RIP: Albertina Sisulu

Askari Kanzu

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Jan 7, 2011
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Albertina Sisulu dies
2011-06-02 21:18



File - Anti-apartheid icon Albertina Sisulu, looks on during her birthday celebration in Johannesburg, South Africa, in this Tuesday Oct. 21, 2008 file photo


Cape Town - Struggle stalwart Albertina Sisulu died on Thursday, aged 92, according to reports.

The wife of former ANC president Walter Sisulu, she was one of the last of a generation of leaders venerated as struggle heroes. She had little interest in politics when she met Walter Sisulu, future general secretary of the ANC.

But she plunged wholeheartedly into the liberation struggle and emerged from years of detention, bannings and arrests as a major political figure in her own right. In 1957, Albertina Sisulu was one of 2,000 women jailed for protesting. All were acquitted. Their lawyer was Nelson Mandela.

"All these years I never had, you know, a comfortable life," she commented years later.

Sisulu, born Nontsikelelo Albertina Tetiwe, was born in the Tsomo district of the Transkei on October 21, 1918, the second of five children of Bonilizwe and Monikazi Tetiwe.

Orphaned as a teenager, she was obliged to help provide for her younger brothers and sisters. Abandoning her ambition to train as a teacher, she left the Transkei to train as a nurse at Johannesburg's Non-European Hospital, as nurses were paid during training.

Education was key
She nevertheless continued for the rest of her life to be keenly interested in education, which she saw as central to the struggle. "Even in the struggle, if people don't know what they are fighting for it is useless," she said in later years.

One of her daughters, Beryl, a former ambassador to Norway, confirmed her passing, according to Sapa.

- News24
 
Apumzike kwa amani,kuna mengi ya kujifunza kutoka kwake na kushukuru Mungu kwa yale muhimu uliyofanya!!
 
R.I.P. Mama Sisulu, you fought the good fight and kept the faith and now the good Lord has called you to a better place.

Be Blessed o ye faithful soldier. Amen.
 
Mrs Sisulu was the widow of Walter Sisulu, a friend and mentor of former South African President Nelson Mandela.

A political figure in her own right, she was active in the women's league of the African National Congress (ANC).Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu said she was an inspiration to all South Africans.
 
Very sory!Bwana alitoa na sasa ametwaa,jina lake libarikiwe!
 
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