Walter Sisulu

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Walter Max Ulyate Sisulu (born May 18, 1912 in Qutubeni in the Engcobo district , Transkei ; † May 5, 2003 in Johannesburg ) was an anti- apartheid fighter and South African politician.

life and work

Wedding of Albertina and Walter Sisulu, 1944. Far left Nelson Mandela

Walter Sisulu was born in Qutubeni, a village in Transkei where mainly Xhosa people live. His mother was a peasant woman, his father, Mr. Dickenson, a white civil servant who did not care for his son. He spent the first six years of childhood with his mother, then with his grandmother and an uncle. Sisulu received his education at the Anglican Missionary Institute of Engcobo , which he had to leave at Standard 4 and at the age of 15 after the death of his uncle.

In 1928 Walter Sisulu went to Johannesburg, where he worked in a dairy to support his family. For a short time he went back to his homeland to undergo the initiation rites of his people. Subsequently, Sisulu returned to Johannesburg in 1929 and worked in a gold mine.

Shortly afterwards he moved in with his mother, who had found work as a domestic servant in East London . During this time he came into contact with Clements Kadalie , who led the influential Industrial and Commercial Workers Union (ICU). The experiences from his work in the gold mine and the acquaintance with Kadalie have, according to his own statements, decisively shaped his political consciousness. He later moved back to Johannesburg with his mother and worked there in a number of simple occupations. Here he attended evening school at the Bantu Men's Social Center and was involved as a secretary in the Orlando Brotherly Society , an Xhosa aid organization.

He was fired from a bakery for organizing a strike for higher wages. After various employment relationships, including as part-time cashier at the Union Bank of South Africa , he went into self-employment and after 1938 became a partner of a white broker. As a result of this activity, the autodidact gained a reputation as a real estate agent. Sisulu met Nelson Mandela in Johannesburg in 1941 and brought him into contact with Lazar Sidelsky's law firm in 1942 , where he was offered a training position.

In 1940 Sisulu became a member of the African National Congress (ANC). In 1944 Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo , Sisulu and others founded the ANC Youth League , the youth wing of the African National Congress, which he later served as treasurer. Sisulu organized the first illegal strikes. After the National Party won the elections for the white population in 1948 and immediately presented a program that provided for the introduction of total racial segregation, Mandela, Tambo and Sisulu organized the first mass demonstrations against the emerging politics.

From 1949 to 1954, Sisulu was Secretary General of the ANC, where he was held in high regard. He was considered the ANC's organizational genius. During this time he created a coordinating committee with the Indian Congress and the Communist Party. Together with Yusuf Cachalia, Sisulu called for a national day of refusal to work on June 26, 1950 to protest against increasing racist legislation. During this time he took on more and more of the duties of ANC President James Moroka . In December 1952, Moroka, Mandela, Sisulu and other activists were sentenced to nine months probation for their leading involvement in the Defiance Campaign .

In December 1952 he was re-elected as Secretary General of the ANC. The following year, Sisulu went on a five-month trip abroad that took him to China , the Soviet Union , Israel , Romania and the United Kingdom . The advances in Soviet industrialization left a lasting impression on him, but the authoritarian Stalinist system of rule shocked him . As a result of this trip, his view changed from an exclusive African nationalism to a multi-ethnic congress alliance .

In 1956, 156 people who had participated in the adoption of the Freedom Charter a year earlier were arrested for high treason, including Sisulu. In the Treason Trial , a five-year trial, all of the defendants were acquitted. However, Sisulu had been under permanent house arrest since 1958. In the same year he was elected to the Central Committee of the South African Communist Party , of which he also belonged.

In June 1964, Sisulu, Mandela and six other companions were sentenced to life imprisonment on the prison island Robben Island off Cape Town in the so-called Rivonia Trial . During this time he earned a Bachelor of Art History and Anthropology . He was not released from prison until 25 years later, on October 15, 1989. Two years later the ANC elected him vice president. He held this position until his retirement in 1994.

family

He was married to his wife Albertina Thetiwa Sisulu , a committed freedom fighter herself, for 58 years. This marriage resulted in five biological children, and they also adopted four other children. Sisulu died in 2003 and was the first non-white South African to be buried with a special official state funeral.

His daughter Lindiwe Sisulu has held various ministerial posts in South Africa since 2004. His son Max Sisulu has been Speaker of the National Assembly since 2009 , his son Zwelakhe Sisulu has been editor-in-chief of the New Nation and from 1994 to 1997 head of the South African Broadcasting Corporation .

Honors

Web links

Commons : Walter Sisulu  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Shelagh Gastrow: Who's Who in South African Politics, Number 4 . Ravan Press, Johannesburg 1992, pp. 284-287
  2. ↑ Portrait at sahistory.org.za (English), accessed on July 4, 2012
  3. ↑ SAHO: Walter Sisulu 1912-2003 . Biography on www.sahistory.org
  4. ↑ Walter Sisulu. Grandfather of the Struggle . Biography on www.zar.co.za
  5. ↑ Nelson Mandela: Confessions . Piper Verlag , Munich 2010, p. 441, ISBN 978-3-492-05416-4
  6. ^ SACP timeline , accessed February 10, 2013
personal data
SURNAME Sisulu, Walter
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Sisulu, Walter Max Ulyate (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION South African politician and anti-apartheid fighter
DATE OF BIRTH May 18, 1912
PLACE OF BIRTH Qutubeni , Transkei
DATE OF DEATH May 5, 2003
Place of death Johannesburg