‘Marrying a man who was already married to the nation’ - The Walter and Albertina Sisulu love story

https://www.sahistory.org.za/topic/walter-sisulu-timeline-1912-2003

Audrey Hepburn once said that the best thing to hold onto in life is each other. In this month of love, we look at the inspiring love story of two struggle heroes, Walter and Albertina Sisulu. Their love survived the dark days of apartheid, when Walter Sisulu was imprisoned eight times, banned, placed under house arrest, tried twice for treason, and, in 1964, jailed for life.

Walter Ulyate Sisulu was born in the village of Qutubeni in the Engcobo district of Transkei on 18 May 1912. His father was Albert Dickenson, a white assistant magistrate. He was raised by his grandmother and uncle and only moved in with his mother when he was six years old. He attended an Anglican missionary institute until Standard 4 [Grade 6], and had to leave at the age of 15, after his uncle’s death. To help support his family, he had to seek work in Johannesburg where he found employment in a dairy farm.

Albertina Sisulu was born in the Transkei in 1918. She was the second child of Bonilizwe and Monica Thethiwe. Her mother’s health deteriorated and on his deathbed in 1929, her father made a special request to Albertina. He asked to look after her brothers and sisters. She was only 11 years old at the time.

Walter attended night school at the Bantu Men’s Social Club and took driving lessons. In 1940 he was fired from his job at the bakery for his role in organising a strike for higher wages. At age 28 the same year [1940], Sisulu joined the African National Congress [ANC].

Albertina excelled at school in cultural and sporting activities. She showed leadership skills from an early age when she was chosen as head girl of her school in Standard five [Grade 7]. After successfully completing high school in 1939, Albertina decided to pursue a profession that would enable her to support her family in Xolobe. She was accepted as a trainee nurse at a Johannesburg “Non-European” hospital called Johannesburg General and left Xolobe for Johannesburg in January 1940.

In 1941, Albertina met Walter at the nurses’ residence through one of her cousins and fell in love. On 15 July 1944, Walter and Albertina were married in a civil ceremony at Cofimvaba in the Transkei. Nelson Mandela and then wife Evelyn were best man and bridesmaid at the Sisulu wedding, which was held at the Bantu Men’s Social Centre in Johannesburg on 17 July. Anton Lembede warned Albertina that she was marrying a man who was already married to the nation.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-06-03/albertina-and-walter-sisulu-smile-in-their-soweto/2744902

Walter and Albertina had five children: Max, Lungi, Zwelakhe, Lindiwe and Nonkululeko and they also helped raise Walter’s sister’s children, Gerald and Beryl and Walter’s cousin’s son Jongumzi.

Walter rose very rapidly in the ranks of the ANC and became a member of the Transvaal executive, in addition to being secretary of the Youth League. In 1952, Sisulu, Mandela, Moroka and others were tried under the Suppression of Communism Act for their leadership role in the Defiance Campaign.

Albertina was one of the organisers of the historic anti-pass Women’s March in 1956 and opposed inferior ‘Bantu education’.

Albertina and Walter Sisulu had only about 15 years of normal married life. The love that united them in the 1940s stayed strong through the years during which Walter was imprisoned eight times, banned, placed under house arrest, tried twice for treason, and then sent to jail in 1964 for life.

They were loving in letters that they sent to each other. One letter sent by Albertina to Walter while he was in Robben Island, begins “Darling Walter … longing for you”. Walter wrote his first letter to Albertina a few days after his arrival on the island, although this exhausted his quota of letters allowed for the first half of the year.

Albertina eventually received the letters and replied, signed them “Your loving Tinie” Albertina was very upfront about her feelings for Walter. “We loved each other very much,” she once said. “We were like two chickens, one always walking behind the other.”

The Sisulu love story is one that stood the test of time, although they were far away from each other, they could find a way to get closer through the letters and prison visits that Albertina made. Albertina was true to her husband and father of her children and eventually they were separated by death. This month of love, we are reminded of such love and how precious it is once you have it.