These are the words of Gugulethu Sithole, one of the members of the Methodist Church Women’s Manyano of the Lamontville Circuit in KwaZulu-Natal. She is one of the 17 women Lihle Ngcobozi interviewed during her study on manyano women, which resulted in her book Mothers of the Nation: Manyano Women in South Africa.
Ma’ Sithole’s words capture the effect of the private and spiritual life of black women as having material consequences in public life.