The Women Who Loved And Fought Alongside Nelson Mandela - Page 6

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.