“Events like this just bring my father back to life,” said Dr Albertina Luthuli, the eldest daughter of Nobel Peace Prize winner and former ANC President, Chief Albert Luthuli. This was at the visit to her father’s grave in Groutville on Friday.
After laying the wreath, she smiled: “Heroes never die. Memories of him are flooding back.”
Luthuli said she was delighted that the part her father played in the struggle was valued.
“One cannot ask for more than this. We are completely satisfied as a family.”
The visit to Luthuli’s grave was part of the activities before the memorial lecture, held on Saturday at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.
Recounting how their home became a “place for everyone”, Luthuli said she remembered how her father would wake her up in the middle of the night and tell her to prepare food for visitors.
“I didn’t understand why people were coming to our house, with some sleeping over. I only realised when I got older that my father was not just my father, but a father to the entire nation,” she said.
Despite the challenges the country faced, Luthuli said she would not point fingers at the government. “My father’s generation fought a different battle. So I think it’s unfair for us to be quick to blame our leaders. They’re trying their best.”
However, she urged the current leaders to learn from the people, as her father had.
Also at the function was the former chairwoman of the Independent Electoral Commission Dr Brigalia Bam.
She described Albert Luthuli as a disciplined person, rooted to the principles of the party. “I still ask myself why a person who was chief worked in the sugarcane fields,” said Bam.
She told guests that Albert Luthuli had been the kind of leader the country was currently starved of.
“I am still stunned as to how a person from dusty, rural Groutville went on to become an international figure.”
Luthuli died aged 69 in 1967. He became the first first person from outside Europe to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Sunday Tribune