Class of an African queen
Winnie Madikizela-Mandela has been praised by rural communities countrywide, for wearing traditional clothing and celebrating her history and community throughout her public life.
REVERED by many as the epitome of imbokodo – the grinding stone – Mama Winnie is actually known in Thembuland as Nkosikazi Nobandla Madikizela-Mandela.
Much has been written about her public life as a political activist, so here we reflect on some of the aspects of her life that we wish to celebrate today, as she turns 80 years of age.
This is a very critical age in African communities because she has now transcended being merely a wife, a mother or even a grandmother. In our culture, an elderly woman of such advanced age is a spiritual medium; she is a man in her own right who now has the authority to enter even the sacred spaces within the homestead and she possesses most of the critical information about rituals.
One of her critical tasks is that of mediating on disputes and rivalry that may occasionally arise within the family.
Arguably, Mama Winnie maintained a more cultural posture than her husband – the former president, the revolutionary, the world icon who was a Thembu kingdom prince himself. After all, Mama Winnie was raised in a culturally rooted community in Mbongweni village, near the small town of Mbizana in the Eastern Cape. And after studying and becoming the first black social worker in South Africa, she started to be more exposed to the nature of the struggles of our people, with her work putting it into context.
Thus her own political activism was formally launched.
It is no coincidence that in her late 70s she took on the struggle to defend the rights and privileges of the many voiceless and faceless African women all over the country by deliberately taking the matter of her Qunu marriage home to court, effectively trying to leave a legacy in which civil law would also provide for that which is already provided for in our long-standing customary law.
This is that the marriage home belongs to the wife who was there when it was built. Custom dictates that “akukho mfazi wakhela omnye”, loosely meaning “no one wife should be forced to build a home for another”. The house and the wife can’t be separated because, in our custom, the house is the wife and the wife is the house.
This was overlooked by many so-called women’s rights activists. It was personalised in the media, sensationalised and never put into context of what was actually at stake for women in rural South Africa, should the husband decide to divorce them.
Mama Winnie is synonymous with traditional attire, and infuses the patterns of her amaMpondo origins in her clothing, so undoubtedly queenly that in her presence, you will have no doubt that African wisdom is present too.
When Nelson Mandela was in hospital in Pretoria, towards his last days, the abaThembu King Zwelibanzi Dalindyebo summoned traditional leaders and a decision was taken that a delegation representing the entire abaThembu nation should travel to visit him.
The king requested that there should be no public arrangements made as the family was already dealing with a lot concerning the health of the former president and visitors. So, as a big delegation, we arrived at the hospital and Mama Winnie, sitting in the waiting room, was pleasantly surprised to see us.
In true African culture, she followed the protocol in handling our delegation, not missing a step. She addressed us in perfect abaThembu custom and took us through the process of what was happening in the life of the former president. At that time, he was effectively almost unconscious, not moving and hardly blinking. But on that day, Mama Winnie spoke to him and told him “natsi ikumkani neenkosi zabaThembu zize kukulanda”, loosely meaning “here is the Themba king and the chiefs, they have come to fetch you”. He blinked and turned his head slightly.
Needless to say, the warmth we felt at the hospital from Mama Winnie was extended to the home in Houghton as she had apparently started making arrangements with Mama Graça Machel and Ndaba Zweliyajika Mandela.
We were also told on our arrival at the hospital that Mama Graça had just left to return to Houghton to freshen up.
Mother of the Nation, a true revolutionary, a beam of hope and an inspiration to many.
Barely 22 years of age, Mama Winnie was detained in 1958 for political activism, but what is striking is that she is as attached to her cultural roots today as she was then.
Look at the images of the most significant events in her life and you will see her in her traditional regalia, unfazed, unashamed and proud as ever, as though there is some metaphysical power that she draws from her traditional clothing other than merely asserting herself as an African woman.
From her wedding in 1958, to the infamous Rivonia Trial, up to scores of important occasions that she attended officially up to today, her images do not place her anywhere else but as a married, dignified African queen, who is cautiously softly spoken and intellectually astute. In Xhosa we say “akukho nzwana ingenasiphako”, which loosely translates as “all men have their shortcomings”. It says honour is granted to those whose positive and inspirational traits far outweigh the negative ones.
As Dr Maya Angelou, the great poet, says: You may write me down in history With your bitter, twisted lies, You may tread me in the very dirt But still, like dust, I’ll rise. Did you want to see me broken? Bowed head and lowered eyes? Shoulders falling down like teardrops. Weakened by my soulful cries. Out of the huts of history’s shame I rise Up from a past that’s rooted in pain I rise I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide, Welling and swelling I bear in the tide. Leaving behind nights of terror and fear I rise Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear I rise Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, I am the dream and the hope of the slave. I rise I rise I rise. Our parting shot is a message of gratitude and pride in you, Mama Nobandla.
We salute you and are indebted to you as the abaThembu nation because some of the trials and tribulations in your life were inflicted by your association with one of ours, whose political activism, together with yours, made you suffer indignity, harassment and brutality.
Still, you remained unbent under the weight of the neurotic apartheid regime. Instead you emerged with so much charisma and you do not carry any hate or resentment.
Like a grinding stone, you remained intact as the corn was finally crushed in 1994.
ka Menziwa, who writes in his personal capacity, is from the Pokwana Traditional Council, and is the director of the Vusizwe Foundation for Oral Historical Research and the regional chairman of Contralesa