Albertina Sisulu
1918 -

Albertina Sisulu born in the Tsomo district of the Transkei in 1918 to a very large family. Albertina only became aware of the political situation in South Africa in 1942 after moving to Johannesburg to train as a nurse. In 1944 she met and married Walter Sisulu, one of the ANC leaders, and together they had five children. Albertina joined the ANC Women’s League in 1948, while her husband was moving in and out of jail, until he was finally sentenced to life imprisonment on Robben Island in 1964. She was jailed in 1958 for her involvement in protests against pass laws and again in 1963 when she was detained in solitary confinement for three months. For years after the imprisonment of her husband, Albertina lived under the constant threat of banning orders, and two of her children went into exile.

Albertina’s activism was more in politics involving women, and she became a founder member of the Federation of South African Women (FEDSAW) when it was established in 1954. She was then succeeded Lillian Ngoyi as president of FEDSAW in 1981 and in the same year, her banning order was finally lifted. She went back into politics but was again jailed for speaking and distributing pamphlets at a friend’s funeral. She was this time sentenced to four years and spent seven months in solitary confinement. In 1983, while in jail, she was elected president in absentia of the newly formed United Democratic Front (UDF). In 1985 she was put in solitary confinement once again, this time for nine months and was acquitted of high treason charges in 1986.

In 1988, following the rent crisis, where homes were being raided to persecute non-payers in Soweto, Albertina formed part of the delegation that met the mayor of Soweto so as to put an end to the raids. In 1989, she became part of the UDF delegation that met United States president, George Bush, so as to establish relations between the two countries. When the ANC was unbanned in 1990, Albertina worked on a committee that reestablished the ANC Women’s League. In 1991, she was elected to serve on the ANC’s national executive committee.