Priscilla Jana

Devikarani Priscilla Sewpal was born 5 December 1943, in Westville, Natal (now called KwaZulu-Natal) near the port city of Durban. She was the second child amongst three children to Hansrani Sewpal and Hansraj Sewpal. Jana's parents were middle-class Indian immigrants with her father being a high school teacher. Her father's challenging of social injustices ranging from apartheid to the Indian caste system based discrimination, was an early influence on her. She first joined the Pietermaritzburg Girls' High School, where she organized a walkout as a part of a national potato boycott in 1958 protesting the treatment of Black farmers. She began her high school in Durban in 1960 and went to India on a Government of India scholarship to study medicine at the Sophia College for Women in Bombay (now Mumbai). Upon returning to South Africa, she started her Bachelor of Laws Degree at the University of South Africa (UNISA) in 1974, but transferred over to the University College for Indians on Salisbury Island, Durban, where she was the only woman student in the class. Her pursuit of a law degree was against the initial wishes of her parents who had wanted her to become a physician instead. She grew up at a time when neighborhoods, schools, and all public facilities, were segregated by racial profile. Writing in her memoir, Fighting for Mandela, she recollects a meeting with anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko when she was 26 that helped solidify the notion of identity in her mind. The meeting, she says, helped make clear in her mind that one "didn't have to be African to call yourself a Black." That notion helped her find solidarity in a group. She writes, "I had found solidarity. At last, I knew where I belonged." ==Career==

Early years After her graduation in 1974, she joined the law firm of Ismail Ayob, a lawyer of Indian origin. The firm's clients included many in the anti-apartheid movement, including Nelson Mandela. As one of the very few South Africans who had access to Mandela during his imprisonment in the island, she also carried back coded messages from Mandela and the other political prisoners to the ANC leadership, including President Oliver Tambo. During this time Jana also joined the underground cell of the African National Congress, UMkhonto we Sizwe, which was led by future South African President, Thabo Mbeki, from London, to whom Jana used to report. She started off by representing Nelson Mandela and Winnie Madikizela-Mandela as their lawyer in the mid-1970s. She had gotten to know the couple when Mandela was serving imprisoned at the Robben Island prison. An earlier request by her for a retrial had been turned down by the South African government. Moloise was executed in October 1985, at the age of 30. Representing Govan Mbeki, former national chairman of the African National Congress, Jana helped secure his release from the Robben Island prison in 1987, after serving 23 years of a life sentence. The release of the 77-year-old came with severe restrictions including geographical limits for him to remain within the Port Elizabeth region. This release was regarded as a "trial run" for the eventual release of Nelson Mandela from the same prison. Jana was also a part of the Black Consciousness Movement that opposed movements to ensure multiracialism in the African National Congress. In a high-profile case, she took on the South African Medical and Dental Council in 1984 to prove that two doctors who were providing care to anti-apartheid activist and Black Consciousness Movement leader Steve Biko, had acted improperly when Biko died in custody in 1977. The case ended up finding the two white doctors guilty in 1985. She was also an activist member of the Democratic Women's Movement, and issued calls for boycott of the apartheid elections and the creation of a new apartheid constitution, in August 1985. Participating in the campaign to boycott the elections, she had said, "Anybody, Colored or Indian, who participates in the new constitution will be as guilty as the perpetrators of this crime against the people. He who participates is a traitor." In this period, Jana was a part of a collective of legal challengers who battled civil and human rights cases across the country to end apartheid and usher democracy into the country. She represented Krugersdorp. She had also been a member of the South African Law Commission, and a member of the Presidential Advisory Committee. She also went on to serve as South Africa's ambassador to the Netherlands from 2001 to 2005 and as the ambassador to Ireland from 2006 to 2011, serving as a diplomat for a total of nine years. ==Personal life==

Jana (then Sewpal) met her husband Reg Jana, who was a South African student studying in India, when she was studying medicine at the Sophia College for Women in Bombay. Writing in her memoir about life after her wedding, she speaks about her husband's large family and traditional expectations from the daughter-in-law of the family as a cause for differences between them. While Reg would continue to be with her during her struggles, his multiple affairs during this period led Jana to seek a divorce. She writes of the banning order being a cause for great stress and ruining her life and marriage. Their marriage ended in a divorce in 1989. However, she kept the last name. She then married Reagan Jacobus, a self-made lawyer, with that marriage leading to a divorce in the mid-1990s. In 2001, she adopted her foster-daughter Albertina Jana Molefe, who was the daughter of an activist client, Popo Molefe. At the same time she also adopted her brother's son, Shivesh Sewpal. Jana died on 10 October 2020 in a care home in Pretoria at the age of 76. The cause for her death was not specified. She is survived by a daughter, Alberta Jana Molefe, and a son, Shivesh Sewpal. In a statement, the African National Congress, calling attention to her sacrifices for the anti-apartheid liberation movement, stated, "at a time when she could have chosen to selfishly pursue personal wealth and material advancement. Instead, she understood her career as a calling, to serve the people of South Africa, especially the poor and powerless." ==Book==