Madie Hall Xuma was African American educator and social activist in South Africa. She was well known called as 'Mother of nation' Her husband, A.B Xuma was president of Africa National Congress and the first black medical doctor from South Africa.
She was still studying for a master's degree in education at Columbia University when she met the widowed Alfred Bitini Xuma who was visiting United States on 1937-1938. Despite her aching to depart to South Africa, her scheduled embarkation on 5 October 1939 was delayed indefinitely cause of war. Because of suggestion from her husband, Xuma went on to study social work at Atlanta University to wait for the embarkation. She and A.B Xuma married in Cape Town on 18 May 1940, the day after she was arrived in Cape town. Soon after her arrival, she produced a popular musical about the advancement of African American life to South African people and proposed a follow-up play entitled The Green Pastures which tell about black liberation. During the 1940s, she was often giving speech about main reason of slavery which lie in the brainwashing to make black people believe that they are inferior and accept their servant status. She usually addressed groups, such as Bantu Nurses Association and Daughters of Africa. She was also created a play to gather fund for ANC entitled American Negro Review: The Progress of a Race which based on play in Winston-Salem, North Carolina with a cast that included Marion Anderson. This play was popular and raising money over £200 for ANC. She was the first president of the African National Congress Women's League serving from 1943 to 1949. She successfully advocated full membership and voting rights for women in the ANC. She assisted in the foundation of the Zenzele self-help movement clubs for women's enrichment, whose design she took from her experience with American clubs for black women. In 1951, she affiliated the Zenzele with the world YWCA, though with objection from the South African YWCA, which denied black women membership and the South African Government. She was elected as president of the national council of the South African Young Women's Christian Association on 1955. On February 1963, a year after husband's death on 1962, she returned to Winston-Salem, North Carolina until her death on 10 September 1982.
