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Tag: Winnie Mandela

  • Winnie Mandela: Blessed mother of the nation

    Blessed is Mama Winnie Madikizela Mandela (1936-2018) for she has been posthumously celebrated globally as the undisputed mother of the modern democratic South African nation and indeed the continent, Africa! She passed away on April 2, at 81 after eventful life of struggle against the obnoxious apartheid, for better Africa devoid of poverty and oppression. Her body was laid to eternal rest in her Soweto home town last Saturday with full state honours. I agree with Jesse Jackson, the American civil rights activist, who in a tribute, observed that the ANC “didn’t show up Winnie Madikizela-Mandela enough appreciation while alive” and that “freedom fighters are only appreciated after they die”.

    If you ask me, the global outpouring of official and unofficial tributes which rightly accorded Winnie Mandela her deserved status as a frontline freedom fighter in Africa would have been better at her 80th birthday rather than her grave side at 81! Her organization, the African National Congress (ANC) at some critical times looked the other way when she was being smeared with phoney murder and fraud charges by the dying apartheid regime in 1991. Like all the oppressed confronting the meanest inhuman regime known to humankind (apartheid system!), Winnie Mandela certainly could not have been infallible. Not with documented atrocities and provocations of apartheid. But it was wrong to have demonized Winnie the way the white-dominated South African media did. It’s time we revisited Winnie Mandela’s sobering words conveying her pains (and her pains alone!). Witness this: “The years of imprisonment hardened me…. Perhaps if you have been given a moment to hold back and wait for the next blow, your emotions wouldn’t be blunted as they have been in my case. When it happens every day of your life, when that pain becomes a way of life, I no longer have the emotion of fear. There is no longer anything I can fear. There is nothing the government has not done to me. There isn’t any pain I haven’t had”.

    Apartheid government in the 70s sent her into exile to the secluded Free State town of Brandfort for nine years!. “I am the product of the masses of my country and the product of my enemy”, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela once said! Last Friday, the United Nations paid special tribute to her in New York. Speaking at the special memorial, UN secretary general Antonio Guterres said Winnie as a symbol of resistance against oppression could not be overstated. Winnie Madikizela-Mandela was the authentic Mama Africa! She together with her husband, Nelson Mandela epitomized remarkable sacrifices for the freedom of all Africans against the tyranny and indignity of apartheid. Lest we forget; not long ago racist South Africa shamelessly separated the present rainbow nation of beautiful peoples on account of the colour of their skins. Apartheid South Africa callously separated young handsome husband Mandela from his beautiful wife, Winnie for 27 years! Winnie courageously joined the millions who fought and defeated apartheid. She combined rare multiple roles of a woman: a mother, grandmother, freedom fighter, party organizer and a parliamentarian among others. As a stateswoman, she was human-labour friendly. My recollection of Winnie was that of a good woman who exhibited unconditional love for others. My close contact with her was in Abuja in 2010 at Daily Trust Dialogue/round table. Paradoxically I just bought the book: Winnie Mandela (A Life) by Anne Marie Du Perez (2005). I demanded from her an autograph of a compelling read. Without hesitation she obliged me with a pleasure. Her signature/autograph; “MUCH LOVE” is the best I ever had from any great figure in the world (and I had a bagful of such autographs!).

    In the past three years, through my dear comrade Mathebane Patrick of National Union of Mine workers (NUM) of South Africa, I had planned during my numerous visits to South Africa, a trip to Mama Winnie’s in Soweto for an engaging lesson in leadership before death came calling. She was truly a symbol of dignified courage.

    I recall that former President Olusegun Obasanjo was the moderator of 2010 Daily Trust round table. OBJ spoke endlessly on the controversial health status of late President Yar’Adua, (a divisive local Nigerian issue which had nothing to do with theme of the dialogue – “The African Woman and Politics”. Then after he decreed few minutes each to all the female panellists including Mama Winnie. Trust Winnie for legitimate resistance! She simply ignored Obasanjo’s time-dictatorship, and took her time to speak authoritatively on the relevant topic of the day.

    As far back as 1970, Winnie said; “To those who oppose us, we say, ‘Strike the woman, and you strike the rock’! Some of her quotable quotes from Abuja dialogue are words on the marble: “Women should rise up to the challenge of their marginalization in male-dominated society”! “Women are their own liberators”. The one I found most powerful was – “Nothing about us without us”.

    I suggest that African schools should identify  great  African women leaders like Winnie in  our continent and share their experiences as lessons for young Africans. Winnie was also an organizational faithful who like Nelson Mandela, despite some occasional frustrations with ANC still kept faith with the ANC to the end. Most importantly, very few South African leaders are openly grateful for the role other African countries, notably Nigeria played in defeating apartheid like Winnie. She paid glowing tributes to Nigeria for her support for liberation struggle at every turn, also just like Mandela unlike the likes of Zuma. She openly damned xenophobia at the time it was not fashionable to do so and at the time some ANC chieftains unacceptably rationalized and fuelled xenophobia by blaming rising crimes and unemployment on “African immigrants”.  The earned position of Winnie in history has changed for better the narrative about the role of great African women in politics beyond the top-down bestowed First Ladyism and UN’s allotted quota representation. The life and times of Winnie practically show that it is the commitment, courage, integrity and determination that women (and men!) bring to the political arena that matter not necessarily their gender. As far back as October 1958, Winnie featured in anti-pass demonstration. She was the most intimidated, watched and brutalized political activist by the apartheid regime of terror. Behind today’s triumphant clenched fist of this great African woman was (and still is!) tenacity, staying power and unquantifiable sacrifices. May her soul Rest In Peace!

     

    • Aremu mni, writes from Textile House, Kaduna.

     

  • 40,000 bid Winnie Mandela final goodbye

    More than 40,000 South Africans from across the political spectrum gathered at the funeral ceremony of Winnie Mandela in her beloved Soweto to wish her a final goodbye yesterday. And it was a glorious exit for the famous anti-apartheid heroine.

    Madikizela-Mandela’s death on April 2 at the age of 81 after a long illness was met by an outpouring of emotion across the country, with the ruling African National Congress (ANC) and opposition parties holding memorials to remember her courage in the struggle to end white-minority rule.

    The official funeral service for the ex-wife of the late Nelson Mandela took place in Soweto — the Johannesburg township at the forefront of the battle against apartheid where she lived.

    President Cyril Ramaphosa said that, just as South Africa grieved for Madikizela-Mandela, it was comforted by the profound meaning of her life.

    “In death, she has demonstrated that our many differences along political party and racial lines and the numerous disputes we may have are eclipsed by our shared desire to follow her lead in building a just, equitable and caring society,” he said.

    “Loudly and without apology, she spoke truth to power. It was those in power who, insecure and fearful, visited upon her the most vindictive and callous retribution. Yet, through everything, she endured. They could not break her. They could not silence her.”

    The afternoon burial ceremony at Fourways Memorial Park Cemetery, north of Johannesburg, ended a nearly two-week mourning period declared by the government.

    Earlier, mourners sang and cheered as Madikizela-Mandela’s body was brought into the 40,000-seat Orlando stadium, filled to capacity for the funeral service.

    Many mourners were clad in the green and yellow colors of the ANC. Members of the leftist Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party also attended in large numbers.

    EFF leader Julius Malema, an admirer of Madikizela-Mandela who echoes her fiery rhetoric, said she had always put the country “above her own personal safety” in the fight against apartheid.

    “She lived in constant naked contact with danger, prepared to lose her life, even the lives of her own children, who were put into danger by her political activities,” Malema said to loud cheers in the stadium.

    Also present at the funeral service were former presidents Thabo Mbeki, Kgalema Motlanthe and Jacob Zuma, dignitaries from African countries and celebrities such as British supermodel Naomi Campbell and U.S. civil rights activist Jesse Jackson.

     

  • Winnie Mandela: Heroine or villain?

    SIR: In the tempestuous years of apartheid rule in the Rainbow country, Winnie Mandela, the South African anti-apartheid crusader and former wife of the First Black President of South Africa, Nelson Mandela, was a thorn in the flesh of the white supremacists and a rallying point for the unconditional release of her then incarcerated husband. Winnie was one of the leading figures in the struggle against apartheid in South Africa. She was dubbed the “Mother of the Nation” while numerous musicians and writers across the world, who celebrated Nelson Mandela in their works, also accorded her eminence consideration.

    The departed enigma was married to Nelson Mandela for 38 years, including the 27 years the iconic South Africa former president was imprisoned in Robin Island, near Cape Town. She kept the memory of her imprisoned husband alive during his years on Robben Island and helped give the struggle for justice in South Africa a universal image.

    Up till the time she breathed her last on Monday April 2, she was a leading member of the ruling African National Congress, ANC. At the time of her death, she was a member of the country’s parliament.  In 1993, she was elected president of the ANC’s Women’s League. In 1994, she was elected to parliament and became Deputy Minister of Arts, Science and Technology in the country’s first multi-racial government.

    Born in 1936 as Nomzamo Winifred Madikizela, Winnie married Nelson Mandela in 1958 at age 22, and firmly supported him at the risk of her own life and freedom throughout the dark years of apartheid in the Rainbow nation. Ironically, despite Winnie’s vital role in securing a new and unprejudiced political system in South Africa, she became a victim of the political struggle that played out during the anti-apartheid campaigns. In view of her deep involvement in the vicious anti-apartheid battle, she became entwined in a series of scandals that eventually ended her marriage with Nelson Mandela.

    In 1986, she was widely linked to “necklacing”, a code name for ‘jungle justice’ which involves the burning alive of suspected traitors who had flaming, petrol-soaked tyres forced over their heads. In December 1988, her bodyguards, known as the Mandela United Football Club, kidnapped four boys belonging to another anti-apartheid party. One of them, Stompie Moeketsi, was subsequently assassinated by her bodyguards. In May 1991, she was sentenced to six years in prison for kidnapping in relation to the incident, but the sentence was later reduced to a fine.

    In 2003, she was convicted of fraudulently taking out bank loans and theft. But according to her, the loans were used to help poor people.

    Her conviction for theft was later reversed since she had not recognized any personal gain from her actions. South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission also accused her of human rights abuses during the apartheid years.

    The story of Winnie and Mandela is a classical narrative of people who chose to sacrifice life, comfort and family for the good of the society and people. For Winnie, her whole life was defined by Mandela’s deep and passionate involvement in the struggle for a free South Africa. When she gave birth to her children, her husband was never there for her. Even though he was not in jail at the time, he was out on several commitments for the struggle. But then, she was aware of Mandela’s obsession with the struggle before marrying him, knowing quite well that his first marriage crashed because of the struggle.

    In view of her several scandals, many have tried to paint Winnie as the devil who puts on the garment of an angel. But in all reality, how could she at the age of 28 have endured the emotional torture of being separated from her husband and tendering the children for the long period (27 years) she did without possibly getting involved in the several messy episodes that eventually consumed her marriage?

    How many women in her shoes could have been more rational in thoughts and acts?

    How will history judge Winnie – a heroine or a villain?

     

    • Tayo Ogunbiyi,

    Lagos State Ministry of Information & Strategy, Alausa, Ikeja. 

  • State funeral for Winnie Mandela

    •Aregbesola, Lagos Assembly mourn

    South Africa was in mourning yesterday after the death of anti-apartheid icon Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, aged 81, for whom a state funeral will be held in two weeks’ time.

    Hundreds of red-clad supporters of the radical opposition Economic Freedom Fighters marched to Madikizela-Mandela’s home in the Johannesburg township of Soweto to pay homage to “the mother of the nation”, television footage showed.

    Julius Malema, who heads the EFF, was once a staunch member of the ruling African National Congress party, to which Nelson Mandela and his ex-wife Madikizela-Mandela belonged, but remained friends with the latter after quitting to form his own party.

    Malema visited the home in Soweto, lauding Madikizela-Mandela’s contribution to South Africa’s liberation struggle, and noting that the EFF, unlike the ANC, were “never ashamed of her”.

    Madikizela-Mandela was a controversial figure, at one time afforded heroine status for her courage during Mandela’s 27-year incarceration, but later demonised for how far she was prepared to go in the struggle for liberation.

    She was at Mandela’s side when he emerged triumphantly from prison.

    He went on to become president in 1994.

    The couple divorced in 1996 after almost four decades of marriage.

    Cyril Ramaphosa has said a memorial service will be held for Madikizela-Mandela on April 11, and a state funeral will take place in Johannesburg on April 14.

    Osun Governor Rauf Aregbesola described the death of anti-Apartheid crusader, as a twilight in the annals of South African history.

    Aregbesola, in a statement by his Media Adviser, Mr. Sola Fasure, said Winnie represented the last bastion of those who freed South Africa from the shackles of white obnoxious rule, which ended in the early nineties.

    The governor noted that Winnie exhibited uncommon leadership and strength of character by providing leadership for a people under economic and politics bondage to the land of freedom.

    The statement said in part: “Winnie, the South African anti-apartheid campaigner, was undoubtedly one of the strongest human in world history. Her death signifies the gradual passing away of the last freedom fighters of the apartheid era. She was the last of the Titans.”

    The Lagos State House of Assembly described the death of Winnie as a great loss to Africa.

    Her death was brought to the notice of members by Deputy Majority Leader, Olumuyiwa Jimoh during plenary yesterday.

    The Speaker of the House, Mudashiru Obasa, stated that Winnie Mandela was a loyal woman to her husband and their party, the Africa National Congress (ANC).

    Directing the Clerk of the House, Mr. Azeez Sanni, to write a letter of condolence to the people of South Africa through their embassy, the Speaker emphasised that the woman was a role model to women.