NELSON MANDELA'S EX WAS A JW!

badboy

Nelson Mandela's first wife was a jw and still is.

There was a divorce.

vitty

I thought it was his sister who was the JW

badboy

I heard from a jw that it was his ex who was and still is a jw.

It seems he wanted to be a politican, but she wanted nothing to do with politics so divorced him.

Both Evelyn Rakeepile (Nelson Mandela's first wife) and Lieby Piliso (his younger sister) were witnesses. He divorced his first wife on the grounds of irreconcilable differences. In his autobiography Long Walk to Freedom, he writes :

Evelyn and I had irreconcilable differences. I could not give up my life in the struggle, and she could not live with my devotion to something other than herself and the family. She was a very good woman, charming, strong and faithful, and a fine mother. I never lost my respect and admiration for her, but in the end we could not make our marriage work.

She died at the age of 82 in May last year, and her daughter said at the time :

"I will remember my mother for her tenacity and being true to her religious beliefs until the end."

Earnest

kwintestal

I remember hearing of this a while back. As I recall, there was a death in the family, and the family member was given a JW memorial ~~salespitch~~ funeral. Mandela was there, along with several heads of state from around the world. It went around JW circles quickly as evidence that, "Every ear will hear." I personally heard family members say, "Jehovah makes sure even the heads of countries who we could never meet at the door hears his word."

Kwin

LouBelle

Yes she used to be, but died last year. Her daughters no longer follow the faith & were never truly into it anyway.

From South Africa with love.

badboy

THANKS EVERYONE FOR YOUR REPLIES

Watchtower-Free

December 2013

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-22114543

Apognophos

Interesting. So according to the article, his first wife was a nurse. After the death of their baby, Mandela became more politically active and she became more religious and joined the Witnesses. Years later, Mandela had changed the world through politics and she was managing a grocery store.

Band on the Run

So? He paid a high price for his political activism and so did his family. Reading biographical material, I don't understand why he chose her as a spouse in the first place. Her JWism was going to drag him down. They had so little in common. I don't know if his children decided to be part of the struggle. They were divorced so long ago. She was not the George Washington of her country.

When I was young, the talk among the Witnesses was how Dwight Eisenhower's parents or parent was a JW. Just as with Mandela, deciding to go to West Point is a dramatic turning point away from your Witness background. He wanted no part of it by age eighteen.

We seem to be getting shallow celebrities as Witnesses today.

NELSON MANDELA'S EX WAS A JW!

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