He had a close partnership with Oliver Tambo and Nelson Mandela, with whom he played a key role in organising the 1952 Defiance Campaign and the establishment of the ANC Youth League and Umkhonto we Sizwe.

[1][2] Walter Sisulu was born in 1912 in the town of Ngcobo in the Union of South Africa, part of what is now the Eastern Cape province (then the Transkei).

[3][4] His mother, Alice Mase Sisulu, was a Xhosa domestic worker and his father, Albert Victor Dickinson, was a white civil servant and magistrate.

[3][6] In 1943, together with Mandela and Oliver Tambo, he joined the ANC Youth League, founded by Anton Lembede, of which Sisulu was initially the treasurer.

[9][10] The League also tabled a broad Programme of Action, which was notable for its explicit emphasis on African nationalism and mass mobilisation techniques.

[12] Sisulu, along with several others, formed part of an ANC delegation to the 1953 World Democratic Youth meeting in Bucharest, Romania; before returning to South Africa, the group also travelled to Warsaw, Poland, to London, to Israel, and to the People's Republic of China, where Sisulu was part of a meeting with the Chinese Communist Party leadership.

[13] In 1955, Sisulu, Mandela, and Ahmed Kathrada watched the Congress of the People gathering – which adopted the Freedom Charter – from a nearby rooftop, unable to attend the meeting because of the banning orders against them.

[4]With other senior ANC figures, Sisulu served the majority of his sentence on Robben Island, though he was later transferred to Pollsmoor Prison.

[16] His return to Soweto was greeted with celebrations in the street,[16] and he told media of his long detention, "It was not possible to despair because the spirit of the people outside was too great".

It was believed that he had been convinced to accept the job in order to prevent a disruptive power struggle between a younger generation of activists – such as Cyril Ramaphosa, Thabo Mbeki, and Chris Hani – vying for the deputy presidency.

[8][18] In 1994, the ANC won a majority in South Africa's first democratic elections and formed a government headed by Mandela, but Sisulu, weakened by age and his long imprisonment, declined to serve in public office.

[20] Among the tributes he received after his death, Mandela – joking that both he and Sisulu "had long passed the age when either of us would protest against the brevity of life" – said:Our paths first intersected in 1941.

[23] Those imprisoned with him on Robben Island remarked upon his unflappable calm and patience[6] – as Mandela put it in his autobiography, "He was often silent when others were shouting.

"[3] After his release from prison, according to the Los Angeles Times, Sisulu "was always a voice for moderation, preaching the importance of a national reconciliation".

"[24] While he was in prison, Albertina became a very important anti-apartheid activist in her own right, with leadership roles in the United Democratic Front and Federation of South African Women.

[24] Jongi served a five-year sentence on Robben Island for his anti-apartheid activism in the 1980s, and other family members were also periodically detained.

[33][34] In 1992, Sisulu was awarded Isitwalandwe Medal, the highest honour granted by the ANC, for his contribution to the liberation struggle in South Africa.