Evelyn Mase
*Evelyn Mase was born on May 18, 1922. She was a Black African nurse.
Evelyn Ntoko Mase was born in Engcobo, Transkei, South Africa. Her father was a mineworker, and her mother was his second wife; they had six children, three of whom died in infancy. Mase's father died when she was still a child. Mase's mother then died when she was 12, leaving her under the care of her older brother, Sam Mase. A devout Christian, Sam had a close friendship with Walter Sisulu. In 1928, Sisulu moved to the Soweto area of Johannesburg, obtaining a house in the Orlando East township. Sam joined him there and, becoming politicized, encouraged Sisulu to read left-wing literature.
In 1939, Mase, in Johannesburg, trained as a nurse in the city's segregated hospital at Hillbrow. There, she befriended Walter's girlfriend, Albertina, whom he met in 1941 and married in 1944. Mase was a bridesmaid at the Sisulus' wedding. At the hospital, she worked alongside Rosemary Mda, the wife of anti-apartheid activist A. P. Mda. During that time, in 1944, she met and married Nelson Mandela, with whom she was married until 1958.
Living together, they raised four children, three of whom survived into adulthood. She trained to be a midwife while working as a nurse. In the 1950s, her relationship with Mandela became strained. He was becoming increasingly involved in the African National Congress and its campaign against apartheid; Mase avoided politics and became a Jehovah's Witness. She also accused him of adultery with several women, an accusation corroborated by later biographies, and of being physically abusive, something he always denied.
They separated in 1956. She initially filed for divorce but did not proceed with the legal proceedings. In 1958, Mandela, who was hoping to marry Winnie Madikizela, obtained an uncontested divorce from Mase. Taking the children, Mase moved to Cofimvaba and opened a grocery store. She generally avoided publicity but spoke when Mandela was released in 1990. Deepening her involvement with the Jehovah's Witnesses, in 1998, she married a businessman, Simon Rakeepile. She died on April 30, 2004, following a respiratory illness. Her funeral attracted international media attention and was attended by Mandela, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, and Mandela's third wife, Graça Machel.
