Ellen Kuzwayo activism included serving as the president of the Black Consumer Union of South Africa and the Maggie Magaba Trust. On the 1985 publication of her autobiography, "Call Me Woman", in which she described being beaten by her husband, Kuzwayo became the first black writer to win South Africa's leading literary prize, the CNA Award. After Nelson Mandela was inaugurated as South African president in 1994, Kuzwayo became a member of the country's first multiracial Parliament, aged 79, and served for five years until June 1999, when she was South Africa's longest-serving parliamentarian. With director Betty Wolpert, Kuzwayo was involved in
Black Women in the Academy: Defending Our Name 1894-1994 "commission a blue-ribbon panel on race relations; to promote black women's research and extend the Glass Ceiling Commission to address the women of color in academia; to extend funding for community-based social service organizations for the poor; to end covert actions against Haiti and restore President Aristide to power, and to continue to support democracy in South and Southern Africa." Black Women in the Academy: Defending Our Name 1894-1994 Black Women in the Academy: Defending Our Name 1894-1994 was a national conference focusing on black women academics held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) on January 13–15, 1994. This