The passing away of struggle icon and “Mother of the Nation”, Mam Winnie Madikizela Mandela has led to many comments and reflections on her legacy which are profoundly germane for us in terms of where we are as a nation and where we aspire to be.
Mam Winnie Madikizela Mandela was a lifelong crusader for freedom, social justice, equality, inclusivity and a more equitable South African society but despite that fact, her legacy is highly debated depending on which side of the spectrum you fall in.
We have seen how others have tried to reduce her contribution to the anti-Apartheid struggle to merely being former President Nelson Mandela’s wife, a total distortion of her immense contribution to our people’s struggle for freedom.
Mam Winnie was able to carve a niche for herself as a true liberator of our people, independent of any relationship that she had with former President Nelson Mandela and it is because of the great sacrifices made by people like her that we enjoy the freedoms that we do in contemporary South Africa.
She was an advocate of the rights of women, but she wasn’t just a leader of women but South African society as a whole, hence the great outpourings of love and appreciation all over the country since the news of her passing away was announced earlier this week.
She was a leader that ordinary South Africans could easily identify with because in the days of the anti-apartheid struggle right into our new democracy, she was always on the ground with the people, advocating for their issues and fighting for the rights of those who are marginalised, who are on the periphery, the subalterns of this country that we are still in the process of building.
She was a radical, militant revolutionary who the youth of South Africa, one of the most marginalised demographics in this democracy of ours could always identify with and look up to. Hence she was one of the only defendants of the militant post 2011 Gallagher Estate ANC YL generation which called for land expropriation without compensation and the nationalisation of mines and all the natural resources of the country.
She was also one of the key inspirations for the #Fees Must Fall generation which shook up the country a couple of years ago. All of these young people looked up to her and got inspiration from her because their fight for economic emancipation and greater access to education and opportunity was a struggle that she dedicated her life to and never compromised on.
Unlike Nelson Mandela and other ANC leaders who are eulogised and deified as if they had no flaws, she was a fallible, flawed heroine who all of us as ordinary South Africans could easily identify with. She bore the brunt of the apartheid government’s brutality along with ordinary South Africans, who are the true heroes of our struggle and spent her life as a leader amongst the people, her struggle being their struggle and hence she has an unparalleled standing amongst the people of this country. Contrary to what those who criticise her legacy want us to believe, it is her fallibility that is indeed one of her most endearing qualities for us ordinary South Africans.
The fact that some of her flaws are openly highlighted whilst those of other leaders who were prominent in the struggle are swept under the carpet speaks into the fact that we live in a patriarchal society, where different standards are applied for male and female leaders, a hypocritical stance that we as a country need to rid ourselves of.
The constant attempt to portray her as tainted, whilst deifying the likes of Nelson Mandela speaks into this double standard that our society has adopted. It is this double standard that we need to challenge, a standard that openly accepts and celebrates a Nelson Mandela but on the other side isolates and problematizes a Winnie Mandela. This is a struggle that most black South Africans in various sectors of society are faced with on a daily basis, where our successes, our achievements are constantly questioned and downplayed. So once again, Mam Winnie’s struggle was and is our daily struggle.
In reflecting upon the impact that this great woman had on the life and soul of this nation, one is reminded of the brilliant poem Oh Me! Oh Life by Walt Whitman, “Oh me! Oh life! Of the questions of these recurring,
Of the endless trains of the faithless, of cities fill’d with the foolish,
Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than I, and who more faithless?)
Of eyes that vainly crave the light, of the objects mean, of the struggle ever renew’d,
Of the poor results of all, of the plodding and sordid crowds I see around me,
Of the empty and useless years of the rest, with the rest me intertwined,
The question, O me! so sad, recurring—What good amid these, O me, O life?
Answer.
That you are here—that life exists and identity,
That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.” Indeed she contributed a great verse in this “great play” of building a better South Africa and we are all permanently indebted to her and those who she spent a large part of her life fighting alongside with for the emancipation of our people. Lala ngoxolo Mam Winnie Madikizela Mandela.
Mugabe Ratshikuni works for the Gauteng provincial government. He is an activist with a passion for social justice and transformation. He writes here in his personal capacity.
