The Women Who Loved And Fought Alongside Nelson Mandela - Page 8
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.
