Albertina sisulu biography history chanel

Albertina Sisulu (October 21, 1918–June 2, 2011) was a prominent leader in the African National Congress and the anti-Apartheid movement in South Africa. The wife of the well-known activist Walter Sisulu, she provided much-needed leadership during the years when most of the ANC's high command was either in prison or in exile.

Early Life

Nontsikelelo Thethiwe was born in the village of Camama, Transkei, South Africa, on October 21, 1918, to Bonilizwe and Monica Thethiwe. Her father Bonilizwe arranged for the family to live in nearby Xolobe while he was working in the mines; he died when she was 11. She was given the European name of Albertina when she started at the local mission school. At home, she was known by the pet name Ntsiki.

As the eldest daughter, Albertina was often required to look after her siblings. This resulted in her being held back for a couple of years at primary school, and initially cost her a scholarship for high school. After intervention by a local Catholic mission, she was eventually given a

South African anti-apartheid activist (1918–2011)

Albertina SisuluOMSG (néeNontsikeleloThethiwe; 21 October 1918 – 2 June 2011) was a South African anti-apartheid activist. A member of the African National Congress (ANC), she was the founding co-president of the United Democratic Front. In South Africa, where she was affectionately known as Ma Sisulu, she is often called a mother of the nation.

Born in rural Transkei, Sisulu moved to Johannesburg in 1940 and was a nurse by profession. She entered politics through her marriage to Walter Sisulu and became increasingly engaged in activism after his imprisonment in the Rivonia Trial. In the 1980s she emerged as a community leader in her hometown of Soweto, assuming a prominent role in the establishment of the UDF and the revival of the Federation of South African Women.

Between 1964 and 1989, she was subject to a near-continuous string of banning orders. In addition to intermittent detention without trial, she was subject to criminal charges on three occasions: she was acquitted of violating pass laws in 1958, convicted of violating the Suppression of Communism Act in 1984, and acquitted of violating the Internal Security Act in the 1985 Pietermaritzburg Treason Trial.

After the end of apartheid, Sisulu represented the ANC in the first democratic Parliament before she retired from politics in 1999. She was also the deputy president of the ANC Women's League from 1991 to 1993 and a member of the ANC National Executive Committee from 1991 to 1994.

Early life and education

Sisulu was born on 21 October 1918 in the Camama, a village in the Tsomo region of the Transkei. She was the second of five siblings in a Xhosa (Mfengu) family. Her father, Bonilizwe Thetiwe, was a migrant worker who spent long stints working in the gold mines of the Transvaal, and her mother, Monica Thetiwe (née Mnyila), was disabled by the bout of Spanish flu that she had suffe

Introduction

Nontsikelelo Albertina Sisulu (née Nontsikelelo Thethiwe) was one of the prominent anti-apartheid South African leaders, widely referred to as the “Mother of the Nation”. Albertina Sisulu was one of five children born to Bonilizwe and Monikazi Thethiwe in the Tsomo district in the Transkei on 21 October 1918. She was a nurse, a political activist and council to her husband former Secretary-General and Deputy President of the African National Congress (ANC), Walter Sisulu.

Early Life

In September 1918 the Spanish Flu, a strain of the influenza virus that had killed 40 million people worldwide, reached South Africa and is estimated to have killed over 30 000 people in the Transkei. Monica Thethiwe (née, Mnyila), caught the virus and was seriously ill whilst pregnant with her first daughter and her second born, Nontsikelelo. “Umbathalala”, as the flu was called in isiXhosa, was lethal to pregnant women and small babies, however, baby Nontsikelelo was born perfectly healthy on 21 October 1918. She would later become the primary caregiver to her four siblings.

Education

Nontsikelelo and her family went to live with her maternal family in Xolobe, because her mother was constantly ill after surviving the Spanish flu and her father went to work in the mines. She attended a local primary school in Xolobe that was run by Presbyterian missionaries, and it was standard procedure that Black learners had to choose Christian names from a list presented to them by the missionaries. Nontsikelelo chose the name Albertina.

Albertina excelled at school in cultural and sporting activities. She showed leadership skills from an early age when she was chosen as head girl of her school in standard five. However, Albertina was forced to leave school on several occasions to take care of her younger siblings, because her mother was constantly ill, resulting in Albertina falling behind by two academic years. This two-year gap proved