Albertina Sisulu

Biography

Nontsikelelo Thethiwe was born on 21 October 1918 in Camama, in the Transkei region of South Africa. She moved to Johannesburg in 1940 to train as a nurse, becoming one of the few pathways available to Black women seeking professional education under apartheid.

She married Walter Sisulu, a leading ANC figure, in 1944, and with that marriage came a life of activism, sacrifice, and extraordinary resilience. She is affectionately known across South Africa as Ma Sisulu.

Historical Context

When the apartheid government imprisoned Walter Sisulu alongside Nelson Mandela following the Rivonia Trial in 1964, their intention was to decapitate the ANC's leadership. The wives and families of imprisoned activists were left to manage households, raise children, and resist, all while under surveillance, banned from political activity, and denied normal employment.

Albertina Sisulu refused to disappear.

What She Fought For

Under a banning order that restricted her movements, limited who she could meet, and forbade her from making public statements, Sisulu continued to organise. She was arrested multiple times, sometimes simply for stepping outside the boundary of her banning order to attend to patients as a nurse.

She was a founding co-president of the United Democratic Front (UDF), formed in 1983 to unite hundreds of civic, church, and labour organisations against apartheid at a time when the ANC was banned. This made her, effectively, the public face of domestic resistance during one of the most dangerous periods of South African history.

She was elected to South Africa's first democratic parliament in 1994.

Major Achievements

• Founding co-president of the United Democratic Front (1983)
• Deputy President of the ANC Women's League (1991–1993)
• Member of the National Assembly of South Africa (1994–1999)
• Sustained community activism for over 40 years under banning orders and surveillance
• Recipient of the Isitwalandwe Medal, the ANC's highest honour

Her Impact Today

Albertina Sisulu died on 2 June 2011, aged 92. The year she was born was the same as the ANC itself. She outlived apartheid, raised five children and three adopted ones, nursed her community, and never, not once, accepted that the system would win.

Walter Sisulu said of her: "She kept us alive." He meant the family. He also meant the movement.

Sources: Wikipedia (Albertina Sisulu), South African History Archive, ANC Historical Documents