BLACK EXCELLENCE: Shon Curtis on Nozipo Glenn

From an early age, Nozipo Glenn has been inspired by the resilience of her mother and grandmother. With a childhood full of lessons about strength and perseverance, growing up in Capetown and Port Elizabeth, under the strict regime of the apartheid South African government, she quickly realized that there is no use for passivity. Mama Nozipo, as we call her, concluded that “racism and colonialism are Siamese twins,” both requiring a diligent spirit of opposition. She began making her steps in the anti-apartheid work for which she would come to be known by defying the rules that governed her communities as a child.

Her internal flames of justice would escalate to a roaring fire by the time she was sixteen and joined the Pan-Africanist Congress of Azania in April of 1960. With spies everywhere, the PAC of Azania would come under scrutiny and eventually dismemberment, with its members being thrown in jail, killed or exiled. The latter fate fell upon Nozipo as she was exiled in 1972. With exit papers in hand, the United Nations would bring her to New York City, and from there she would travel to Tennessee where she would continue to add to education by attending Fisk University.