Mandela wife’s fiery life is recalled
‘Mother of Nation’s funeral shows split over S. Africa legacy
CAPE TOWN, South Africa — Her legacy contested in death as in life, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela — an anti-apartheid activist and the former wife of Nelson Mandela who was known as “the Mother of the Nation” — was honored with an official funeral in Johannesburg on Saturday.
Madikizela-Mandela, who was 81 when she died this month, was to be laid to rest after the funeral, attended by more than 40,000 mourners at Orlando Stadium in the township of Soweto. The funeral was organized by the African National Congress, the governing party that for decades strove to keep her at arm’s length.
The funeral drew luminaries like the leaders of the Republic of Congo, Denis Sassou Nguesso, and of Namibia, Hage Geingob; as well as American politician the Rev. Jesse Jackson.
Since her death April 2 from a prolonged illness, the ANC, along with its political rivals, has set out to claim Madikizela-Mandela as one of its own, but it was clear at the funeral that her friends and supporters were not interested in forgiveness or a rapprochement.
“To those of you who vilified my mother, don’t think for a minute that we’ve forgotten,” said Madikizela-Mandela’s daughter, Zenani Mandela-Dlamini, in a defiant tribute.
A fiery leader with mass appeal, Madikizela-Mandela came to represent a more radical strain of liberation politics than her former husband’s conciliatory “Rainbow Nation” ethos, placing her beyond the orthodoxy of the ANC during the final years of apartheid. But her message resonated with millions of dispossessed South Africans, commentators say.
“She was an African woman who in her attitude, her words and her actions defied the very premise of apartheid ideology and male superiority,” President Cyril Ramaphosa said in a eulogy Saturday.
Madikizela-Mandela’s reputation was seriously damaged by accusations she had ordered the murder of a 14-year-old boy in the township of Soweto — a charge of which she was later acquitted, though she was convicted of kidnapping — and an acrimonious split in 1992 from Mandela.