Book extract
Far from the madding spotlight
In 'A Rare Gift to The Struggle: Ma Vesta and the Everyday Politics of Liberation', Maria Suriano uncovers the life of Vesta Smith, a remarkable yet overlooked figure in South African history. This edited extract traces Ma Vesta’s everyday acts of defiance as she carved out her role as an organic intellectual, community worker and bridge-builder between generations, ideologies and communities
At the Croesus Cemetery in Newclare, Johannesburg, near the Walter and Albertina Sisulu Memorial Garden, lies Vesta Smith, née Mpama (1922–2013), affectionately known as Ma Vesta or Ma Vee. She was a prominent community activist who put social justice at the centre of her life, 71 years of which she spent in Noordgesig, Soweto, situated to the south-west of Johannesburg, where she became an institution. Next to Ma Vesta’s grave, which also contains the remains of her first child, activist Cecilie Lynette Palmer (1944–2019), is that of fellow stalwart Ismail Jacob Mohamed, better known as Professor Mohamed (1930–2013)...
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