"So sorry to see this as I googled P.s name as I often have done over the years. Only this time I found the obituary. I am in tears....a great woman. As I read the obituary I sadly discovered that her son Lindi preceded her in death. Lindi is how I met P. and the family. "
In loving memory of
Phyllis P. Jordan
July 17, 2016
Dr. Phyllis P. Ntantala-Jordan, maiden name Priscilla Phyllis Ntantala, was born into a relatively privileged Transkei family in the 1920. Her father, George Govan Ntantala was a prosperous farmer who served on the Transkei General Council, iBhunga. Her mother, Ida Balfour, was a descendant of the earliest African Christian community, founded by the prophet Ntsikana during the second decade of the 19th century in the Eastern Cape.
From the local primary school, she was sent to Healdtown College, outside of Fort Beaufort. She went on to continue her education at the University of Fort Hare, in Alice, where she attained a BA and became one of the first African women graduates of that college.
In 1939, she was recruited to teach English at the Bantu Secondary School in Kroonstad, Free State, by the late Reginald Cingo and married a fellow teacher, Archibald Campbell Jordan that same year. Their first two children were born in Alice. Among her pupils in Kroonstad were the recently deceased Dr. Daniel P. Kunene, Professor of African Languages and Literature at the University of Wisconsin, and Dr. Samson Guma who led the African Studies Department at the University of Swaziland until 1996. It was the proud boast of persons like Dr. Gabriel Setiloane that they were not taught English by an Englishman, but learnt that language sitting at the feet of Phyllis Ntantala.
In September 1962, Phyllis, and her family, left South Africa as political refugees to escape Apartheid, and settled in the United Kingdom. In September 1963, travelling on a British Passport, she emigrated to the United States with her late husband, Professor A.C. Jordan. They settled in Madison, Wisconsin where he was employed as a professor in African Languages and Literature. She became a permanent resident of the United States in 1972.
Phyllis was perhaps more widely known as 'Mrs. A. C. Jordan,' her late husband was a pioneer Africanist scholar who was among the founding faculty of the University of Wisconsin's African Studies program. However, she established herself as a woman of extraordinary intellect in her own right by the time she arrived in the United States in 1963.
Like other remarkable women of her generation: Ellen Kuzwayo, Epainette Moerane- Mbeki, Albertina Sisulu, Cissy Abdurahman-Gool and Janub Gool; it was through active participation in the liberation movement striving to create a democratic South Africa that she won her spurs. Her forte was writing and in her published work that first appeared in Ronald Segal's quarterly journal, Africa South during the mid-1950s, she amplified and expanded on the plight of African women and women's rights.
Phyllis' politics and feminism persuaded her to focus on the position of women in apartheid South Africa. Her essay, "Widows of the Reserves" won critical acclaim and was republished first in Langston Hughes' An African Treasury in 1963, then as a pamphlet issued by the United Nations Center on Apartheid in 1972.
In the years following her husband's death, Phyllis attended to family and continued to write, but soon became restive. In 1975, she moved to Michigan to take a post teaching English Literature and Composition at Wayne State University in Detroit. As a result of budget adjustments, her post was terminated in 1983. That year, she moved to New York and worked as a translator and news analyst at the United Nations Center on Apartheid. Growing weary of the city, she took a post as a home health worker in the more bucolic surrounds of Poughkeepsie, NY and began work on her autobiography, A Life's Mosaic, which was published by the University of California Press in 1991. In that same year, she returned to Michigan, settling in the Detroit suburb of Taylor where she would live until her death.
Throughout her life Phyllis worked as a teacher, a healthcare worker, and a translator, but she was, first and foremost, a writer and continued writing until her last days.
"It is one of the ironies of history that the most pervasive and total oppression, the oppression of women, has been to a large extent neglected by scholars within the ranks of the movement. This can be explained, in part, by the male chauvinism, which has been the bane of colonial liberation movements, and also the imprecise terms in which we discuss the future socio-economic order we envisage for a free South Africa. And yet, the success or otherwise of our struggle may depend on the extent to which we are able to involve as wide as possible a front of liberation forces against the oppressor regime. Women, specifically the Black women, will and must form a central pillar of such a front. We submit, Black women have no cause to commit themselves totally to the liberation struggle, unless the freedom to be achieved will in turn grant them equality and human dignity."
She wrote in an article titled, "Black Womanhood and National Liberation," published in Sechaba, the official organ of the African National Congress, in December 1984.
In recognition of her life's work, her alma mater, the University of Fort Hare, awarded her an honorary Doctorate of Philosophy in 1996. In addition to her autobiography, republished in South Africa in 2006, she has authored a numerous articles and essays. She recently completed a translation of Samuel Mqhayi's anthology, Inzuzo - which she translated as "The Harvest". That manuscript is presently with a South African publishing house.
From the 1970's on, Phyllis Ntantala-Jordan became a regular feature on speaking circuits and spoke to audiences across the United States and Canada about issues of African literature, gender, African history and South African politics. As an elder within the South African exile community in the Americas she was awarded two prizes and came to be regarded as a mother figure.
At the age of ninety-six her physical frailty had become as stressful challenge because her mind was still sound. On the morning of Sunday, July 17, 2016, she passed away at the Beaumont Hospice in Taylor, Michigan.
Dr. Phyllis Ntantala-Jordan was preceded in death by her parents, George G. Ntantala and Ida Balfour; her husband, AC Jordan; her daughter, Nandipha; and her son, Lindi. She is survived by her adopted daughter, Agatha Ninzi; her son, Pallo; her grandchildren, Thuli, Samantha, Margaret and Nandipha; as well as six great grandchildren.
Tributes
"Mhakhulu! I bless the day Uncle Boji thought it important and introduced me to you. Knowing you is one of the most important milestones of my life. I have been blessed with close relationships with women of great intrinsic spirit. I count these women-ladies in one hand and you, Mhakhulu are one of them. Thank you for the love you've shown towards me as it is common knowledge that although you were a people's person, it is not many whom you would welcome to your core. I'll always cherish the long, hilarious, caring and loving telephonic conversations we had. Who's going to call for nothing else but to find out whether I am well, rested and looking after myself?! What of those visits to your private space in Taylor, Michigan! Being invited back to visit with you was a vote of approval from you - important to me from a women of your caliber. "How do you like your egg?" - I'll miss that loving hospitality. I'm so glad that we a summer and winter holiday together so I could experience the season-and-age-defying loving friendship. This reminds me of a song called "You've got a friend" - winter, spring, summer or fall - you were the same. It was a true pleasure, honour and blessing to know you MamSukwini! I've taken on board all your teachings and I promise to do my best not to disappoint you as I navigate my path emhlabeni. Thank you for the keepsakes you thoughtfully chose and gave me when we parted! What did I do to deserve one so dear and special! Phumla ke Mhakhulu as you always urged me to do! Ugqatso ulufezile! Undibulisele apho kooBless! _In loving memory,_Intombi yakho,_Nomonde. _Dr N. Nolutshungu."
"A Tribute to Mama Phyllis Jordan....A Mother and Friend to ME! Ntinga Ntaka Ndini! Ntinga NoQqaza WeJojo! Ntinga Ntombi kaTata u-Ntantala noMama u-Balfour eNqabara! When I left the US to relocate to South Africa after 30 years, during which you and I had many good times, you said: Ndlela Ntle Qhudeni, Mpofane, Dla-Mathibane, Ndlela Mhlophe Ntombi ka Titshala neBhelekazi! Makhonz' agoduke! Nina anixakwa lithambo lasemzini! Goduka Ntombi yase Bathenjini! Kuba kaloku lent' ingummntu, yintw' ihlal' ihlal' igoduke!! Today, I say to you as you are relocating to the Land of Ancestors: Ndlela Ntle Sukwini, Lawukazi! Ndlela Mhlophe Chwana! Tiki ayivumani nepokotho! Ndlela Ntle Dibashe! Sandlalangca! Mnqayi linqindi! Mvaba yiketile. Goduka Mama and my Dear Friend......... Kuba kaloku lent' ingummntu, yintw' ihlal' ihlal' igoduke!! I met Mama Phyllis in 1981 in the State of Michigan, US. She was already retired and living in Taylor, Michigan. I was then with many other South Africans, a Graduate Student at Michigan State University, in Lansing. I later got a position as a Professor at Central Michigan University in Mt. Pleasant. During several visits with Mama either at her Apartment in Taylor or at our home in Mt. Pleasant, we spent wonderful evenings reminiscing on the core African values we received from our parents and at the primary schools in our villages. Although there was a big difference in our ages, we were so close that one might think we were of the same age! When she talked about me to friends, she liked to say: "Lungie and I hit it off the very moment we met. It was as if we had known each other many decades past." That was the type of a friendly relationship we had. Albeit, I would be remiss not to mention that this relationship was not all Roses. Mama was a very tough "cookie to crack," a no nonsense person and straight talker. She would not bow down and compromise her convictions in the name of friendship or because she was related to that person by blood or anyhow! Our friendship was among other things premised on the strong African values we shared. Mama was born in 1920 and raised eNqabara Village, Idutywa in the rural area then known as the Transkei Bantustan; The last child/daughter of Mama Balfour and Tata Ntantala. She went to Duffy Primary school in her village, attended Healdtown High School and later graduated from Fort Hare. I was born in the late forties kwa-Manxeba Village, eHeshele in the rural area of the Transkei. I went to kwa-Manxeba primary school, then attended Marizell High School and later graduated from Fort Hare. Although we were born at different ages, we both experienced first-hand harsh conditions under the system of apartheid at home, school and in the community at large. However, cosmic forces and Divine intervention made us escape those conditions under different circumstances. In the Preface to her Autobiography, A Life's Mosaic, Mama tells readers that "Like Trotsky, I did not leave home with the proverbial one-and-six in my pocket. I come from a family of landed gentry in the Transkei. I could have chosen the path of comfort and safety, for even in apartheid South Africa, there is still that path for those who will collaborate. But I chose the path of struggle and uncertainty." Her gripping story is not of a struggle to escape from poverty and obscurity but of a creative and articulate black woman's search for identity and fulfillment. Even though the body was frail, and she had been away from her roots for decades, she had a wonderful and clear memory of her friends and acquaintances she met under different circumstances! She clearly remembered their names and the different events whether they were political, cultural or social where they met! She had a deep passion for isi-Xhosa language and got offended by those who would read our language with an English accent. She would say! "What a Shame that African children work hard at being little whites in a black skin....when white children stick to their language and culture." Words cannot eloquently articulate how much I valued the friendly relationship I had with you as Mama and A Dear Friend! All I can say at this time of our Loss....Albeit a Gain by our Ancestors...... Ndlela Ntle Sukwini, Lawukazi! Goduka Dibashe! Sandlalangca! Kuba kaloku lent' ingummntu, yintw'ihlal' ihlal' igoduke!! Eyakho Intombi! Prof. Lungie Goduka albeit "