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date: 09 February 2025

Nokukhanya Luthulilocked

Nokukhanya Luthulilocked

  • Jill E. KellyJill E. KellyDepartment of History, Southern Methodist University

Summary

Nokukhanya Luthuli (1904–1996) was a South African women’s leader best known as the wife of Albert Luthuli, the president of the African National Congress between 1952 and 1967. Born in the British Colony of Natal, she grew up in a kholwa (African Christian) family navigating the growing restrictions on Africans in a segregated Union of South Africa, fought and survived apartheid, and lived to see the first nonracial elections in South Africa. Her life was shaped by her Christian faith, a commitment to her Zulu heritage, and the quest to see equal rights for all—from her own insistence on accessing a mission education to fighting the indignities of discrimination in South Africa. She launched a Groutville branch of the Daughters of Africa in the 1930s and joined the African National Congress in 1951. She committed herself to multiracial organizing, passive resistance, and campaigns against pass laws and inferior education for black South Africans. She served many diplomatic functions locally, nationally, and internationally on behalf of and in memory of her husband and led women in her community, province, and nation.

Subjects

  • Southern Africa

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