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| The 1944 Sisulu Wedding Party. Courtesy Sisulu family Collection--South African History.org |
This week, a lioness passed. Saluting Mme Albertina Sisulu and the iconic African womanhood she stood for; and the mother's mothers she stood in for (see Mrs. Lithuli below). There are so many things to shout and celebrate and venerate in salute of Mme Sisulu--her unfaltering dedication to the struggle against oppression/colonization of mind+body; her fierce, fearless and beautifully afro-headed leadership of the democratic against apartheid South Africa; her clarity of mind, values and focus about what ultimately matters most in life: abuntu, people. But not mater what you fixate your admiration on, so much of it centered on the enviable relationship she shared with her husband--Walter Sisulu. Separated by political imprisonment for most of their married life, they still managed to live out a model of true love...to give of yourself without expectation, to live in faith of love against reasonable hope, to act for and from love in action and even in fault, to live for something greater than the embellishment and promise of romantic love.
Mme Sisulu will be laid to rest this weekend next to her husband at Croesus Cemetary, following a funeral at the landmark Orlando Stadium, Soweto. One of their great-grandchildren, Shaka Sisulu, tweeted a reflection in his grand's passing, “as more and more of the stoic, respected elders withdraw from office, public life or this world, there is the danger they leave with their values”. Let it not be so.
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| With Dr. Jassat, Mrs. Lithuli (wife of first African Nobel laureate & Freedom Fighter Chief Albert Lithuli). |
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