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February / Feabhra 2014 23
5 Segregated beaches in Durban in 1989
5 Carol Jordaan with Gerry Kelly MLA and her partner Seán Lynch MLA at a Friends of Sinn Féin event in London
5 1994 saw the first free and democratic elections area. My only role in the military campaign later was to give medical assistance to wounded MK soldiers who could not attend hospital because they would be arrested. Later this involved visiting makeshift hospitals as the struggle intensified.” Police soon became aware of their activities and one morning the door of Carol’s family home was kicked in with the shout of “Where are those two bastards?” Carol recalls how they brushed past her mother and burst into her bedroom, “ripping the blankets from me”. “My mother pleaded with them that I was only a student. They left after telling my mother that two of her daughters were up to their necks in subversive activity. “That same morning I told my mother the truth. Although concerned, she stood by us to
the end. This was the same day I was beginning a new placement in one of the big city hospitals. Apartheid had also invaded hospitals. I had to enter via a ‘Coloured Entrance’ and there were white wards for white patients and vice versa. “On one particular occasion I was bringing blood samples to the laboratory. The lift stopped at a floor, the doors opened and a white nurse was waiting. She wouldn’t get in the lift because I was there. I stood my ground. I thought to myself: I’m now a proud member of the ANC – there are things that I will not do; vacating a lift for someone else, regardless of their colour, was one of them.” Nelson Mandela was one of the big influences for many people she recalls, as we talk in the week after Madiba’s funeral. “His very name was enough to inspire people to struggle and one could say he was a guiding light. I remember the day he was released. I was
‘I had three choices: Dubai, London or . . . Lisnaskea!’ heavily pregnant with my first child but I made my way with thousands of others to the centre of Cape Town to await his arrival that night. Although he did arrive three hours late, his address to the people of South Africa and particularly the ANC still lives with me. He thanked us for continuing the struggle while he was in prison. I was so proud. That day I knew that freedom was on our doorstep. “The more obvious aspects of apartheid col-
lapsed overnight. We could walk and go where we liked.” Other people who had a significant influence included Winnie Mandela. “She was seen as ‘The Mother of the Nation’ when Nelson was in prison. She particularly inspired women to struggle. There were very few white people involved in the struggle in our district as only coloured people lived there. I did meet ‘white liberals’, as they were known, afterwards. I once attended a rally addressed by Joe Slovo, or ‘Red Socks’ as he was known because he was a leading communist,” Carol chuckles. “He was one of the leadership and admired by us for his sacrifice.” At the age of 25, in April 1994, Carol witnessed another remarkable day that stays with her – South Africa’s first democratic elections. Carol and her mother, now in her 60s, attended the polling station with great pride. Carol remembers: “There were tears in my mother’s eyes as she cast her vote. She whispered to me on the way out of the polling station: ‘I am proud of you both!’” Carol’s activism in the ANC continued for many years and in 2004 she became the area campaign manager for Thabo Mbeki, who followed Nelson Mandela as President of South Africa. Soon afterwards, Carol left South Africa to experience nursing in other parts of the world. “I had three choices: Dubai, London or . . . Lisnaskea! I arrived in Lisnaskea in July 2004 and I could not believe the British flag was hanging from every lamp-post. The following week they were replaced by green and white
5 Carol’s sister trained with Umkhonto we Sizwe flags. I quickly learned that this part of Ireland was disputed and that the Fermanagh GAA team had reached the latter stages of the AllIreland finals. “It was only a number of years later that I learnt of the similar experiences and histories of
‘I read Alex Maskey’s book, ‘Man and Mayor’, about being the first Sinn Féin Mayor of Belfast, and I realised that the nationalist people here were treated as second-class citizens also our countries. I read Alex Maskey’s book, Man and Mayor, about being the first Sinn Féin Mayor of Belfast, and I realised that the nationalist people were treated as second-class citizens also. “I could not believe the close relationship between the leaderships of both of our struggles. Republicans could talk in depth on the African struggle and its leaders. I know Madiba supported the Irish Peace Process. When he died I must admit tears came to my eyes. It was an end of an era for me and my country. We would not have had a peaceful transition in South Africa but for Madiba. He set us free from apartheid. I hung the flag from the house for a week after his passing and I am and will always remain a proud South African.”