How does one say ‘good-bye’ to a friend/”sister” and comrade like Jennifer?
It is not possible when one has known someone so well and shared so much with such a person. All of us know that “Jen” was someone very talented, very special, very committed. Her qualities were passed on to her children, Sandra and Mark, probably onwards to her grandchildren. Like Amilcar, like Samora, like Graca and Madiba, Jen was my teacher.
How much more valuable than multiple classrooms across the country were those hours we spent in Jen’s living room listening and learning from one guest or another with Jen constantly asking the key questions.
What a lesson in “anti- racism” and “race relations” Jen provided when she would stand barely over the podium of some crowded Harlem Church and painstakingly describe the role the Federation of South African Women in South Africa’s resistance struggle of the 1960’s. With her smile and the determined tilt of her head, she exemplified a too-rare leadership style that believed there was nothing too small or too big for the leader to take up.
Oh how we will miss you, Camarada !!
Prexy Nesbitt, Making the Road
Jennifer Davis 1933-2019 