Nomkhitha Virginia Mashinini was born on May 9, 1935, in Bengu, South Africa, a settlement near Lady Frere in the former Transkei.
After the death of his first wife, Boto married Olive Nontuthuzelo from the village of St Marks.
Author near Lady Frere, where she studied Biology, Geography, History, English and Arithmetic.
Her aunt was unwilling to lose Nomkhitha as a help in the house, so she falsely led her to believe that her applications to various nursing schools were rejected.
Ramothibi was a devout Christian man who came from a poor Sotho family in the Free State (province).
According to tradition, Nomkhitha stopped speaking isiXhosa out of respect for her mother-in-law, unfortunately she was not fluent in Sotho.
Nomkitha did not plan to have a large family but, like many women of the time, Nomkhitha felt powerless in preventing pregnancy as contraceptives were expensive.
Due to increased police surveillance, Nomkhitha travelled to Swaziland (since 2018 renamed to Eswatini) in an effort to protect her younger children.
One of the detained sons, Sydney Mashishi, who was 14 at the time, was tortured and beaten by the police due to his siblings' involvement in the protests.
[5] She was fired from her job at Guys and Dolls, due to concerns over her influence on other staff members.