Under the Dome

It wasn't easy but MAD did get there.

Helen Suzman: Fighter for Human Rights had been on display at the Georgetown University Inter-Cultural Center until April 20 and MAD was disappointed to not get there in time to see it. Turns out I was very lucky.

The exhibit, developed by the Isaac and Jessie Kaplan Centre for Jewish Studies and Research at the University of Cape Town, is touring the US and for this week only had been moved to the Russell Senate Office Building Rotunda - on its own an impressive sight. To get there from the Capitol South Metro Station you pass the Capitol, the Library of Congress and then the Supreme Court with Equal Justice Under Law carved on its pediment. You enter the Russell Building in the correct mood to learn about the life of Helen Suzman.

Beneath a dome three stories high, display panels tell in words and show in pictures, letters and documents the story of her life and work


Her parents, Jewish immigrants to South Africa from Eastern Europe, lived comfortably by the time Helen was born in 1917. We see pictures of her as a child and a young woman and mother and then we are amazed to see her as she magically (it seems) turns into a committed fighter for the freedom of all.

Originally sent to Parliament for the United Party, she was a founder of the Progressive Party and its only elected member as well as the only voice in opposition to apartheid for 13 of her 36 years in office. She visited Nelson Mandela on Robben Island and visited lesser and unknown people and places where injustices were being committed in the name of the government. She never gave up and was instrumental in the establishment of a unity government only retiring from elected office in 1989 .

During her entire career as a public servant she stood for the rule of law, even when the law was directly opposed to her own beliefs, believing that the law needed to be changed rather than disregarded.

MAD wonders what the forces were that set her on the course of her remarkable life -How amazing to learn of what one person can do, when most people don't.

How fitting to learn about her in this particular setting.