I was saddened by the news that Albertina Sisulu, one of the great leaders of the African National Congress had died at the age of 92. She was the widow of Walter Sisulu, the first secretary general of the ANC, a Robben Island prisoner and colleague of Nelson Mandela. She was a retired nurse and midwife.
She had made extraordinary personal sacrifices so that the ordinary African could lead a dignified life, free of the daily discriminations and humiliations that constituted the Apartheid System. She endured a lot so that each person, regardless of race, creed or gender, could enjoy the full range of pleasures and sorrows, challenges and accomplishments that define the daily essence of an ordinary person. Best of all, she and her late husband epitomized the proposition that a decent married couple, seeking the best for their children, could also be committed activists for a just South Africa.
The outline of her life is well known. She was born in 1918 in the village of Camama in the Transkei region of South Africa. An excellent student, she chose to study nursing in the 1940s because trainee nurses were paid during their studies, allowing her to save money to send home to her family. She married Walter Sisulu in 1947.
Albertina Sisulu was the only woman present at the birth of the ANC Youth League. Soon, the first of numerous extraordinary sacrifices was to occur. Her husband elected to surrender his paying job to become the full-time secretary general of the ANC, leaving her to support her growing family on a nurse’s income. She became more of an activist, leading the ANC Women’s League in the famous 1952 Defiance Campaign and the boycotts, protests and sit-ins of the 1950s.
The 1960s saw her endure the first of several banning orders by the Apartheid government. Those orders lasted for nearly two decades. Her husband was sentenced to life imprisonment on Robben Island and she had to raise a family on her own. It is one thing to end up as a single mother by choice; compulsion by a government to become a single mother because of your objection to racism constitutes an involuntary burden.
Like Winnie Mandela, Adelaide Tambo, and “Ma” Mbeki, she bore the burden with quiet and defiant dignity. These de facto “struggle mothers,” earning modest incomes, kept homes together and raised decent families. I salute that accomplishment! Mrs. Sisulu scraped and saved for her children to attend good schools in Swaziland outside the inferior Bantu Education System. They reciprocated the love and support of their parents by joining the anti-apartheid struggle. At one point, Mrs. Sisulu had three of her children in jail with her husband enduring life imprisonment. A parent can only imagine the anguish borne by her in those dark days. Yet, not once did her suffering diminish her attentiveness to the travails of others. Hence, her sobriquet, “the Mother of the Nation”.
Those among us who have the benefit of high education and handsome incomes should ponder this example of an unassuming working mother standing up to struggle for a better society. She fought peacefully, every day, to make her world a less imperfect place. All of us can do a lot worse than emulate that daily contest for a more perfect tomorrow.
Albertina Sisulu earned the prize of victory in her lifetime for her beliefs. Her husband was released. She lived to become a parliamentarian of a post-apartheid South Africa. By their conduct, her children have showered honor on her and her late husband.
Why should all Africans pay tribute to “Ma” Sisulu? She belongs to a breed of dying giants — the giants who liberated Africa for all its inhabitants. She belongs to those giants who have given us the right to rule ourselves irresponsibly, if we so choose, or with decency, common sense, and honesty. The examples of those giants recall that one must be willing to sacrifice for one’s community in the cause of right. Every generation or so, a people are called to remember those examples as they rise up against injustice, greed, corruption, or other vices.
“Ma” Sisulu, thank you for the example of your life. May you rest in peace.
