Reflections of Gratitude (20 Nov 2025)

The Richness of Rhythm

The organisers of Blocktober met recently with partners from the Saartjie Baartman Centre and Sports Science Institute to reflect on Blocktober 2025 and discuss Next Steps. 

Go to the end of this blog to join the Nov / Dec 2025 events or to take other actions.

Walking and Connecting

As many of you know, throughout October 2025 we connected over about 16 700kms of walks, runs, rides and swims, and we donated. The focused nature of the walks and message this year integrated the rhythm of exercise with a destination (Blockhouse) and purpose (solidarity and economic empowerment of women).  When we walk, cycle, run or swim in solidarity with others, when we synchronise our rhythm with theirs, when we attune to each other’s steps, breath, pace, tread, this results in a new sense of connection, of relationship, of empathy, of safety.

We all feel deep gratitude for the positive impact of Blocktober and the potential for future growth and collaboration.

Personal reflections included:

• It was transformational for me – participating, listening and connecting.
• It was personalised and touched me as an individual.
• The hike was a highlight for many new participants, allowing them to tick off a bucket list item and experience the Blockhouse for the first time.
• I’m now a blockhead!
• Everyone was able to take the role they are good at.
• Safety is not just about the absence of violence, but also about healing and transformation.
• It was a privilege to contribute to the back-office work needed to make the blog work, to reach new people, and to collect stats on what happened.
• The blogs gave women from diverse backgrounds a voice.
• Remain ambitious – we nailed it and there are still many more peaks to reach.

Areas for Improvement:

• Keeping Blocktober unique - are we clear on what makes Blocktober unique?
• Our social media reach – we improved this but how do we reach more diverse groups, especially the youth?
• Branding – are we clear how to communicate our uniqueness as people found the various names and taglines confusing?
• Economic empowerment - how exactly will we support Saartjie Baartman Centre to increase the reach and impact of its Entrepreneurship Hub? 

Some Stats

• The depth, diversity and quantity of Blocktober participants increased in 2025. Most walkers were first timers with 242 unique walking individuals forming new connections. For more details, click here.
• The runs/cycles time trialist were the most regular participants over the past three years. Ascents in 2023 were 27, in 2024 66 and in 2025 there were 29.
• The Kenyan cyclists continued to inspire covering significant kms.
• Swimmers in Switzerland and Cape Town kept the ship afloat. 
• As shown in the Graph below total donations raised over 3 years is R548 295, with a significant increase in 2025. We are grateful for the generosity of 56 individuals, 1 corporate (PCI-Africa) who gave a sizeable amount and 1 regular group (Blocktober time trialist runners/cyclists, who have given over all 3 years).

Going forward

• The monthly Sunday Solidarity hikes will continue: 
• To ensure safety of participants and foster connection we will remain at a manageable size, i.e., one combi from Saartjie Baartman +  participants who walk in solidarity against gender-based violence.
• Where possible we will hold two walks a month which will allow for more participants without having large unmanageable numbers of walkers at one time.
• The launch of the Sports Science OptiFit branch at the Saartjie Baartman Centre on 28 November 2025 is a huge step forward and an example of the type of collaboration we can help with.
• Use of Donations: The Saartjie Baartman Centre will start recruitment for the Entrepreneurship Manager in January 2026 using the Donations for this purpose. To build sustainability the Centre will add to the Donations amount to ensure that the position is funded for two years. Due to the significant impact of the OptiFit branch some budget will also be used to support this. Further discussions on how Blocktober volunteers can support economic empowerment for survivors will occur in 2026.
•  Improving branding and communication – a focused discussion will be held to agree on how to achieve this, with plans to articulate our uniqueness, update the website, continue blogs, and improve social media outreach.
• October 2026 will build on the momentum and positive impact of 2025 – for example, having an anchor-person for each exercise type (cycling, walking, swimming, running). And building our global network.

Your next Blocktober steps

• Stay in touch: Join the Blocktober WhatsApp Group, also for further details regarding the events below.
• Join the launch of the Sports Science OptiFit branch at the Saartjie Baartman Centre on 28 November 2025, 10am to 12.
• Join the final Sunday Solidarity hike for 2025 on 14 December starting 7am. 
• Donate to build sustainability of the entrepreneurship interventions and to support the OptiFit branch.
• Why not read the blogs you have missed?

For the road ahead (31 Oct)

It’s Not Over 

Walk Day 31

By Lala Steyn, Walked 31 days during Blocktober 

Stepping up for Saartjie: carrying the Blocktober flag against gender based violence for 31 days 

Thank you! Dankie! Enkosi!

• For walking
• For cycling
• For running
• For swimming
• For donating
• For participating
• For sharing
• For comforting
• For blogging
• For reading
• For brotherhood
• For sisterhood
• For talking
• For connecting
• For taking action against gender-based violence

From Bernadine Bachar, Director of the Saartjie Baartman Centre: 

“We are speechless and deeply, deeply grateful - the passion, commitment and dedication of everyone in this group is awe inspiring. Thank you to each and every one of you for showing up and making a difference.”

What we did

During October we were active: about 16 700 kms of walks, runs, rides and swims, taking 2 150 hours.

Walks to the Blockhouse in October

Cumulatively we walked 3 225km to the Blockhouse during this month. That is equivalent to walking from Cape Town to Blantyre, Malawi.

In October there were 430 walking ascents to  the King’s Blockhouse. That’s a combined ±3 225 km on foot and around 1 037 hours on the mountain (at ~2.5 h per ascent). Walkers keep saying the long, steady climb is perfect for real connection and conversation.

Broader Blocktober activities

Beyond the Blockhouse: Supporters have logged Blocktober activities on Strava in Kenya and further afield (including Sweden, the UK, Switzerland, New Zealand, Italy, Mexico, the USA and China). Blocktober is wherever you move—together for this purpose—even if not on the same trail.

Using a sample from the Strava records of these participants, we estimate an additional ±13 700 km and 1 100 hours involving activities such as walking / running / riding / swimming.

We wrote 31 blogs with there being 6 585 views.

Donations

We exceeded our donations target of R450 000, with donations received currently standing at R529 409. This means in 2025 we have made and raised donations more than double compared to what was raised in 2024. If you planned to donate please go ahead, as every contribution will help build future sustainability. 

As Jean du Plessis said: “Thank you, everyone, for believing, participating and donating. And thank you to the wonderful people at PCI Africa, for helping to take us beyond our wildest expectations for this year with their generous contribution. Although important, Blocktober never was or will be only about the money. Our mission is about building constant and genuine solidarity and collaboration to help eliminate the scourge of GBV. "

For the Road Ahead

We look forward to:

• Monthly Sunday Solidarity Hikes with the Saartjie Baartman team: dates will be provided on the Blocktober WhatsApp Group.

• The scaling up of economic empowerment opportunities by the Saartjie Baartman Centre through, amongst other activities, employing a full-time Entrepreneurship Manager because of your donations.

• The formal launch of the Saartjie Baartman / SSISA / Blocktober health, fitness and wellness programme in November this year.

• Steps for Saartjie blogs to continue to tell our stories.

• Blocktober 2026!

• Remain part of the movement by joining the WhatsApp Group. 

Why not read the blogs you have missed?

Why every day ? (30 Oct)

Walking with Purpose

Walk Day 30

By Rosalie Kingwill, Researcher and Blocktober walker 

"You can't understand someone until you've walked a mile in their shoes."

In front of the Blockhouse together

Rosalie asked Lala about walking to the Blockhouse every single day this Blocktober 2025.

Rosalie: Lala, you, Jean and Dixon have done Blocktober every day this October! Your commitment to walk every day struck me from the start to the end of the few Blocktober walks I shared with you and others. I wondered each time what it must take to walk every single day and what its meaning is. The rest of us just put up our emoji thumbs, get ourselves there and walk, albeit purposefully. You not only lead the walks whilst being attentive to new walkers, you also schedule them on several WhatsApp groups, organise, edit and post blogs each day, and manage a chunk of the fund raising and its purpose. This is a full time commitment, entirely voluntary. I gather you were helped on the technical and ideas side (credit due to Dawie and Janet) in setting up and operating the communication platforms, but you took on the daily responsibilities.

Could you help us understand what the significance of walking every day is, and why you do it?

Lala: I have always been a Blocktober participant but this year I put my hand up to walk every day to the Blockhouse. I see myself as the anchor, which must be in place at all times. Walking every day, at a predetermined time and route, creates the option for other people to participate according to what is possible for them. Walking to the Blockhouse is an act of solidarity with the survivors of gender-based violence and as survivors don’t get to take a day off, neither will I!

Rosalie: Could you expand on your insight that “survivors don’t get to take a day off” and how that informs your commitment to persevere no matter the weather.

Lala: If you have, or someone you love has, experienced gender-based violence, you will know that finding your path towards healing from its impact on you and those you love, is difficult and important. During your journey you don’t get to decide to take a day off, its stays with you. As you find your path its impact changes.

Rosalie: As I mentioned, the walking plus the other responsibilities must take up most of your day. How are you able to do this?

Lala: I am able this year to invest the time as I could postpone my immediate work commitments and my health is good.

Rosalie: And the daily blogs?

Lala: The daily blog is similar. By posting one every day, other writers can place their voices into this space of solidarity with the survivors of gender based violence. This is about collective action. The blogs have given me great joy.

Rosalie: Jean told me a similar story about undertaking daily activities as a means of identifying with survivors who cannot escape their trauma no matter what is going on externally. The daily tread, regardless of discomforts, is a modest way of stepping into the shoes of victims.

P.S. Jean cycled every day last year as he did years before. This year he could not cycle in the conventional sense while rehabbing from a terrible crash, but kept in the daily Blocktober regime by completing multiple hours on a stationary bicycle and in the pool at the Sports Science Institute of SA every day, forming new Blocktober bonds in the process. 

Key links

• Please donate today – to help make the target for Saartjie Baartman Centre's income generation programme for survivors of gender-based violence (you can set the tip at R0)
• Why not read the blogs you have missed?

Last walk in Cape Town Blocktober 2025

• Date: 31 October
• Time: 6am
• Difficulty: Moderate
• Duration: 2.5hrs, 7.5km
• Route: From the mountain end of Chelmsford Rd, Vredehoek, to the Kings Blockhouse - Starting point Pin  📍

From empire to empathy (29 Oct)

Walking the path of healing 

Walk Day 29

By Marthe Muller, Women Historian and Blocktober walker

Our stomping ground.

For four Sundays this October, I joined a changing herd of hikers, parents, children, strangers, survivors, and friends, climbing the steep path to the King’s Blockhouse on Devil’s Peak, helping to transform old strongholds of colonial domination into sanctuaries of safety. Built in 1796 to guard Cape Town from imagined enemies, the fort now stands watch over a different kind of battle, the interpersonal violence that still scars so many human relationships after the centuries of structural violence inflicted by white supremacy, colonialism, and apartheid.

 

Fading painting of woman, on the Queens Blockhouse ruins.  

We walked in honour of Blocktober, a movement of solidarity with survivors of gender-based violence. Below the crumbling stones of the nearby Queen’s Blockhouse, a faded painting of a woman once sat, huddled and despairing, mirroring the silent suffering endured by so many in our still remarkably unhealed land. My brother Jean du Plessis co-founded Blocktober to “switch this unique fortress from an armed lookout protecting empire to a symbol of resistance and solidarity.” Each step raises awareness and funds for the Saartjie Baartman Centre, a refuge for women and children who have endured violence.

How do we restore humanity in a fractured and unhealed society still haunted by apartheid, patriarchy, and intolerable inequality? In 2015 statistics from the Copenhagen Consensus revealed that domestic violence killed nine times more people than wars, and cost the world nine times more, than all the wars taking place in the world at the time.

In addition to the incredibly high rates of gender-based violence and femicide in South Africa, we are rarely reminded that men are at least five times more likely than women to be murdered, by male perpetrators, who themselves were often victims of violence endured or witnessed as children. Violence begins with disconnection, from self, from others, from Divinity, and from the inherent worth of life.

Families are the smallest units of planetary sustainability, where children should first learn to adjust their antagonisms, and be exposed to the values of compassion, empathy, and forgiveness. Without these being modelled, we, who evolved from fighting animals, will replicate what is modelled instead.

As a member of the race who tragically invented and implemented apartheid, I have become deeply aware of the unsustainability of the actions of my ancestors, and greatly interested in what I understand to be the opposite of apartheid:  Governance for the growth of souls.  I have been taught that governance for the growth of souls begins with making decisions based on seven enduring values, which provide the scaffolding for sustainable families and a sustainable society:

Life, honouring the sacredness of every person.
Equality, restoring the dignity to all.
Growth, replacing vengeance with transformation.
Quality of Life, ensuring conditions where souls can best thrive.
Compassion, where leadership begins with the heart.
Empathy, seeing through the eyes of both the wounded and the wounding.
Love, the only force that permanently disarms violence.

South Africa, and every survivor of violence, has the potential to remain a wound or become a workshop. We are all implicated in the state of our world and our relationships.  As Solzhenitsyn wrote, “The line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being.” All evil is merely unrealized good, the shadowy part where the light of the sun has not yet reached. Faced with every challenge, we are asked to honour the Divine pattern that indwells us and ask, “What would Love do?”

Key links

• Please donate today – to help make the target for Saartjie Baartman Centre's income generation programme for survivors of gender-based violence (you can set the tip at R0)
• Read other Steps for Saartjie blogs

Next walk in Cape Town 

• Date: 30 October
• Time: 6am
• Difficulty: Moderate
• Duration: 2hrs, 7.5km
• Route: From the mountain end of Chelmsford Rd, Vredehoek, to the Kings Blockhouse - Starting point Pin  📍

Not much longer (28 Oct)

Hiking and the journey of life 

Walk Day 28

By first time hiker and survivor of GBV from the Saartjie Baartman Centre

On Sunday the 5^th of October, I found myself standing atop the King’s Blockhouse after completing my first ever hike. This monument, which I had driven past countless times without giving it much thought, became a sight of reflection on life today.

 From my vantage point I couldn’t wipe the smile off myself as I gazed down at the breathtaking beauty of Cape Town - the beach, the harbour and the amazing architecture both classic and contemporary.

As I stood there, looking back at the past hour and a half of my ascent, I couldn’t help but compare the parallels between hiking and the journey of life. The hike started out beautifully and I was filled with enthusiasm. When I looked up to what I presumed to be the destination, I was both daunted and excited by the challenge.

 A few kilometers into the hike, panting and groaning from exertion, yet determined to complete the trail, I heard a fellow hiker asking how far we are from the destination. I was quite eager to hear the response to this question, and it came, ‘not much longer’. As a first-time hiker, I had no idea how long ’not much longer’ was and all I could do was keep breathing and place one foot in front of the other. What felt like millennia later, we still were not there yet, but the hike organisers asked us to pause for a little while we waited for those trailing to catch up. This moment was to me a Godsent, as I got some time to just breathe and take in the view.

 We eventually got to our destination, and I got to sit on the ground, breathe while simultaneously taking in the spectacular view and congratulating myself for reaching this point. About 10 minutes later, after taking pictures and getting some refreshments, we began our descent. Just when you think the ‘pinnacle’ is the best you’re going to experience and anything after that is less than; a hike shows you that the way down is also an adventure which can be as treacherous and as spectacular.  

Whether I am on my way up or down, one thing for sure is that this month I experienced two firsts; my first ever hike and my first ever blog.

Key links

• Please donate today – to help make the target for Saartjie Baartman Centre's income generation programme for survivors of gender-based violence (you can set the tip at R0)
• Read other Steps for Saartjie blogs

Next walk in Cape Town 

• Date: 29 October
• Time: 15.25 for 15.30pm
• Difficulty: Moderate
• Duration: 2hrs, 7.5km
• Route: From the mountain end of Chelmsford Rd, Vredehoek, to the Kings Blockhouse - Starting point Pin  📍

Who was Saartjie Baartman? (27 Oct)

The violence is in the viewing 

Walk Day 27

 Dr Jo-Anne Duggan, Heritage Consultant

Saartjie Baartman was put on display to curious crowds in London and Paris for five years before her death in 1815 at the age of 26, but a plaster cast of her body and her skeleton and preserved organs remained on exhibition in a French museum for almost 160 years.

An unusually sensitive portrait of Saartjie Baartman 

Sara Baartment, also known as Saartjie, was born in 1789 in the Gamtoos River Valley in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. After the death of her parents, she found work as a domestic servant in Cape Town. At the age of 21 she was persuaded by her employer Hendrik Cesar and a British Army medical officer Alexander Dunlop to travel to London where she could make money by performing in shows. Her huge buttocks and strangely elongated labia they believed, would guarantee her success as an entertainer and a scientific curiosity.

From the viewpoint of the present the thought of putting humans on display is unsettling and repugnant, but in 19^th century Europe such spectacles were common and popular. These ‘Human zoos,’ put on show people regarded as freaks or scientific curiosities – three legged men, bearded women, etc, alongside people of other ethnicities who were similarly considered to be less than human.

Presented in London

Drawing of Saartjie digitally veiled as a mark of respect (see ref).

Arriving in London in 1810, Saartje was first presented at a venue in Picadilly Circus, where she was billed as the “Hottentot Venus.” Dressed up in a flesh-coloured figure hugging bodysuit, beads and feathers she sang and danced for the leering crowds.  As Rachel Holmes writes, “To London audiences, she was a fantasy made flesh, uniting the imaginary force of two powerful myths: Hottentot and Venus. The latter invoked a cultural tradition of lust and love; the former signified all that was strange, disturbing and - possibly - sexually deviant.” Within weeks pictures of Saartjie appeared in cartoons, posters and prints.

Not everyone was enthralled by the spectacle. Saartjie also attracted the attention of anti-slavery activists who considered the way in which she was being treated as inhumane. They demanded that she be released from the custody of Cesar and Dunlop claiming that she had been brought to London under duress and exhibited without her consent. Saartjie however declared that she had willingly signed a contract to perform, was being paid a salary and would rather stay in London than return home and the case collapsed.

Performances and death in Paris

In 1814 Saartjie moved with Cesars to Paris where she performed in pubic and at private events for wealthy men and their guests, who were permitted to touch her.  She refused to appear naked, arguing that this was beneath her dignity. In the spring of 1815, she posed for three days at the Muséum National d'Histoire naturelle for a group of inquisitive scientists and artists. The resulting drawings, paintings and illustrations were widely reproduced and circulated, playing into the European narrative that people from Africa and elsewhere were of a different racial order and so inferior, unintelligent, uncivilized, lacking souls and therefore subhuman.

Saartjie died later the same year, aged just 26, but the exploitation of, and fascination with, her physical form lived on. A plaster cast was made of her body and exhibited at Musee de l’Homme in Paris alongside her skeleton and various bottles containing her preserved brain and genitals. This display remained on public view until it was moved into storage in 1974 following complaints that it might be degrading to women who engaged with it. In the years that followed Saartjie’s remains, classified as museum objects alongside other specimens, remained accessible on request to researchers.

Repatriation of her remains

The move to repatriate Saartjie’s remains began in South Africa in the 1990s when the Griqua National Conference Leader, Paramount Chief A.A.S. LeFleur II entered into discussions with President Mandela and the French embassy in Pretoria. He argued that Saartjie had the right to a dignified burial in the land of her birth. The initiative gained traction as other activists, museum professionals and artists added their voices to the campaign. Among these was Diane Ferrus whose evocative poem, I’ve come to take you home, was published in 1998.

French museum officials were unrelenting, arguing that as objects of scientific study, Saartjie’s remains were the property of the institution and could only be alienated from collection by an act of parliament. The French Government was reluctant to take action, seemingly fearing that to do so would encourage further demands for the return of human remains, artefact and specimens plundered from formerly colonised nations. Negotiations between the South African and French governments continued until February 2002 when, after an intervention by President Thabo Mbeki, the French National Assembly passed a bill approving the repatriation.

The South African Department of Arts and Culture appointed a committee to oversee the "return, burial and memorialization of Sara Baartman." She was laid to rest in Hankey, close to her place of birth on Women’s Day, 9 August 2002, restoring in some measure the dignity denied her in life.

Today she is a symbol of resilience and many honour her memory - thus the Saartjie Baartman Centre for Women and Children adopted her name. This blog, “Steps for Saartjie”, is also named in her honour. 

References

The above full length drawing of Saartjie Baartman was digitally veiled as a mark of respect. It is attributed to: Frederick Christian Lewis and was published by Hendrick Cezar in 1810. Source: BBC News.

• Holmes, Rachel. “Flesh made fantasy,” The Guardian, 31 March 2007, accessed online, October 2025.
• Masiteng, Itumeleng Nonkuleleko. “A Bone to pick: curation vs repatriation: understanding the contestation of human remains in South Africa museums (at Ditsong Museum of Cultural History),” unpublished MA Thesis, University of Pretoria, 2019. Accessed online, October 2025.
• Mothoagae, I. D. “Reclaiming our black bodies: reflections on a portrait of Sarah (Saartjie) Baartman and the destruction of black bodies by the state,” Acta Theologica 36, 2016. Accessed online, October 2025.
• Parkinson, Justin. “The Significance of Sarah Baartman,”  BBC News, 17 January 2016. Accessed online, October 2025.
• Tobias, Phillip Valentine. “Saartjie Baartman: her life, her remains, and the negotiations for their repatriation from France to South Africa,” South African Journal of Science 98, 2002. Accessed online, October 2025.
• Twala, Phumzile Nombuso. “Case Study: The Repatriation of Sarah Baartman,” Open Restitution Africa,  undated. Accessed online, October 2025. 

Key links

• Please donate today – to help make the target for Saartjie Baartman Centre's income generation programme for survivors of gender-based violence (you can set the tip at R0)
• Read other Steps for Saartjie blogs

Next walk in Cape Town 

• Date: 28 October
• Time: 16.25 for 16.30pm
• Difficulty: Moderate
• Duration: 2hrs, 7.5km
• Route: From the mountain end of Chelmsford Rd, Vredehoek, to the Kings Blockhouse - Starting point Pin  📍