2000• Race Relations Award

THANDI LUTHULI-GCABASHE

 

Thandi Luthuli-Gcabashe, born in Groutville, KwaZulu/Natal, went into exile in the late 1960s and played an active role in anti-apartheid organizations in the US, including the American Committee on Africa, based in New York City, the Washington Office on Africa and the Congress of the United States Government.

In 1981 she was appointed Director of the Southern Peace Education Program of the American Friends Service Committee in Atlanta, Georgia, a post she occupied for 15 years. 

Being responsible for coordinating the South Africa Peace Education Program primarily in the Southeastern US, she lectured to civic, cultural and educational institutions on the pertinent issues involved in the South African apartheid crisis. 

She travelled extensively throughout the US holding symposia regarding the
conditions and possibilities for just and peaceful resolutions to the problems confronting the entire Southern Africa region.

In 1991, after 22 years in exile, Mrs. Luthuli-Gcabashe attended the first conference of the ANC inside South Africa since the ANC was banned in 1960.

In 1992 she was a member of an American Friends Service Committee fact-finding team in-country study of South African violence, which resulted in a document titled Politics of Hope and Fear: South Africa in Transition.

Several civic awards have been presented to Mrs. Luthuli-Gcabashe, including: the ONI Award (commitment to uplifting lives of people of African descent) by the International Black Women’s Congress in 1985;