54 Facts About Evelyn Mase

Evelyn Ntoko Mase, later named Evelyn Rakeepile, was the first wife of the South African anti-apartheid activist and the future president Nelson Mandela, to whom she was married from 1944 to 1958.

Evelyn Mase moved to Johannesburg to train as a nurse, and there met and married Mandela.

Evelyn Mase trained to be a midwife while working as a nurse.

Evelyn Mase was becoming increasingly involved in the African National Congress and its campaign against apartheid; Mase eschewed politics and became a Jehovah's Witness.

Evelyn Mase accused him of adultery with several women, an accusation corroborated by later biographies, and of being physically abusive, something he always denied.

Evelyn Mase initially filed for divorce, but did not go through with the legal proceedings.

Evelyn Mase generally avoided publicity, but spoke to South African reporters when Mandela was released from prison after 27 years in 1990.

Evelyn Mase's funeral attracted international media attention and was attended by Mandela, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, and Mandela's third wife, Graca Machel.

Evelyn Mase's father was a mineworker and her mother was his second wife; they had six children, three of whom died in infancy.

In 1939, Evelyn Mase joined her brother and Sisulu in Johannesburg.

Evelyn Mase trained as a nurse in the city's non-European hospital at Hillbrow, fulfilling the wishes of her late mother that she would enter that profession.

Mandela later related that at that time, Evelyn Mase was "a quiet, pretty girl from the countryside".

Evelyn Mase later informed Fatima Meer that "I think I loved him the first time I saw him", and they started dating after a few days.

The newly married couple had little money; Evelyn Mase earned 18 pounds a month from nursing while Mandela worked part-time.

Evelyn Mase became pregnant, and on 23 February 1946 she gave birth to a son, Thembekile, at Bertram's Nursing Home.

Evelyn Mase gave birth to her second child, a daughter named Makaziwe, in 1947.

In 1953, Evelyn Mase decided to upgrade her nursing certificate so that she could become a midwife, enrolling at the King Edward VII Hospital in Durban.

Fatima later recalled Evelyn Mase as being "a simple person, a good person, nice, very sociable; very easy to get to know and very easy going".

When Evelyn Mase returned to Johannesburg in late 1953, she was pregnant, subsequently giving birth to a second daughter, whom the Mandelas named Makaziwe in honour of their first daughter.

Evelyn Mase gave this new child the second name of Phumla.

Evelyn Mase visited us often and I got on well with her.

Leabie noted that Evelyn Mase "didn't want to hear a thing about politics".

Evelyn Mase was not wholly apolitical; she attended meetings of the ANC Women's League with Albertina, dressing in the colours of the ANC for many of their events.

Evelyn Mase made her two sons distribute copies in the township around their home.

Mandela later noted that Evelyn Mase urged him to convert, but that he refused.

Several biographers, including David James Smith and Martin Meredith, argued that while married to Evelyn Mase, Mandela was having affairs with both his secretary, Ruth Mompati, and with the ANC activist Lillian Ngoyi.

At one point, Evelyn Mase warned Mandela that if he ever brought Mompati back to their house again she would pour boiling water over her.

Evelyn Mase told Walter Sisulu about the affairs; this angered Mandela, who did not want news of his infidelity shared with others.

At this point, Mandela stated, Evelyn Mase temporarily moved in with her brother.

Records indicate that it was Evelyn Mase who initiated divorce proceedings.

Evelyn Mase lodged a particular of claims report at the Native District Court in May 1956, in which she stated that she was seeking a divorce because Mandela had repeatedly physically assaulted her.

Evelyn Mase added that in March 1956 he had threatened to kill her with an axe unless she left his house.

Evelyn Mase stated that she then took refuge with a neighbour before moving in with her brother.

Mase's claims of assault were never subjected to scrutiny in court; Smith later noted that it is "entirely possible that Evelyn imagined all those stories of assault, out of malice or revenge, but the fact she alluded to them outside the divorce papers and that the neighbours were involved, lends at least some credence to her account".

Evelyn Mase was a wonderful husband and a wonderful father.

Evelyn Mase informed his friend, the ANC activist Ahmed Kathrada, that the only time he had used physical force against his wife was when she was threatening him with a red hot poker and he had to disarm her.

Evelyn Mase argued that, as his mother was living with him, he was in a better position to care for his sons than Mase, who was working full-time.

Evelyn Mase claimed that his children were presently looking dirty and neglected at Sam Mase's overcrowded home, where Evelyn and her children were cohabiting with Sam, his wife, and their four children.

In November 1956, Evelyn Mase withdrew her petition for divorce, for reasons unknown.

Smith thought that Evelyn Mase was hoping for reconciliation with her husband, while Mandela wanted to avoid a public divorce hearing which would damage his standing in the ANC.

Evelyn Mase took much of the furniture from their Orlando home and the title deeds to a plot of land Mandela owned in Umtata.

Similarly, Evelyn Mase told Fatima Meer that Mandela had been "a wonderful husband and a wonderful father".

Evelyn Mase was assisted in obtaining the shop from its white owners by Kaiser Matanzima, a local politician who was Mandela's kinsman.

When it came to raising her children, Evelyn Mase was a disciplinarian influenced by her religious values; she for instance forbade them to watch films.

Evelyn Mase travelled there to meet with him, but Mandela refused to see her.

Evelyn Mase said that she had tried to encourage good relations with Mase and her children, telling her own two children, Zenani and Zindziswa, that they should refer to her predecessor as "Mama Evelyn".

Some members of Evelyn Mase's family believed that Winnie was preventing them from receiving financial support that Mandela had arranged for them; moreover, some blamed Winnie for breaking up Mandela's first marriage, although Mandela had already separated from Evelyn Mase before meeting Winnie.

Amid growing speculation that Mandela would be released from prison in 1990, Evelyn Mase pinned a notice to the gate of her house asking media to leave her alone.

In 1998 Evelyn Mase married the retired Soweto businessman Simon Rakeepile, who was a Jehovah's Witness.

Evelyn Mase insisted that she took his surname, perhaps because he did not want to live under the shadow of the famous Mandela name.

In later years, Evelyn Mase became a Pioneer, a position within the Jehovah's Witness organisation necessitating greater commitment to the religion.

Evelyn Mase died on 30 April 2004, having suffered from a respiratory illness.

Evelyn Mase was survived by Makaziwe and Makgatho, and by her second husband.

In March 2009, the Soweto Heritage Trust opened the township home where Mandela and Evelyn Mase had lived together as a tourist attraction named Mandela House.