Ellen Kuzwayo

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Nnoseng Ellen Kate Kuzwayo (born June 29, 1914 in Thaba Nchu ; † April 19, 2006 in Soweto ; born as Nnoseng Ellen Kate Serasengwe ; also called Ma K ) was a social worker , suffragette , writer, actress and politician in South Africa . She co-founded the ANC Youth League in 1944 . For her 1985 autobiography Call Me Woman (German as Mein Leben ) she was the first black man to receive the South African CNA Literary Award .

Life

Kuzwayo grew up as an only child. Both her grandfather, Jeremiah Makgothi, and her father, Philip S. Merafe, were politically active. Makgothi was secretary of the South African Native National Congress in Orange Free State, Mefare was an active member of the African National Congress (ANC).

Kuzwayo attended a school that Makgothi had built on his farm in Thaba Patchoa, about 20 kilometers from Tweespruit in the Orange Free State. She then trained for three years at Adams College in Amanzimtoti and one year at the Lovedale Institute for high school teaching. In 1936 she passed her final exam. In 1944 she was one of the founders of the ANC Youth League, where she served as Secretary , alongside politicians such as Nelson Mandela and Walter Sisulu . In 1951 she appeared in the film adaptation of the Alan Paton novel Cry the Beloved Country in a supporting role as the director of a shebeen . In 1952 she stopped teaching because of the repression of the apartheid government and trained as a social worker until 1955. From then on she was active in this profession, especially in women's work . She was also known as Ma K known. In 1964 she became general secretary of the YMCA's Transvaal section . In 1976/1977 she was the only woman on the opposition Soweto Committee of Ten and was therefore imprisoned for five months shortly after the student uprising .

In 1983 she obtained a higher diploma in social work from Witwatersrand University , and in the following year she was the first black South African woman to receive an honorary doctorate from the same university. In 1985 she published her autobiography , Mein Leben, which won the prestigious CNA Literary Award and was published in six European languages. In 1990, Sit Up and Listen, a collection of short stories written in the oral tradition , was published.

The documentary Tshiamelo - A Place of Goodness (for example: "Tshiamelo - a place of goodness") is about the farm in Thaba Patchoa, which the family had to leave in the 1970s because of the apartheid laws. Kuzwayo plays the main role in it.

Ellen Kuzwayo was included in the Daughters of Africa anthology , edited in 1992 by Margaret Busby in London and New York.

In 1994 she was elected to parliament for the ANC in the course of the first elections after the end of apartheid. She was a member of parliament until 1999. She received additional honorary doctorates from the University of Natal (1996) and the University of Port Elizabeth . In 1999 she was awarded the Order for Meritorious Service in silver.

Kuzwayo had three sons. She was married twice. Her first husband beat her so that she left him. Her second husband was Godfrey Kuzwayo. In 2006 she died of complications from diabetes mellitus .

Works

Books

Movies

  • Tshiamelo - A Place of Goodness. Documentary.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g Ellen Kuzwayo, Anti-Apartheid Crusader, Dies at 91st New York Times, April 22, 2006, accessed January 20, 2013
  2. Jump up ↑ Struggle this veteran in Soweto. Mail & Guardian, April 19, 2006, accessed April 8, 2018
  3. ↑ a b c Information at sahistory.org.za (English), accessed on January 20, 2013
  4. ↑ List of recipients of the medal 1999 (English), accessed on August 25, 2018
personal data
SURNAME Kuzwayo, Ellen
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kuzwayo, Nnoseng Ellen Kate (full name); Serasengwe, Nnoseng Ellen Kate (maiden name); Ma K (nickname)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION South African social worker, writer and politician
DATE OF BIRTH June 29, 1914
PLACE OF BIRTH Thaba Nchu
DATE OF DEATH April 19, 2006
Place of death Soweto