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Winnie Madikizela-Mandela

South African activist and politician (1936-2018)

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela (born Nomzamo Winifred Zanyiwe Madikizela; 26 September 1936 – 2 April 2018, also known as Winnie Mandela, was a South African anti-apartheid activist and politician, and the second wife of Nelson Mandela. She served as a Member of Parliament from 1994 to 2003, and was a deputy minister of arts and culture from 1994 to 1996. A member of the African National Congress (ANC) political party, she served on the ANC's National Executive Committee and headed its Women's League. Madikizela-Mandela was known to her supporters as the "Mother of the Nation".

Winnie Mandela in 2014

Quotes

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  • I decided I will fight them to the last drop of my blood, and I will show them that women are going to bring about change in South Africa, and we did.
    • In Her Own Words - Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, YouTube 18 Apr 2018[1]
  • It is an individual choice you make in your life to make a difference. It is an individual choice to understand that my neighbour is not as privileged as I am. Extend your heart to those around you, and that is the democracy you should protect.It is an individual choice you make in your life to make a difference. It is an individual choice to understand that my neighbour is not as privileged as I am. Extend your heart to those around you, and that is the democracy you should protect.
    • In Her Own Words - Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, YouTube 18 Apr 2018[2]
  • If you are to free yourselves you must break the chains of oppression yourselves. Only then can we express our dignity, only when we have liberated ourselves can we co-operate with other groups. Any acceptance of humiliation, indignity or insult is acceptance of inferiority.

Quotes about Winnie Madikizela-Mandela

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  • I wish to acknowledge Mama Winnie Madikizela Mandela for her efforts and steadfastness for standing with Tata Mandela before and during Tata's imprisonment and for being in the forefront of ANC's struggle for liberation.
  • She is an admirable woman. Her husband, one of the leaders of the African National Congress, is imprisoned for life on our Devil's Island. As for Winnie, she never gave up the struggle. She is put in and out of prison constantly. For example, she was arrested after the events of Soweto because she had organized, in collaboration with other blacks, an association of parents that seemed, at first, insignificant but quickly became extremely important. This organization strove to eliminate the estrangement that had developed between the young blacks, who had revolted, and the older generation. This is one of the very serious problems facing the black community today, this gap between the generations. The young accuse their parents: "You allowed yourselves to become discouraged; you were afraid to take risks. Us, we are not afraid. We demonstrate; we confront the guns; we want to fight." And they radicalized their elders in an extraordinary manner. By speaking out in favor of the action of the young people, Winnie Mandela, thanks to her eminence, certainly influenced a part of the black community that until then had been traumatized by the acts of the young. That is the reason she was judged and condemned. When she is not in prison, she is placed under house arrest and thus prevented from moving about or working. For a while after the rebellions, the government permitted her to live in Soweto in her house but basically forbade her to leave or to receive anyone there. Then they did something even more horrible; they exiled her to a small village deep in the countryside. It is there that she is living at present. And the only news published about her appears when those who brave the interdiction visit her and get caught.
    • 1979 interview in Conversations with Nadine Gordimer edited by Nancy Topping Bazin and Marilyn Dallman Seymour (1990)
  • He (Nelson Mandela) walked like a man who does not take the earth for granted. He took one step after another with obvious care and delight. Right next to him, Winnie Mandela stayed close, attuned and alert, and radiant.
    • June Jordan, "Mandela and the Kingdom Come" in Affirmative Acts (1998)
  • She was a defining symbol of the struggle against apartheid. She refused to be bowed by the imprisonment of her husband, the perpetual harassment of her family by security forces, detentions, bannings and banishment. Her courageous defiance was deeply inspirational to me, and to generations of activists.
  • She suffered so much bringing up her two girls when @NelsonMandela was in prison: beaten up banned banished to remote Brandfort harassed imprisoned. Fearless defiant in face apartheid state. Remember that when correctly criticising her rogue later life
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