Julia Mavimbela

Julia Nompi Mavimbela (20 December 1917 – 16 July 2000) was a schoolteacher and community leader in South Africa. When public schools were closed because of the 1976 Soweto uprising, Mavimbela taught schoolchildren in Soweto how to garden and how to read. Mavimbela later co-founded Women for Peace, an organization for women of all races to work for democracy in South Africa. In 1981 she joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and served in local church leadership.

Quotes

• Let us dig the soil of bitterness, throw in a seed, show love, and see what fruits will grow. Love will not come without forgiving others. Where there was a bloodstain, a beautiful flower must grow.
  • BLOOMING OUT OF BITTERNESS: JULIA MAVIMBELA (8 November 2019)

• It is important for women to be aware of their common lot. It is important for women to stand together and rise together to meet our common enemies—illiteracy, poverty, crime, disease, and stupid, unjust laws that have made women feel so helpless as to be hopeless.
  • Julia's address at the 1975 regional conference of the National Council of African Women