Winnie Madikizela Mandela: A Tribute
As a palpable cloud of sadness constantly envelope our hearts, it would appear that there are no dull moments in the anti-apartheid heaven. The number of saints joining the band increases with the years. Mariam Makeba got her wish - to die doing what made her famous. Winnie Mandela got more than he bargained, he became an icon and president of the same system that imprisoned him. Hugh Masekela took a graceful bow and now, Winnie Madikizela Mandela has joined the train.
They have left a confused world behind; one that tried them by fire and unveiled the icons in them. They left with shaky feelings that the years of struggle for a better South Africa, nay, a world in which the black race earns respect is still far ahead, but they did not just moan and complain, they fought hard and strong. If their dreams were not realized in their lifetime, certainly it would not be because they did not try or slacked. It would be because with each electoral cycle widening the gulf between their dreams and practical reality, we have remained disappointments.
In fact is possible that the gross disappointment that we have become has reduced their zeal and determination to remain, and now they are moving away from this realm, leaving us sad, despondent, and confused and in mourning.
Winnie Madikizela Mandela, mother of the anti-apartheid struggle, icon of resistance and heroine taken her bow at 81. If we could ask heaven for a miracle, it would have been that these icons lived to enjoy the same years of peace as they endured the years of the struggle but alas, we are mortals with expiry dates who often leave before our best before dates.
In South Africa, they call her Mother of the Nation, Winnie is more than the mother of a little nation, she is the quintessential Mama Africa. Larger than life but modest enough to stoop down and touch lowly lives, to share in laughter and partake in sorrow and tears. Winnie’s exit diminishes South Africa’s quota of earthly saints.
How does one write a tribute to a heroine in a continent replete with zeroes? Indeed, so ensconced are we in our patriarchal stagnation that we have trashed over three decades of her struggle to a phrase - the estranged ex-wife of Madiba. Even in early eulogies, Winnie becomes the yolk of an anti-apartheid egg that hatches through the incubation of her ex-husband. No, she was an icon of immeasurable stature that dared to exhibit herself in totality.
Real humans are not flawless. Just as the beautiful rose grows from thorns, icons have a human side. Those sides, raw as they may be do not rob them of their legend. Like shadows brighten the rays of light, human frailties remind us of our fallibility. Winnie Mandela humanized her life like the rest of us. She made mistakes but she was never defined by her errors. A wise one reminds us that saints are sinners saved by grace. For nearly three decades of unquestioned loyalty, there are those who would rather define this heroine’s graceful humanism by the few errors for which many of us are as guilty. In fact, many of us would have had more mistakes to our name if asked to walk one kilometre in Winnie Mandela’s shoes.
In the Stompie Moekezi case, Winnie fell into a trap laid for her and many icons of the anti-apartheid struggle what happens when the state denies you the security it owes you. For that, she apologized at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. In her legendary extra-marital affair, she became a convict of a human biological and emotional need. Winnie might have looked pompous to many because through it all, just as she starred apartheid in the face, she refused to be defined by her mistakes and ever carried her head high. She shouldn’t have done anything other than that. There was no time on the apartheid calendar saying Mandela would ever be placed on parole. Release became a pipe dream after the first two decades. Most marriages disintegrate even with a single year of separation but a patriarchal society expects a woman to become a eunuch when placed in her dilemma. Most of those who criticise her cannot hold a candle to her moral standing in other areas.
In the blitzkrieg of the 24-hour news cycle and the ubiquity of social media, heroes are born with just one act of mild defiance, yet we snigger at one with nearly three decades of winning to her belt. Winnie stared guns and bayonets in the face without wincing at a time when media coverage was censured against her defiance. She bore the weight of her antiapartheid struggle with the calm stoicism raising not just her own children but also the nation.
Our world has not produced too many saints. The unjust system of apartheid is not a factory that produces saints. A system designed to dehumanize and to break the strongest of human wills saw Winnie unbending through years of banishment, harassment, kangaroo trials and imprisonment. Yet, Winnie lived to bring back Nelson Mandela; to bring him back to Soweto and for the world to see him walking down the streets with her, albeit for an iconic period.
It is good to say that she came and she ran her race. Those who snigger and seek to denigrate her and what she stands for need to go to bed asking themselves if and how the world remembers them a day, a month or a year after they are dust. Wherever the story of resistance is written, Winnie Madikizela Mandela would be favourably mentioned as an icon in her own right.
We remember her incredible smile and that true beauty is more than glowing skin. Goodnight Mama Africa!