She assures me she has and, even more embarrassed, I step out of my car to greet her. One of the dogs also does its typical thing of smelling people and with one eye on it, and the other trying to assure those around me that I’m calm (a lie that is clearly visible to them), I greet her.
The last time Elinor and I met was at the Nelson Mandela Foundation in May this year for the screening a Zimbabwean documentary on the complexities of national healing, The Axe and the Tree. As we do often, our meetings are occasions to reflect on events and happenings around us.
Fierce intellectual
Of course, I find myself doing most of the listening as Elinor – a well-read woman – puts things into perspective. She is a fierce intellectual, hiding under her warm and sweet disposition towards people.
There is something powerful about her presence that makes you want to honour her – and women like her – but once that thought crosses your mind, you realise that you’ll never be able to do it. These are women who have given, and continue to give, themselves selflessly to the cause of social justice, defying all odds and allowing nothing to stop them in their tracks.
It is a painful violence within, that feeling of knowing that you’ll never be able to do enough to show gratitude and respect to such women. Not that they need it – they absolutely do not because they are not motivated by self interest but by their very genuine concern for humanity and determination to fight against oppression.
Who is Elinor Sisulu?
Struggling for freedom
“I usually describe myself as a Zimbabwean-born South African writer. But my main identity is that I’m a mother, I have four boys. I’m also a feminist and an activist,” she says.
And adds: “I wish I wasn’t an activist. It’s not a good thing to be. When you’re an activist it means you’re struggling for social justice and really, one would have hoped that by now we would have reached those goals and would be living our lives. But we have to keep struggling, even for the very basic freedoms which are promised to us.”
The absence of basic freedoms in most of Africa has resulted in the exodus of hordes of her children to the West for a significant period of time now. Obviously, this has hampered the development of the continent.
But Elinor asks a very profound question that startles me: why is Africa so unkind to her children?
It’s a question that demands deep and intense reflection of the contributions made by people like Kwame Nkrumah, Amilcar Cabral, Steve Biko, Anton Lembede, Sol Plaatje and the like.
Predatory leadership
“All these great African heroes had love for the continent and a desire to shake off the shackles of colonialism. We’ve not been able to gain a truly independent Africa. But this is not just as a result of colonialism. Venal African regimes have oppressed their very own. Leadership in the third world has been very opportunistic and predatory,” she says.
Sisulu is deeply concerned about the politics of liberation movements in Southern Africa.
“In many ways, they have let us down very badly because of this anti-imperialist discourse, which I really consider a pseudo anti-imperialism because none of them are actually following an anti-imperialist project. All those who shout about it [anti-imperialism] do it for opportunistic means. A true anti-imperialist project would mean internal strengthening of people in an effort to address poverty and the national well-being of citizens,” she says.
Failures of capitalism
She goes on to talk about the challenges of socialism and the failures of capitalism, stressing the need for a new paradigm to address issues of poverty but also highlighting that whatever shape that new paradigm takes, it ought to have a founding philosophy that demands “responsible and accountable leadership – because no matter how wonderful your ideology is, if the leadership is not accountable then it will fail.”
There is no mistaking that Sisulu is a powerful woman. She married into a powerful family via Max Sisulu, son of South Africa struggle icons Walter and Albertina Sisulu. The latter played an instrumental role in the 20,000 women march in Pretoria protesting against oppressive pass laws. The legacy of Women’s Day, celebrated in South Africa on August 9 is founded on that historic event.
MaSisulu passed on recently. I ask Elinor what lessons she learnt from her mother-in-law.
Self sacrifice
“I’ve learnt to be courageous. I’ve also learnt to respect people because Mama was no respecter of persons as the Bible says. The other lesson was that of organisation. When you look at the story of the 20,000 women march, you’ll appreciate what those women did with no cell phones, twitter or facebook.
“Pretoria was extremely hostile at that time in the 1950s so it took enormous courage for those women to do what they did. I’ve always been struck by the amount of discipline and self sacrifice that it took for the women to pull off the march the way they did, ” she says.
Sisulu realises that many women are learning from her. And – so many years on – the political space is not much different. Women are still open to attack. “There was a huge cost to be a member of the ANC back in the day and it just seems as if we don’t prioritise political discourse anymore, perhaps because the enemy was much clearer then,” she says.
There is also a huge cost to being an activist. Sisulu has suffered vitriolic attacks from the Zanu (PF) regime in Zimbabwe with the Spewer-in-Chief being former information minister, Jonathan Moyo. But at least that kind of attention tells her she is doing something right.
The last word belongs to her – but is for all the women out there; “Don’t allow yourself to be pushed around.” – Kabwato is Media & Communications Officer in the regional office.
Post published in: Africa News