‘Why feed into Madiba Saint and Winnie Sinner narrative?’
Zindzi Mandela honours mother at event for International Women’s Day
I am humbled by this gesture to so boldly honour my mother, whose role is often overlooked when my father is celebrated the world over.
My mother’s love for her people was deep and unconditional: always the first to arrive in a crisis situation on the ground without media or police protection.
We all remember how Mama stood between protesting students and the heavily armed riot police during what has become known as June 16. We remember how she would haul and free protestors out of police vans.
Many of you have had to cross borders to be here. I remember attending a Crossing Borders event about three years ago, where stories were
shared about the other borders you have to cross in your new environment – the borders of fear, suspicion, anger and insecurity. My mother would have felt your pain and walked this journey with you. Mama as a freedom fighter was incarcerated in apartheid prisons for many years on and off. She was tortured, kept in solitary confinement, banned, kept under house arrest and harassed and monitored by the
security police. They tried to weaken her strength and spirit and if her perpetrators had succeeded, we would not have remembered the imprisoned Nelson Mandela.
Mama Winnie’s legacy is one of crossing many borders : the borders of imprisonment and oppression, the borders of injustice, the borders of hatred and the violation of human rights.
As a woman, her legacy is
overlooked, questioned and tarnished. We all need to help her cross that border of patriarchy. It is ironic when I am referred to as Madiba’s daughter with no mention of my mother. In women’s dialogues and conferences, where we fight fiercely for our recognition as equals, we elevate Madiba and bury her legacy.
Why are we so afraid of celebrating one of our own? Are we stuck in a patriarchal
refugee camp? Why do we feed into the Madiba Saint and Winnie Sinner narrative when she has been vindicated of so many allegations?
I thank Crossing Borders for drying our tears for we cannot carry the burden of this loss alone.
For a long time, after my mother’s passing, it was very difficult to watch the news for I see her everywhere in the suffering of my people and I know that where there is tragedy, grief, violence, hunger – she would have been there. I therefore urge you, in the spirit of ubuntu which means “I am because we are” and in keeping with Mama Winnie’s legacy of unconditional love and service to others, be the change that you want to see in this world.
Let us all cross our borders of ignorance and create constructive spaces within which to elevate one another in a sisterhood that will be an agency for real change.
Thank you!
Mandela made her speech on Friday in Denmark, where she is SA’s ambassador