The world is a poorer place today. Albertina Sisulu, a shero of the struggle against apartheid in South Africa died in Johannesburg at the age of 92 yesterday. To say that she lived a full life and represented all that women everywhere might strive to accomplish is an understatement. African women in South Africa have a saying about women, Basus’iimokodo, bawel’imilambo “They remove boulders and cross rivers.” This is said with a truly wonderful sense of irony. Historically African women in South Africa have been continually exploited and often considered least valued. And yet, the history of the long struggle against white domination and particularly the struggle against apartheid demonstrates that the courage, strength of character, endurance and perseverance of African women in their struggle for liberation is unrivaled (though often overlooked by white, predominately male Western historians and movie producers). This is the story of one such woman.
Nontsikelelo Thethiwe was born in Transkei South Africa on October 21, 1918. It was a time of great hardship for people in the Transkei as the great flu pandemic spread across South Africa. More than 30,000 people in the Transkei died. The flu wreaked particular havoc among pregnant women and newborn babies, but Nontiskelelo was born perfectly healthy despite the fact that her mother caught the flu only a month earlier. She was a fighter from the first. Her mother was weakened by the effects of the flu and the family remained in the Transkei when her father returned to work in the mines in Johannesburg. Nontsikelelo attended a Persbyterian primary school where she was required to choose a “Christian” name as part of the civilizing mission of the white missionaries. She accepted the name, Albertina, although her family continued to call her Ntsiki.
After primary school, she attended the segregated Roman Catholic Mariazell College in the Eastern Cape on a full scholarship. During this time, Albertina became a Roman Catholic. She trained as a nurse and in January 1940 she went to work at Johannesburg General in the “non-European” hospital. While she had experienced the racial paternalism of the white missionaries in school in the Transkei, it was in Johannesburg that she first saw the effects of the virulent racism of white South Africa. White nurses, no matter how junior and inexperienced, were considered superior to even the most experienced and capable African nurses. African nurses had to obey the orders of the white nurses, no matter how stupid, ineffectual or dangerous. African nurses could be whipped with a cane as discipline for breaking the rules or disregarding the orders of a white supervisor. In 1941, a horrific accident at the Johannesburg Central Train and Bus station brought scores of injured victims to the hospital. Most of the victims were African and the non-European hospital was swamped with seriously injured patients. The white section of the hospital refused to provide additional space for the African patients and white nurses refused to treat them. Later that year when her mother died, the white hospital supervisors refused to allow her to attend her mother’s funeral despite pleas from the white priests in the local Roman Catholic Church.
In 1941, Albertina met the love of her life, Walter Sisulu. He was the brother of one of her friends and obtained an introduction to Albertina through her cousin. She soon learned that her suitor was one of the leaders of the ANC Youth League along with Nelson Mandela and Oliver Tambo. Albertina was not involved in politics before she met Walter but as their romance deepened, she attended ANC Youth League meetings with him. She was the only woman present among the 200 men at the inaugural conference of the ANC Youth League in 1944. The ANC Women’s League, of which Albertina was a founding member, was not formed until 1948 when women were permitted full membership in the ANC. Albertina and Walter Sisulu were married on July 15, 1944.
During WWII, Walter was active in both trade unions and the ANC Youth League where he, Mandela, Tambo and other younger men pressed the older leadership to adopt a policy of direct action which included boycotts, stay-at-homes, intermittent strikes and non-violent civil disobedience to protest the denial of African citizenship rights, segregation, and especially pass laws. African men were required to carry passes in urban areas. They could be stopped and their pass checked and confiscated for any reason or for no reason. Activists in particular were subject to arrest for “technical” violations of the pass laws and could be imprisoned without trial for lengthy periods of time. Families never knew whether their husbands, fathers and sons might be arrested—they might not return home from work, or the whole family might be roused in the middle of the night so a man’s pass could be “checked” and he could be hauled off to court. A woman searching for her father, husband, son or brother had to travel from police station to police station searching for his whereabouts and often the white officials refused to provide them with any information. Walter left his job in 1947 to devote himself to the ANC full time. Albertina assumed responsibility for supporting their growing family as the primary breadwinner.
In 1948, the National Party narrowly defeated the United Party in the white elections. The National Party, comprised primarily of white Afrikaners, campaigned on the policy of apartheid—separateness. The National Party contended that white supremacy in South Africa could only be maintained by a complete separation of the races and a program to permanently subjugate Africans and other "non-Europeans” under economic and social domination by whites. In December 1949, Sisulu was elected Secretary General of the ANC after the more militant ANC Youth League leaders ascended to power. The new leaders launched a non-violent program of opposition to apartheid called the “Programme of Action.” But the Nationalist government responded to increased African activism by enacting the Suppression of Communism Act in 1950. The Act outlawed the South African Communist Party and targeted “any group or doctrine which proposed to effect political, industrial social or economic change through promoting disturbance or disorder by unlawful acts or encouragement of feelings of hostility between the European and non-European races…”
The Nationalist government lost no time in implementing the foundations for apartheid. In 1950, they also enacted the Group Areas Act which eliminated all remaining freehold areas for Africans outside the Bantustans. Africans were required to obtain residence permits to live in urban areas and these were dependent on employment. If a person were fired from their job or left their job voluntarily, they could lose their residence permit. An African woman’s right to live in urban areas was dependent upon the status of her husband. If he lost his entitlement to live in an urban area, the woman and children lost their rights to live in an urban area, regardless of the wife’s employment. Albertina and Walter Sisulu could not own their home at no. 7232 in Orlando, Soweto.
In 1952, the ANC launched the Defiance Campaign along with the South African Indian Congress. Women in the ANC Women’s League were especially militant in the Defiance Campaign because it had been announced that the pass laws would be extended to women. The policy of apartheid envisioned African women as the “superfluous appendages of African men.” With few exceptions, African women were to be deported from their homes in urban areas to “homelands” in rural areas whether or not they had any land or family in the area. The white apartheid architects believed that requiring women to remain in the homelands, or Bantustans as they were known, would force men to become permanent migrant workers who remained in all male hostels in urban areas to work on a rotating basis and then returned to their families in the Bantustans. Since women would be growing food for the family, men’s wages could remain low, barely enough to feed the men. In reality, the land in the Bantustans was infertile, in part because the area set aside as Bantustans was so small that repeated farming had depleted the soil. There was not enough land for everyone to have a plot to farm and those who did were unable to feed their families on what they grew. The women’s participation in the Defiance Campaign was partly responsible for the government’s postponement of the introduction of passes for women until 1956.
In 1954, Albertina Sisulu along with several other women founded the Federation of South African Women (FSAW). The FSAW was a broad inter-racial alliance of women which included African women, Indian women, Coloured (mixed race) women and white women. The aims of the FSAW included not only national liberation but also women’s liberation from patriarchy. On 17 April, 1954, the women of the FSAW adopted the Women's Charter. This is a remarkable document which reads in pertinent part:
Preamble: We, the women of South Africa, wives and mothers, working women and housewives, African, Indians, European and Coloured, hereby declare our aim of striving for the removal of all laws, regulations, conventions and customs that discriminate against us as women, and that deprive us in any way of our inherent right to the advantages, responsibilities and opportunities that society offers to any one section of the population.
A Single Society: We women do not form a society separate from the men. There is only one society, and it is made up of both women and men. As women we share the problems and anxieties of our men, and join hands with them to remove social evils and obstacles to progress.
Test of Civilisation: The level of civilisation which any society has reached can be measured by the degree of freedom that its members enjoy. The status of women is a test of civilisation. Measured by that standard, South Africa must be considered low in the scale of civilised nations.
An Appeal: We women appeal to all progressive organisations, to members of the great National Liberatory movements, to the trade unions and working class organisations, to the churches, educational and welfare organisations, to all progressive men and women who have the interests of the people at heart, to join with us in this great and noble endeavour.
Our Aims
We declare the following aims:
This organisation is formed for the purpose of uniting women in common action for the removal of all political, legal, economic and social disabilities. We shall strive for women to obtain:
1. The right to vote and to be elected to all State bodies, without restriction or discrimination.
2. The right to full opportunities for employment with equal pay and possibilities of promotion in all spheres of work.
3. Equal rights with men in relation to property, marriage and children, and for the removal of all laws and customs that deny women such equal rights.
4. For the development of every child through free compulsory education for all; for the protection of mother and child through maternity homes, welfare clinics, creches and nursery schools, in countryside and towns; through proper homes for all, and through the provision of water, light, transport, sanitation, and other amenities of modern civilisation.
5. For the removal of all laws that restrict free movement, that prevent or hinder the right of free association and activity in democratic organisations, and the right to participate in the work of these organisations.
6. To build and strengthen women`s sections in the National Liberatory movements, the organisation of women in trade unions, and through the peoples` varied organisation.
7. To cooperate with all other organisations that have similar aims in South Africa as well as throughout the world.
8. To strive for permanent peace throughout the world.
In 1954 Albertina Sisulu obtained her certification as a midwife. She had to travel by foot to visit her patients in the townships around Johannesburg but she brought pamphlets containing information about the FSAW and the Women’s Charter to encourage them to join the struggle. She also ran an alternative school for African children out of her home to support the ANC boycott of Bantu Education. Under Bantu Education, African children received only enough education as was necessary to maintain their status as low-paid manual and domestic labor. The National Party government responded to the Education Boycott by making home schooling illegal for Africans. All schools had to adopt the government policy of Bantu Education or operate as a private school. The Sisulu’s monthly budget was further compromised as they chose to send their children to a private 7th Day Adventist School.
Albertina was a delegate to the Congress of the People on June 25-26, 1956 in Kliptown where the Freedom Charter was adopted. The ANC Women’s League and the FSAW in preparing for the Congress of the People, created a list of demands to make sure that women’s issues were not ignored. The document was titled "What Women Demand" and it contains an important statement of women’s rights that American women would do well to emulate:
We Demand
Four months maternity leave on full pay for working mothers.
Properly staffed and equipped maternity homes, ante-natal clinics, and child welfare centres in all towns and villages, and in the reserves and rural areas.
Day nurseries for the children of working mothers.
Nursery schools for the pre-school children.
Birth control clinics.
We demand these for all mothers of all races.
We Demand
Compulsory, free and universal education from the primary school to the University.
Adequate school feeding and free milk for all children in day nurseries, nursery schools, and primary and secondary schools.
Special schools for handicapped children.
Play centres and cultural centres for school children.
Properly equipped playgrounds and sportsfields.
Vocational training and apprenticeship facilities.
We demand these for all children of all races.
That equal invalidity and old age pensions be paid for people of all races.
Homes and proper care for all aged and sick people.
National medical services for all sick people.
Adequate and equal hospital services for all people.
Increased cost of living allowances adequate to meet the rising cost of living.
That all African workers in all spheres of employment be covered by unemployment insurance and illness allowances.
The consolidation of part of the cost of living allowance into basic wages.
That no person be required to carry a pass or reference book.
Equal rights for all people.
We demand these fundamental rights for all people.
We Demand for all women in South Africa
The right to vote.
The right to be elected to all State, Provincial or Municipal bodies.
Full opportunities for employment in all spheres of work.
Equal pay for equal work.
Equal rights with men in property, in marriage, and in the guardianship of our children.
And together with other women all over the world.
We Demand
The banning of atomic and hydrogen bombs.
The use of the atom for peaceful purposes and the betterment of the world.
That there shall be no more war.
That there shall be peace and freedom for our children.
Walter was unable to attend the Congress of the People because he and Nelson Mandela had been banned and could not attend public gatherings (although they were part of the core group who met in secret to plan for the Congress of the People and prepare the Freedom Charter). As a delegate to the Congress of the People, Albertina ratified the adoption of the Freedom Charter, revered by many as the founding document of Democratic South Africa.
Albertina Sisulu was one of the planners of the Women’s March on August 9, 1956 in which 20,000 women marched on the government buildings in Pretoria to protest passes for women. The march was a huge logistical undertaking because the white authorities were determined to stop it. Police were under orders to confiscate train and bus tickets from groups of more than 5 African women. Beginning at 2:00 Am on August 9, Albertina purchased individual tickets for buses and trains and handed them out to two or three people at a time. When the women arrived at the Union buildings, four women representing four racial groups, African, Indian, Coloured, and white presented 100,000 signature cards to a petition against passes for women. The Prime Minister, Johannes Gherhardus Strijdom, was not present but the women left the signature cards outside his door. The women then stood in silence for 30 minutes. After this, they sang freedom songs including a song for this occasion: “Wathint` abafazi, Strijdom! Wathint` imbokodo uzo kufa!” (Now you have touched the women, Strijdom! You have struck a rock. You will be crushed!).
In 1958 the FSAW and the ANC Women’s League in Johannesburg adopted a militant anti-pass campaign in which women, refusing to register for passes, presented themselves for arrest at police stations around the townships and engaged in large, vocal demonstrations. Along with other women Albertina Sisulu chose jail rather than bail to insist that she not be subjected to pass laws. She was incarcerated for three weeks before the ANC finally bailed her out. Providing bail was a controversial decision between the women and the men in the ANC because the women hoped to force the government to abandon passes as the jails were filled to capacity with African women and white women began complaining about the incarceration of their domestic help.
In 1960, following the Sharpeville Massacre in which 69 Africans were shot dead by white police officers during a non-violent anti-pass demonstration, Walter Sisulu, Oliver Tambo and Nelson Mandela participated in forming Umkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing of the ANC. In 1963 Albertina Sisulu was the first woman arrested under the General Laws Amendment Act which entitled the government to hold suspects in detention for 90 days without charge. Her arrest was a vain attempt to force her to reveal the whereabouts of her husband who had gone underground rather than appear for his appeal of a sentence of 6 years at hard labor for his participation in the UMK. During her imprisonment she was not allowed to contact her family and she was subjected to psychological torture as her jailers claimed that her children were also in detention. She did not learn until her release that her husband had been arrested at the Lillesleaf Farm in Rivonia. Walter Sisulu, Nelson Mandela and four others were sentenced to life in prison on Robben Island following what became known as the Rivonia Trial. As the defendants were escorted from court, Albertina rushed to say a last goodbye but the authorities prevented her from seeing him. Undaunted, she and other ANC Women’s League members sang "Nkosi Sikeleli i Africa" (Now the National Anthem) hoping he would hear her. For the next 26 years, Albertina was not permitted to touch her husband.
She finally had to apply for a passbook in order to visit Walter on Robben Island and was banned for 5 years. Under the banning order, she was prohibited from leaving the Orlando section of Soweto and being present at social or political gatherings of more than two people. She was permitted to visit Walter once every 6 months but the officials often delayed their visits with interminable red tape. At first she was unable to earn money for herself and forced to rely on the generosity of others. She recalled this about the family’s first Christmas after Walter was sent to Robben Island:
"There was hardly anything to eat and I had to close the doors and windows to keep out the aroma of delicious food coming from the houses of our neighbours. We were so lonely. The people who we would normally spend the day with were not there. It was the worst Christmas we had ever had."
She was eventually permitted to practice midwifery in Orlando and took in sewing and purchased eggs wholesale which she resold for extra money. She continued her political work despite the best attempts by the white authorities to stop her, using code about gardens (the underground ANC) and pretending to talk about family. She also communicated with others through the bathroom wall which separated her bathroom from her neighbor’s bathroom while her neighbor kept a lookout for the security police. She was constantly harassed by Security Police who raided her home at night and threatened her continually with arrest for being a Communist. They also spread rumors about corruption among the remaining leaders of the ANC asking why her children could attend private school in Swaziland while other children had to suffer under Bantu Education in the townships (foreign donors and sympathetic white liberals in South Africa formed the Defense and Aid Committee and later Dependent’s Conference which helped to pay for the children’s education). Her banning orders were continually extended for 5 year periods until the mid 1980’s.
Her children were also politically active in the struggle. Lindiwe Sisulu (now the South African Defense Minister) was part of the Black Consciousness Movement founded by Steve Biko and her youngest daughter was involved in the 1976 Soweto Uprising. On June 14, 1976 she learned than Lindiwe had been taken into custody but the authorities would not give her information about Lindiwe’s whereabouts or conditions. Ultimately she learned that Lindiwe was being held in the John Vorster Square Detention Center—the notorious prison where Biko was murdered. When she was released in June 1977, Lindiwe was forced into exile in Mozambique where she remained active with the ANC in exile. The increased police brutality against students after 1976, emboldened many more women to enter the FSAW and engage in the struggle. Ma Sisulu as she was known was instrumental in re-energizing the organization (now known as FEDSAW to distinguish it from the earlier organization).
In 1983, Alan Boesak, President of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches who had finally persuaded that body to condemn apartheid, called for a united front of churches, student organizations, trade unions, civic organizations and sports bodies to oppose apartheid. He encouraged people of all races to participate in a “politics of refusal.” The organizers were anxious to get Ma Sisulu’s blessing as she was revered for her generosity of spirit, commitment to inter-racial cooperation in the struggle, and well respected both within the ANC and internationally. She gave her blessing to the formation of the United Democratic Front and became active in planning its inauguration. She was now 63. The government was extremely concerned that her participation in the UDF would lend further credibility to the anti-apartheid struggle which by now had strong international support. Ma Sisulu was detained. As she was handcuffed and marched to the police van outside the clinic where she was working, women gathered to shout insults at the police and encouragement to Ma Sisulu. “Come home with freedom!” they shouted. Ma Sisulu was elected in abstentia as President of the Transvaal (Johannesburg) Region of the UDF. Meanwhile, the state charged Ma Sisulu with incitement under the Suppression of Communism Act because during the funeral of a friend, she allegedly sang songs praising the aims of the ANC (Nkosi Sikeleli i Africa) and praised the deceased for furthering the aims of the ANC. Ma Sisulu was held in solitary confinement from her arrest on August 5, 1983 until her trial in late October. However, rather than dimming enthusiasm for the UDF, her imprisonment provided the organization with more energy. The inaugural meeting was held in Mitchell’s Plain in Cape Town and was attended by no less than 12,000 people from more than 400 different organizations around the country.
Albertina Sisulu celebrated her 64th birthday in prison. She was convicted under the Suppression of Communism Act, and sentenced to 4 years. After the verdict was announced, her family were devastated and worked feverishly to get her out on bail pending appeal. But Ma Sisulu was sleeping the sleep of the just that night and was none too happy according to her daughter, to be awakened in the middle of the night. After her release, she was an unstoppable force in recruiting for both the UDF and FEDSAW. But in 1984, she was arrested again along with other leaders of the UDF and charged with High Treason. She spent several months in prison before the case was dismissed for lack of evidence. She was again detained in 1985 without charge and held in solitary confinement for 9 months. None of these detentions had any effect on Ma Sisulu’s activism. As soon as she was released from detention, she continued her work with the UDF and FEDSAW. In 1987 she told a crowd in Soweto, “Women, are the people who are going to relieve us from all this oppression and depression. The rent boycott that is happening in Soweto now is alive because of the women. It is the women who are on the street committees, educating the people to stand up and protect each other."
In 1989, Walter was released from Pollsmoor Prison and reunited with Albertina. Rather than stay home, however, she continued her work and was a member of the UDF Delegation who met with President George Bush I. Both Albertina and Walter were actively involved in the transition to democracy. In the first democratic elections held in 1994, Albertina Sisulu was elected to Parliament. On their 50th wedding anniversary in July, they held hands under the table like a couple of teenagers, according to their children. They retired in 1999. On their way to bed in 2003, Walter collapsed and died in Albertina’s arms. In his honor the Nelson Mandela Foundation founded the Walter Sisulu Pediatric Cardiac Center for Africa. The Center is dedicated to providing pediatric cardiology services and cardio-thoracic surgery to children who would not otherwise be able to afford it. In 2010 following her 92nd birthday, Ma Sisulu was pictured holding baby Angel Grace who was found in a drain in 2009 and who became the 400th beneficiary patient at the center.
Ma Sisulu passed away last nightwhile sitting in her chair watching television with several grandchildren. In South Africa tributes to Ma Sisulu are pouring in to her family. President Jacob Zuma has ordered a special national funeral for Ma Sisulu, stating, “she was one of the foremost mothers of the nation…While we mourn her loss, we must thank her profoundly for the selfless service to South Africa and humanity at large, and for teaching the nation humility, respect for human dignity and compassion for the weak, the poor and the downtrodden." Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu said: "Her husband was imprisoned for more than 20 years, her children were harassed and detained, and she was herself banned for many, many years. But try as they might they could not break her spirit, they could not make her bitter, they could not defeat her love." Former president Nelson Mandela's family spokesman Chief Zwelivelile Mandela said, “She was our mother, our grandmother and someone who gave us support and guidance. We are deeply saddened by her passing." Democratic Alliance Leader, Helen Zille said, “Albertina Sisulu symbolised all that is strong and good about South Africa …She showed extraordinary fortitude, courage and perseverance in the most difficult times…She raised her family as a single parent while her husband was in prison. She was unwavering in her [commitment] to justice for all and the values that she lived are now embedded in our constitution."
Ma Sisulu’s daughter-in-law has written a book about Walter and Albertina titled Walter and Albertina Sisulu—in Our Lifetime. The book is part political biography and part love story.
Albertina Sisulu is one of my sheroes though I never had the privilege of meeting her. At a time when the media promotes a narrow and powerless and physically exploitative vision of women; when Republicans are waging a war on women to deny us equal opportunity, the right to make decisions about our own bodies, attempting to restrict our ability to earn a decent wage, and denying our children a decent education; when churches teach children to celebrate inequality, racism, and homophobia, I tell Albertina Sisulu's story to young people in world history classes (whenever I get to teach one). I keep hoping that it will inspire young women to envision their potential and their power to impact their communities for good.
Hamba khale, Ma Sisulu, go well.