Although Phyllis Ntantala is generally known as 'Mrs A. C. Jordan' because of her long marriage to the great Xhosa scholar A. C. Jordan, about whom she writes quite extensively in her autobiography A Life's Mosaic, she is a woman of an extraordinary intellect in her own right. Like her husband, she was and still is the member of the Trotskyist organization the Non-European Unity Movement (N. E. U. M.) which was founded in Cape Town in 1943 (?). Phyllis Ntantala, like other remarkable women of her generation, Ellen Kuzwayo, Maggie Resha, Albertina Sisulu, is a direct descendant of Charlotte Manye Maxeke, one of the most remarkable apostles of modernity. This direct line of continuity could not be more apparent than the fact that Ntantala's essay, "Black Womanhood and National Liberation", which appeared in Sechaba (the official organ of the ANC during the Exile Period) in December 1984, amplified and expanded on themes which were originally broached by Maxeke in her essay of 1929: "The Progress of Native Womanhood in South Africa". When Ntantala writes the following in her essay, there is no doubt that Maxeke would have celebrated the positive effect of modernity on the consciousness of African women: "It is one of the ironies of history that the most pervasive abd total oppression, the oppression of women, has been to a large extent neglected by scholars within the ranks of the movement. This can be explained, in part, by the male chauvinism which has been the bane of colonial liberation movements, and also the imprecise terms in which we discuss the future socio-economic order we envisage for a free South Africa. And yet, the success or otherwise of our struggle may depend on the extent to which we are able to involve as wide as possible a front of liberation forces against the oppressor regime. Women, specifically the Black women, will and must form a central pillar of such a front. We submit, Black women have no cause to commit themselves totally to the liberation struggle, unless the freedom to be achieved will in turn grant them equality and human dignity." These remarks indicate a deep historical sense. In a Letter to this author, she displays the firm grasp of South African intellectual history: "So, you are delving into the history of the interaction between our people and African Americans. It must be quite exciting!! It is also part of our history that is not so widely known or appreciated. The South Africans who broke away from the white churches came to America---Black America---for education and inspiration. Dwane, the founder of the Ethiopian Church [actually it was Mangane Maake Mokone (1851-1930)]; Jeremiah Mokone of the AME Church; and, Marshall Maxeke of the AME Church all came to America, not only for funds, but to learn the business aspects of organizing a church. They had learned from Jeremiah Mzimba's experience how formidable the opposition of the white missionaries was to any independent Black church. . . It is a pity that very few Africans were able to send their children to this country [United States] for education" (June 30, 1997). Phyllis Ntantala's historical sense of continuity and commitment is such that a decade after the collapse of Communism in the Soviet Union and in Eastern Europe in 1989, she is still committed to Marxism as the authentic embodiment of the Enlightenment in our time.