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Nokukhanya Mother of Light

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A woman of many firsts. Among these is the fact that Nokukhanya Luthuli was among the first students in the early 1900s to attend all three of Durban's legendary mission education schools.

As a young girl she was a pupil of Ohlange Institute, a school started by John Langalibalele Dube, a good friend to her father, who was later instrumental in the founding of the African National Congress and who also started South Africa's first black-owned newspaper. She went on to matriculate at Inanda Seminary, recognized for its unheralded role in black women's education in South Africa. She then completed her teacher's diploma at the famed Addams College, near Amanzimtoti.

It was under the sweltering heat of a Durban summer in February 1990, amongst a 150 000-strong politically charged crowd that the author became aware of the subject's remarkable life.

It was just after he had famously proclaimed, “Take your guns, knives and pangas, and throw them into the sea", that Nelson Mandela requested that an unrecognizable old woman, dressed in a bright but a little oversized white summer dress and walking with aid of a walking stick, approach the stage.

"Ï have a present for you", he told the crowd. "I have here with me the Mother of the Nation, Nokukhanya Luthuli. I want you to receive her by shouting loudly and saying "Nokukhanya!" three times." The crowd clapped their hands and raised their voices high beyond the stadium's walls and shouted in unison, "Nokukhanya!", "Nokukhanya!", "Nokukhanya!"

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AWDF.0879.C1

AWDF.0879

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Series Title

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Call Number

AWDF.0879

Publisher

: The Grail., 1993

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Language

English

ISBN/ISSN

978-0620172592

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