20TH CENTURY’S MOST INSPIRING LEADER dela ired brave and’s for dom om Manchester fell in love with an ANC

doing research for Manchester University. Recalling their first meeting, Joyce smiles: “He was an impressive, handsome man who spoke with passion about his cause.

“He’d been able to leave South Africa underground, but it was harder to get back in. He was carrying arms through Zambia as an MK unit commander.”

MK, or Umkhonto we Sizwe – Spear of the Nation – was the ANC armed wing.

Joyce said: “When our friends asked if he could stay with us we agreed. I knew what he was doing was dangerous but he was fully committed to the movement.”

Despite being with her husband, Joyce fell in love – to which her husband turned a blind eye. When they returned home, she says, “I wouldn’t have asked Zola to come with me, he wasn’t a free agent, he was married to the cause.”

Joyce’s marriage broke down and in 1971 Archie moved to London to work for the ANC. By now a hero of the Liberation Army, Archie travelled the world urging governments to boycott South Africa.

At her home in Tynemouth, Tyne and Wear, Joyce grieves for his death in March, at the age of 90. She still calls him Zola Zembe or Ntambo, the fake names he used. When Mandela walked free in 1990, Archie was able to return home. Joyce said: “I had my career and family here, but Zola wanted to go.” Archie travelled between the offices of the railway union in Johannesburg, of which he was president, and the ANC in Cape Town where he was vice-chair. It took its toll and he had a stroke. He returned to Joyce in Manchester and the couple later moved north to be closer to her daughter Helen. Joyce says Archie had never intended to be an activist. He first experienced racial division when he travelled to buy tools to help his widowed mother farm her land. He was forced to travel in cattle cars for 800 miles.

He went looking for office work but doors were shut on him due to his colour – until he called at a trade union office.

Joyce says: “They took him in for a cup of tea and he was astounded when it was served by a white woman.”

It was a seminal moment. Joyce adds: “The legacy he and men like Mandela left behind is incredible.”

They were two pensioners exchanging stories of their lives

Read more about Archie’s life in his book Freedom in our Lifetime. To order a copy for £10, email Joyce on zolajoyce@phonecoop.coop.