Polly Gaster

We always had very good contacts and worked well and coordinated together during the solidarity committee phase, she in ACOA in the US, and me in the Committee for Freedom in Mozambique, Angola and Guine in the UK.

It was a pleasure to get to know such a nice, thoughtful, hardworking, creative person, a strategic campaigner who understood the importance of the Southern African perspective in the context of the liberation struggle. I really only understood later about the landmark nature of her work in the USA, she was a real “monumento historico” and must be remembered as such.

I´m just sorry that I never went back to the US for 30+ years after my first visit when Sam Barnes was doing her year off studying in Boston and I stayed for a bit with Jen in NY, and that she hardly came to Mozambique in later days – I only remember her visit after South Africa Independence (as we called it), when she stayed with me some of the time, and maybe one other brief appearance – so unfortunately we did fall more or less out of touch.

I´m very glad to know that she was well accompanied by family and such very old friends right to the end. She will be missed by friends, colleagues and admirers around the world. We need more people like her.

Polly Gaster
Maputo