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As the world continues to mourn the death of Nelson Mandela, many of us are getting the chance to learn more about him and all the great work he has done throughout his life. We’ve also had the chance to learn about the women who have been in his life: His wives, the women who fought with him in the ANC and against apartheid, and the women in his life who were influenced by his activism and story to tell their own. These are some strong women, many who faced jail time for standing up for something they strongly believed in, and others who were with “Madiba” on his road to freedom and greatness.
Evelyn Mase
Mase was the first wife of Nelson Mandela. The two were married in 1944 after meeting through friends (and Mandela’s fellow activists), Walter and Albertina Sisulu. Though things became strained during their marriage as Mandela became more interested in African Nationalist ideologies (and accusations of infidelity arised), Mase had four children with him (all but one have passed on) before pushing away politics for Jehovah’s Witness work. They divorced in 1958.
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Winnie Madikizela-Mandela
The same year that Nelson Mandela and Evelyn Mase ended their marriage, he went on to marry Winnie Madikizela, the first black medical social worker in South Africa. At the time, Mandela was already the leader of the African National Congress, and she also became heavily involved in activism, especially when Mandela was targeted by the government and inevitably imprisoned in 1964 for life. She was so heavily involved while trying to raise their two daughters by herself that she wound up being jailed quite a few times for her anti-apartheid work. She became a controversial figure for believing in violent retaliation against black South Africans who supported the apartheid regime, and for future legal trouble (including being involved in acts of violence, as her bodyguards, the Mandela United Football Club, were infamous for kidnapping individuals, torturing them and even killing a teenager). But despite all that, she was known as the “Mother of the Nation.” She continued with her political pursuits and after the release of Nelson Mandela from prison, he made her his deputy minister of arts when he was elected (before being ousted in 1995), was president of the ANC Women’s League, and a member of South Africa’s Parliament. Nelson and Winnie Mandela would divorce in 1996.
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Graca Machel
Machel, an advocate for women and children’s righs from Mozambique, is the widow of Mozambican President Samora Machel. She wed Nelson Mandela in 1998 on his 80th birthday. But before that marriage happened, Machel was the Minister of Education and Culture in Mozambique, and later, was behind a major report for the United Nations on how children are impacted by armed conflict. She was awarded the Nansen Medal in ’95 for all her humanitarian work, and has been a member of the Elders, a group comprised of world leaders in 2007 to help find solutions to major world problems.
Lillian Masediba Ngoyi
Ngoyi, who worked alongside Mandela, was the first woman to be elected to the executive board of the ANC and helped to create the Federation of South African Women. Ngoyi also at one point was the president of the Women’s League and helped lead a protest against making black South Africans carry passbooks (like a passport, but it told you where you could travel and work, etc.) everywhere they went. Her activism had her thrown in jail on many occasions (including one time where she was in solitary confinement for 71 days) and banned from many places, but it would also make her something of a legend. Ngoyi would go on to have Strijdom Square (where the passbook march happened) named after her, as well as a patrol vessels named in her honor.
Albertina Sisulu
The wife of Walter Sisulu (who spent 25 years alongside Nelson Mandela at Robben Island and is a major figure in anti-apartheid activism), Albertina didn’t want to get involved in politics initially, but supported her husband’s pursuits. She inevitably joined the African National Congress and went on full throttle: She became a member of the executive board of the Federation of South African Women, and spent three weeks in jail after marching against the apartheid government’s push to make women and blacks in general to carry their passbooks at all times (she did so with Ngoyi). She was eventually released with the help of her friend, Mandela, who acted as her lawyer. Sisulu would continue to be jailed multiple times for her anti-apartheid protests, but by 1994, she would go on to be elected to South Africa’s first democratic Parliament.
Alice Mase Sisulu
The mother of Nelson Mandela’s mentor, Walter Sisulu, Alice was also good friends with Mandela. He stayed with Alice and her son after making the decision to move to Johannesburg (they stayed in Orlando West, a township) and started doing his political activist work, with Walter Sisulu by his side. Alice is also the cousin of Evelyn Mase, Mandela’s late ex-wife (so no, her having the name Mase was NOT a coincidence).
Amina Cachalia
While it’s reported that Mandela had feelings for Cachalia and even asked her to marry him after his divorce from Winnie (she reportedly said no because her own husband had passed not long before the proposal), she is known by most as just being a long-time friend of the former president. Cachalia started protesting against apartheid as a teenager and was an advocate for women’s rights. It would be her anti-apartheid work that would get her in the most trouble though, as she was reportedly put on house arrest for 15 years throughout the ’60s and ’70s. She held quite a few executive positions on everything from the Federation of South African Women to the National Assembly of South Africa and was honored for her work in 2004 with the Order of Luthuli medal in Bronze.
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Zindzi Mandela
Nelson Mandela’s youngest daughter, Zindzi (from his marriage to Winnie) was also an activist against apartheid and started when she was a teenager while her father was imprisoned. Watching her mother get dragged off to jail, Zindzi, at the age of 12, wrote a letter to the United Nations Special Committee Against Apartheid, seeking better security and conditions for her mother, and would often release statements for her father to the press while he was also imprisoned. Now 53, Zindzi is a familiar face out of Nelson Mandela’s many children, and was most recently seen helping to promote the film Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom.
Zoleka Mandela
Nelson Mandela’s granddaughter Zoleka (the daughter of Zindzi) is actually an acclaimed author, behind the book When Hope Whispers. In the book, she shares her own struggles of losing two children, being sexually abused as a child herself, dealing with alcoholism and drug abuse (for about a decade) and battling breast cancer. As Jacana Media, the publishers of her book, wrote, When Hope Whispers is indeed a “testament to the strength of healing.”
