.

strong and powerful

By participating in naked protests, women are showing that they have the power to make their own decisions. They feel safer and more in control.

Participants made it clear that being part of these protests could profoundly change the way women felt about themselves. They discover their strength and fighting abilities.

The #IAmOneInThree hashtag was based on the United Nations’ estimate that one in three women in the world will experience sexual abuse in her lifetime. A #IAmOneInThree naked protest was held at the University of the Witwatersrand in solidarity with the #RUReferenceList protests at Rhodes University. Participant Sibu shared how carrying a sjambok (whip) and singing struggle songs with other women made her feel:

That moment was validating for me… I felt powerful somehow. Because you… when you were raped… it made me feel weak… it made me feel like an object, not a person. And I remember that moment feeling empowered, right, I have my sjambok, I have my sisters around me.

Naked body protests in South Africa are a powerful form of feminist resistance rooted in deep historical and cultural traditions. These protests are strategic and emotional forms of resistance that challenge patriarchy, sexism and colonialism.

Mpho Mathebula, Lecturer at the University of the Witwatersrand, published this article on: Speech.