Winnie Madikizela-Mandela (26 September 1936 – 2 April 2018)

“ ... the cell is an ideal place to learn to know yourself, to search realistically and regularly the process of your own mind and feelings. In judging our progress as individuals we tend to concentrate on external factors such as one’s social position, influence and popularity, wealth and standard of education. These are, of course, important in measuring one’s success in material matters and it is perfectly understandable if many people exert themselves mainly to achieve all these. But internal factors may be even more crucial in assessing one’s development as a human being ... Development in matters of this nature is inconceivable without serious introspection, without knowing yourself, your weaknesses and mistakes. At least, if for nothing else, the cell gives you the opportunity to look daily into your entire conduct, to overcome the bad and develop whatever is good in you. Regular meditation, say about 15 minutes a day before you turn in, can be very fruitful in this regard. You may find it difficult at first to pinpoint the negative features in your life, but the 10^th attempt may yield rich rewards. Never forget that a saint is a sinner who keeps on trying.”

The biography of Nomzamo Winifred Zanyiwe Madikizela is well known. She was born in the spring of 1936, in Bizana in what was to become the Bantustan of Transkei. Her parents, Columbus and Gertrude Madikizela, were teachers. Her mother died when she was nine. As a young adult she moved to Johannesburg and became the first qualified black medical social worker at Soweto’s Baragwanath Hospital. Research into infant mortality rates in Johannesburg’s Alexandra township and other experiences drew her into activism. In 1958 she married Nelson Mandela with whom she had two daughters, Zenani (born 1959) and Zindzizwa (born 1960).

From 1961 she was subjected to an almost uninterrupted series of legal orders that curbed her ability to work and socialise. In 1962 she lost her husband to long-term imprisonment, and was only reunited with him in 1990. In 1969/70 she was herself detained in solitary confinement for 17 months under the Terrorism Act, a harrowing experience she described in her book 491 Days: Prisoner Number 1323/69.

In 1962 Madikizela-Mandela was banned under the Suppression of Communism Act, during which she was restricted to Orlando, Soweto. She worked clandestinely for the ANC, attending meetings and printing and distributing pamphlets, and was put under house arrest in 1970 for repeatedly flouting her banning.

Her 1977 banishment to Brandfort in the Free State came after she established the Black Women’s Federation and the Black Parents’ Association in response to the aftermath of the 1976 Soweto Uprising in which schoolchildren had protested the imposition of lessons in Afrikaans. Many were detained without trial. Both organisations were allied to the Black Consciousness movement.

After returning to Soweto and through the 1980s she took on an increasingly prominent and, ultimately, controversial role in the struggle. Although she was to lead the African National Congress Women’s League between 1993 and 2003 and was, briefly, Minister of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology after 1994, her extraordinary leadership promise was never to be fulfilled.

Perhaps the most enduring image of Madikizela-Mandela is the one of her standing at Mandela’s side on 11 February 1990, their fists raised, as he emerged from over 27 years in prison. It was a shared moment of triumph in a marriage sacrificed to the struggle against apartheid. Within two years the couple were estranged, within six their divorce was official. Apartheid’s toll on countless families and marriages, including the Mandelas, is one that we have still to fully measure.

Hamba kahle, Mama.