These practical ideas can be used in lessons in social sciences, languages or life orientation.
Activities for foundation phase (grades one, two and three) and for intermediate phase (grades four, five and six)
Creating a birthday display
Each learner will need a piece of A5 card or paper and some coloured crayons, pens or pencils.
Each learner should:
Write “Happy Birthday Ma Sisulu” on their card;
Write a special message on his card; and
Draw a picture on their card.
You will need a long piece of string and a pack of clothes pegs. Get each learner to peg his card to the piece of string. Hang the string of cards in a colourful display across your classroom.
Activity for the senior phase (grades seven, eight and nine) and history grade 12 (further education and training phase)
In this activity your learners will look at some of the events in the life of Albertina Sisulu.
Here is a list of some events in South African history. Get your learners to copy this list into their notebooks. They should use one line for every year. It does not matter if some lines are blank. Making a timeline like this gives learners a good sense of chronology. They can fill in other events, such as their own birth dates.
World War II began 1939
World War II ended 1945
National Party came to power 1948
Defiance Campaign 1952
Congress of the People 1955
Women’s March to Pretoria 1956
Sharpeville Massacre 1960
Rivonia Trial 1963
Angola and Mocambique independence 1975
Soweto Uprising 1976
UDF formed 1983
First State of Emergency 1985
ANC and PAC unbanned 1990
First democratic elections 1994
Here is a list of events in the life of Albertina Sisulu. Learners should add these events to the list of general events in South African history.
Parents both died when she was 15 years old (work out the date).
Went to Johannesburg in I941 to the Non-European General Hospital in Johannesburg.
In I941 met Sisulu and became involved in ANC politics.
Became a state-registered general nurse and midwife, married Walter Sisulu in 1944.
In 1954 returned to Johannesburg and was employed by the city health department of Johannesburg as a midwife.
One of the leaders of the national demonstration of 20 000 women in Pretoria in 1956, protesting against the extension of pass laws to African women.
One of the leaders of the women’s demonstrations against the pass laws in Johannesburg in 1958, after which she was jailed, the beginning of her life in and out of jail.
Detained and held in solitary confinement for seven weeks in 1963.
Husband was sentenced with Nelson Mandela to life imprisonment in June 1964 on Robben Island.
1964: banned for five years.
1969: given another 10 years’ house arrest.
1980: was appointed a senior nurse running a small hospital in Orlando East.
1981: arrested and sent to jail – in solitary confinement for seven months and thereafter in prison.
1986: discharged from prison, but restricted to house arrest.
1990: became the deputy president of the ANC Women’s League.
Activity for senior phase (grades seven, eight and nine) and history grade 12 (further education and training phase)
Uncovering Albertina Sisulu’s leadership qualities
Albertina Sisulu is a great South African. Read the following four extracts about her life to your class. While you are reading, ask each learner to write down what each extract tells us about Albertina Sisulu’s leadership qualities. Ask learners to try to come up with 10 words. You may need to read the extracts more than once.
When you have finished reading, ask the learners to say what words they wrote and write the words on the board.
There are many possibilities, but some words could include hard working, tireless, humble, self-respecting, respectful of others, self-disciplined, principled, committed, confident, optimistic, forgiving, inspiring, inspired, strong-willed, gracious, reconciliatory, sacrificial, long-suffering, hopeful and determined.
Extract 1
Ma Sisulu on her work as a midwife: “We used to visit our patients in the townships with difficulties on foot. You know what it means to be a midwife? You have got to carry a big suitcase full of bottles and for your lotions that you are going to use, and bowls and receivers, and we used to carry those suitcases on our heads. And if you are lucky enough to have transport in that area, you take either a bus or a taxi to reach your patient. I did that from I946 to 1980.” – Interview from Blue Portraits by Reiner Leist: September 1991 http://www.anc.org.za/people/sisulu_a.html
Extract 2
Ma Sisulu on her political work: “And in 1953 the government decided to give our children what they call Bantu Education. We as women wouldn’t take this. We organised other women against the Bantu Education and…we decided to have volunteers that are going to teach the children. We gave out some rooms in our houses to be classrooms… But that failed because the government wouldn’t register our schools. That now meant that the two years are wasted because the children would not be examined at the end of every year. Now we gave that up. Bantu Education was introduced to the children.
“In 1957 the government decided to extend the pass laws to the women. We said, nothing doing. We are not going to carry passes. We organised women to protest and go to jail. Mark you, I’m a nurse now. And the law of the nursing profession is that if you are sentenced by a court of law you are struck off the roll. But that didn’t really worry me much, although I was already then a breadwinner in the house, because my husband was just for ANC then. He was the General Secretary of the organisation. And most of the time he is all over. He is overseas, he is with the regions. Well, I led the second batch against the extension of passes. We went to jail. We had two thousand women in one jail here at Number Four. We stayed there for three weeks awaiting trial. It was almost a month when our case ended, and Nelson Mandela was our lawyer. We were all discharged. We were found not guilty. So I was saved from being struck off the roll.” – Interview from Blue Portraits by Reiner Leist: September 1991 http://www.anc.org.za/people/sisulu_a.html
Extract 3
Albertina Sisulu was one of the leaders of the national demonstration of 20 000 women in Pretoria in August 1956, in protest against the extension of pass laws to African women, and also one of the leaders of the women’s demonstrations against the pass laws in Johannesburg in 1958, after which she was gaoled and separated from her 10-month-old daughter, Nonkululeko (Freedom). She recalls:
“I had to be in gaol for three full weeks without the baby and I was so sick – my breasts were swollen because I was breastfeeding. I didn’t mind that because it was part of the struggle.” – Source: Sechaba, October 1988 http://www.anc.org.za/people/albertina.html
Extract 4
Yet Albertina seeks no pity. She told the press in one of the brief intervals between banning orders:
“…Although politics have given me a rough life, there is absolutely nothing I regret about what I have done and what has happened to me and my family throughout all these years. Instead, I have been strengthened and feel more of a woman than I would otherwise have felt if my life was different.” Source: Sechaba, October 1988 http://www.anc.org.za/people/albertina.html