Five books in honor of Winnie Madikizela Mandela

When Winnie Mandela died on April 2nd, I felt truly sad not just because Africa had lost an iconic figure but because I never got to interview her as I planned from when I was a young journalist. There are those you interview and there are those in spite of your effort you miss. I missed her at the Beijing conference for women, she had just left when I arrived, then I travelled to South Africa thrice and each time, I would miss her, the last was in 2016 when she had travelled as I arrived Soweto. I have long admired Winnie for her resilience, her humor and also for her incredible beauty, leading a white journalist to describe her many years ago as one of the world’s most beautiful women, black or white. I recently watched a clip online of her speaking at her 80th birthday. How right that journalist was. I began to collect books on Winnie Mandela a long time ago and followed her struggles. I was not very happy when Nelson Mandela left her because I felt that without her, Nelson’s struggle may never have been noticed. Her long years of struggle and incarceration affected her mental and physical health for the rest of her life. I felt very strongly that the party had shortchanged her and said so in an article in New African London when Nelson divorced her. Today I celebrate a woman much admired and in spite of what anyone says, Winnie’s struggle more than any other activist helped to finally destroy apartheid. President of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa captured it succinctly when 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 silence her” True! I have been collecting and reading books by or about Winnie Mandela for a long time. Here is a collection in tribute.