About this site

This resource is hosted by the Nelson Mandela Foundation, but was compiled and authored by Padraig O’Malley. It is the product of almost two decades of research and includes analyses, chronologies, historical documents, and interviews from the apartheid and post-apartheid eras.

Sisulu, Albertina

1918 -

Albertina Sisulu married Walter Sisulu in 1944. She joined the ANC Women's League in 1948 and was jailed in 1958 for her involvement in protests against pass laws. In 1963 she was jailed again and was detained in solitary confinement for three months. She was a founder member of the Federation of South African Women (FEDSAW) when it was established in 1954 and became president of FEDSAW in 1981. In the same year her banning order was finally lifted. In 1983, while in jail, she was elected president in absentia of the newly formed UDF. In 1985 she was put in solitary confinement once again, this time for nine months, but was eventually acquitted of high treason charges in 1986.

When the ANC was unbanned in 1990, Albertina worked on a committee that re-established the ANC Women's League. In 1991, she was elected to serve on the ANC's National Executive Committee (NEC).

This resource is hosted by the Nelson Mandela Foundation, but was compiled and authored by Padraig O’Malley. Return to theThis resource is hosted by the site.