Albertina Sisulu, mother of nation

Beautiful. We thank you for this lovely tribute to our leaders who have run the race and have now gone to their rest, having passed on their batons to the next generation of South Africans who enjoy the fruits of their labor – our Freedom. May mama and tata Sisulu rest in eternal peace.

So much of her work and life will live on in the hearts and minds of South Africans and beyond. Her family has inspired an entirely new generation of good will and action against injustice. Her legacy and spirit will certainly continue to live on! It is a reminder that in the struggle to do the right thing, we can find the joy and happiness that it supplants in the place of these pains.

Blessings to her soul and her extended family, wherever they may be!

Nadine, Thanks for this. From about 1968 to her death in 2000, I was privileged to know another great and brave South African woman, Mary Benson, initially around the Allard Lowenstein campaigns in New York. Mary spoke, wrote, and campaigned internationally against apartheid and for a new and free South Africa, and she often cited the unbounded courage and inspirational brilliance of Walter and Albertina Sisulu.

Mary wrote what l believe was the first history of the ANC [The African Patriots: The Story of The African National Congress of South Africa, Mary Benson, published by Penguin]. [See also, Mary Benson, Nelson Mandela: The Man and the Movement (1986); Benson’s autobiography, A Far Cry (London: 1989); and other novels and BBC radio plays]. Walter and Albertina appear often in the accounts of the decades through which their heroism, and that of only a handful of others, was the hourly endurance of stifling and violent repression. Their impassioned, determined resistance to it was not then on view to the rest of the world, and often was invisible even in South Africa.

Richard Hammond
Hammond Law Office
San Francisco, CA
reh@richardhammond.com

Though Intersect Worldwide has been on hiatus & I have not been in South Africa this year, I am indeed sad at the news of this moving and empassioned woman’s death. But I am reminded of a quote by WF Murray, which says something akin to wanting to be thoroughly used up when he died, because the more he served, the more he lived. Albertina Sislu both lived and served well and so it is with a smile that remember her contribution to the country she loved.

Nadine: Thank you so much for sending on this news, which offered me the opportunity to bask in the memory of Mama and Tata Sisulu during the 1998 GCC delegation to South Africa — a trip filled with so much inspiration and learning — but nothing was quite as memorable as sitting in their home and hearing the story of the birth of a nation directly from and through them. It was an honor to be present and to have even a brief glimpse of the greatness of these two souls. She will be missed, yet remain as a beacon of courage and vision for women and men everywhere.

Judith Thompson
Co-founder
Social Healing Institute

Mama Albertina Sisulu’s fight for our freedoms and rights, her selfless giving and sacrifice, are great examples for our youth in South Africa and around the world. What a remarkable and strong soul who helped change the face of a nation. I never had the honor of meeting Mama Sisulu but to be touched by her did not require being in her physical presence. I was fortunate enough to have been able to attend the memorial service for Mama Albertina Sisulu’s late husband Walter Sisulu here in NY some years ago. What puts a smile on my face is that they are now together again in the land of the spirits. Thank you Mama Albertina Sisulu!

Sipho Kunene
Drummer with
Harry Belafonte
Hugh Masekela
Abdullah Ibrahim

A true powerhouse we have lost a leader. My condolences to the Sisulu family

Dear Nadine,
I read your wonderful words about Albertina Sisulu – so well deserved.

I knew Albertina since 1987 when I first visited her in Soweto as Israel’s envoy. She was a very unusual and courage’s lady. It was not simple at all too meet an Israeli diplomat these days… After Walter was released we became good friends too. Unusual leaders, both of them.

We, here in Israel, very much need these days leaders of such a magnitude.
Alon Liel