Phyllis Ntantala-Jordan

[2] Phyllis Priscilla "Nogqaza" Ntantala was born on 7 January 1920 at Gqubeni, along the bends of the Nqabarha River, Dutywa in the Eastern Cape, South Africa.

Ntantala-Jordan's father, George Govan Ntantala was a prosperous farmer who served on the Transkei General Council, iBhunga and her mother, Ida Balfour, was a descendant of the earliest African Christian community, founded by the prophet Ntsikana during the second decade of the 19th century in the Eastern Cape.

In 1939, Ntantala-Jordan married isiXhosa writer Archibald Campbell Jordan, whom she had met during her time at Fort Hare University.

In 1957, Dr Ntantala-Jordan registered at the University of Cape Town for a Higher Diploma in Native Law and Administration.

Due to the political pressures exerted by the then apartheid South African government during the late 1950s and 1960s, the Jordans went into exile in 1961.

In describing her political awakening, Ntantala-Jordan says "I always tell people that it was my experience in the Free State that really roused to anger my social consciousness...Most of our students in Kroonstad did not see a future beyond their school.

In November, the Jordans acquired permission to buy the lot from Mr Guttman becoming one of the first African families to do so in the area.

[6] Ntantala-Jordan wrote "Ukwayo:Isikrweqe nekhakha", an isiXhosa translation of I.B Tabata's "Boycott as a weapon of struggle", which was widely distributed by the Society of Young Africa (SOYA) in Transkei.

In describing her role in the struggle for liberation, The African National Congress said "the passing of Mama Phyllis Ntantala-Jordan has robbed South Africa and the world at large of an astute, inquisitive and inspiring mind.

We have lost a champion of gender equality for African women in particular..."[4] Ntantala-Jordan translated into English her husband AC Jordan's novel, Ingqumbo Yeminyanya, spoke at a number of public lectures, wrote essays, a book Let's Hear Them Speak, a book amplifying the voices of many unsung heroines being South African women and her autobiography: A Life's Mosaic: The Autobiography of Phyllis Ntantala.