Albertina Sisulu 'the mother of the nation'

This biography has been written in chapters, please refer to the contents on the right to view the different periods in Albertina Sisulu's life.

Motherhood & Politics (1940-1960):

South Africa in the 1940s was defined by incredible economic and political changes, changes that were determined by the Second World War and by the introduction of formal apartheid in 1948. The labour market experienced phenomenal growth because of an increased demand in the manufacturing sector, where goods that were previously produced in Europe, were produced locally because of the war. Many black South Africans were drawn into the manufacturing sector on the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg and there was a great increase in the amount of women who joined the labour force for the first time. A small portion of this new group of female migrants moved to the city with the intention of pursuing higher education in the fields of nursing, teaching or social work and it is amongst this group that Albertina found herself. For Albertina, Johannesburg represented a totally different life to the one she experienced in Xolobe. She had heard stories of the tsotsis, of the wild parties and nightlife and of the dangers of living in the city. But despite all this Johannesburg represented a promise of a better life where Albertina could earn a decent wage to support her family back home in the Transkei.

Elinor Sisulu wrote that “Albertina took to nursing like a duck to water” because of her disciplined upbringing and young life caring for others. Although Albertina thoroughly enjoyed being a trainee nurse, she was bitterly disappointed to discover that she would not be able to send home as much money as she had hoped to. Her job required that she buy compulsory items (uniform and stationary) leaving her with a meager wage balance. However, Albertina saved as much as she possibly could and was able to buy clothes for her siblings occasionally.

Albertina led a very frugal lifestyle and hardly left the nurses’ residences to explore Johannesburg, despite many tempting invitations from her friends to attend social events at the Bantu Men’s Social Centre. It was only during her second year in Johannesburg that she begun to take part in social activities. She took up tennis, made new friends and ventured out into the city with her cousin Jumba, who was a migrant worker, living in Alexandra.

In amongst all the new experiences that Johannesburg offered Albertina, it was also the place where she experienced racism for the first time. There seemed to be an unofficial policy of racial segregation amongst the staff of Johannesburg General as White nurses, regardless of age or experience, were always superior to their Black colleagues. Albertina was shocked at the way junior White nurses would order Black sisters around; she had never been exposed to such prejudice before. Six months into Albertina’s training she witnessed blatant racism and discrimination against black patients who were admitted to the hospital after a horrific accident at Park Station, Johannesburg’s central bus and train terminus. The accident victims were flooding into the hospital and all staff members were on call, including those who were on leave. The Non-European section of the hospital was swamped with patients and the senior Black medical staff appealed to the hospital authorities to allow Black patients to be treated in the European wards but the White authorities would not allow it. As a result of the lack of available bed space, even seriously injured patients were forced to sleep on the floor. This incident had a profound effect on Albertina as she could not believe that medical practitioners would violate their duty and deny the best possible care to patients on the basis of their skin colour.

Another tragic memory that Albertina associates with Johannesburg General is the death of her mother in 1941. The hospital would not permit her leave to attend the funeral in Xolobe. The hospital matron flatly refused to allow Albertina to return home to mourn her mother’s death, despite interventions and pleas offered by the Catholic priests at Rosettenville (a church near to the Johannesburg General hospital that Father Huss had notified about Albertina’s situation).

Albertina’s introduction into South African politics was directly linked to her relationship with Walter Sisulu. Prior to her relationship with Walter, Albertina had never participated or even thought of involving herself in political activities. In 1941 Albertina met Walter at the nurses’ residence per chance through her cousin Jumba. It turned out that Walter was the brother and cousin of two of Albertina’s closest friends at the hospital, Rosabella (Barbie) Sisulu and Evelyn Mase. Although she was at first hesitant to start a relationship with Walter, because Barbie and Evelyn related to her as an older sister, she eventually decided to take Walter up on his invite to the “bioscope” (movie cinema) and their relationship developed from there. Albertina regularly accompanied Walter to his political meetings, but she did so mainly in a supportive capacity, not with the intention of becoming actively involved. At the inaugural conference of the African National Congress' Youth League in 1944, Albertina was the only woman present, but again her presence at the conference was to support Walter. She did not join the ANC Youth League because it was very much a young men’s organisation at the time.

1944 was also the year that Albertina qualified as a nurse and married Walter Sisulu. Walter wanted to be married in Johannesburg but Albertina’s uncle, Campbell Mnyila, insisted that Albertina be married in the Transkei. After a heated discussion between the two men it was agreed that the couple would be married in the Transkei, although their wedding banns had already been read in Johannesburg (banns are a public recognition, in the form of an announcement made in a church, that two people are about to get married). Albertina and Walter had to change their plans and prepare to be married by the Magistrate in Cofimvaba. On 15 July 1944 Albertina became Mrs. Sisulu and after enjoying a more traditional wedding reception at Albertina’s home is Tsomo the couple returned to Johannesburg and hosted a reception at the Bantu Men’s Social Club where Nelson Mandela was the best man and Albertina’s friend Evelyn (at the time married to Mandela) was one of the bridesmaids.

Albertina and Walter lived at No. 7372 in Orlando, Soweto. The house belonged to Walter’s family, and it was here that their first son – Max Vuyisile – was born in 1945. The Sisulu house was always busy with visitors constantly moving in and out, many of whom were prominent political leaders. Miriam Matsha, Albertina’s sister-in-law, has commented that “the best political education I had was living at No. 7372”. Walter decided to quit his job and join the African National Congress (ANC) full time around 1947 and Albertina accepted the responsibility of supporting the family as the sole bread winner. This was a brave decision to make given that the wages for black nurses were not extraordinary and much in South Africa was about to change with the introduction of formal apartheid.  The ANC only began accepted women as members at the Congress’s 1943 conference and in 1948 the ANC Women’s League was formed. Albertina Sisulu joined as a member; this was the beginning of Albertina's life as an activist in her own right. In 1949 Albertina supported Walter's election as the first full-time Secretary-General of the ANC. 
The Defiance Campaign of 1950 to 1952 was a turning point in the national struggle for liberation for many reasons; the mass support it enjoyed sent a strong message to the government about the organisational strength of African leaders, the United Nations recognised that the South African racial policy was an international issue and a UN Commission was established to investigate the situation, the ANC’s membership was increased exponentially, and it heralded a new era of non-racial resistance to Apartheid .

Significantly the Defiance Campaign of 1952 catapulted the ANC’s Women’s League into a new era of action; from this a new breed of women leaders emerged who would later form the Federation of South African Women (FEDSAW). FEDSAW was launched on 17 April 1954 in Johannesburg. It aimed to establish a broad-based women’s organisation that would not only fight for national liberation, but specifically address issues of gender inequality that were driven by the state against non-white women. The Women’s Charter was adopted at the inaugural conference which was attended by 150 women from all over South Africa. During the early stages of the federation, Albertina was not in a position of leadership but she was actively committed to promoting the ideals of FEDSAW.

Also in 1954, Albertina got her midwife qualification and she was employed by the City Health of Johannesburg as a midwife. The job was challenging as Albertina, like the other Black midwives, had to travel on foot to visit her patients in townships. She used to carry her suitcase full of her apparatus (bottles, lotions, bowls and receivers) on her head. When she visited patients at their homes she would take FEDSAW pamphlets with her and would encourage the women to join the federation.

In 1955 FEDSAW was actively involved in the ANC’s boycott of Bantu Education and Albertina, being absolutely against Bantu Education, threw herself into preparations for the boycott. The ANC Women’s League and FEDSAW aided the boycott greatly by opening alternative schools for children that were supported by the ANC as well as teachers who had resigned from their jobs in protest against Bantu Education. Albertina’s home became an alternative school as her children had been withdrawn from their government schools because of the Bantu Education system. The apartheid state responded by making it illegal to run alternative schools and it announced that it would shut down all boycotting schools permanently. This of course meant that parents had to send their children back to the government schools as well as the fact that the alternative schools were not sustainable in the long term. Several Christian schools decided to continue as private schools rather than being placed under the control of the Bantu Education Department and Albertina and Walter decided to send their children to a private Seventh Day Adventist school despite the considerable financial burden this would place on them.

The 1956 women’s anti-pass protest was a historic moment for South Africa and women’s movements with around 20 000 women gathering from all over the country to march on the Union Buildings demanding to see Prime Minister Stijdom to hand over their memorandum. After the ANC Women’s League’s first national conference at the end of 1955, the League and FEDSAW set up a joint working committee to coordinate the women’s anti-pass campaign. Networks and meetings were organised with regular weekend meetings being held in townships, the success of which convinced FEDSAW and ANC women leaders that a mass protest would be an effective means of protest, despite some reservations from male comrades in the ANC. Transporting women from all over to Pretoria was perhaps the biggest logistical challenge to the march, because of the financial cost as well as police measures to stop this. Albertina was one of the leaders who had to ensure that women bypassed the reported police stops that were barring groups of ten or more women from traveling to Pretoria. It was decided that the trains would be used as these would be harder to stop than busses, and Albertina was at the Phefeni train station at 2am on the 9th August 1956 buying and distributing tickets to women attending the march. The march itself was phenomenal and inspiring, bundles of petitions with more than 100 000 signatures were placed outside the Prime Minister’s Door whilst 20 000 women stood in silence for 30 minutes with their hands raised in the Congress Salute. After singing freedom songs, especially the famous “Wathint` abafazi, Strijdom! Wathint` imbokodo uzo kufa!” (Now you have touched the women, Strijdom! You have struck a rock, You will be crushed!), the women left the Union Buildings together in unity and solidarity.

During 1958 the South African Nursing Council demanded that all nurses and student nurses supply their identity numbers to the council. Immediately nurses realised that this demand was linked to the government’s attempts to extend pass laws and pass books to women and a demonstration was organised at Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto. A delegation of nurses leading the demonstration warned the Nursing Council that forcing nurses to carry passes would have a devastating effect on hospital and clinic administration and after considering this the Council dropped the demand for identity numbers. In the same year a demonstration of over 1000 women (led by Maggie Resha, part of the nurses protest at Baragwanath) converged on Freedom Square in Sophiatown to protest against ongoing removals in Sophiatown, women in Alexandra were also protesting against passes. Over 2000 women were jailed for participating in these demonstrations, including Albertina as she was part of a demonstration organised by the ANC Women’s League in Orlando. The women were in jail for three weeks awaiting trial. They had Nelson Mandela as their legal representative and eventually they were all acquitted at the end of the trial.

Within the broader structure of the ANC, women became more respected because of their persistent protesting and their attitudes towards defying the government.

Next: Banning orders, banning orders and more banning orders (1960-1980)