SPEAKER_00: Before we get started, just a warning that this episode contains a description of violence.
We're on that soon, but for now, I'm excited to be your guest host for this month of Womanaka.
This Black History Month, we're talking about revolutionaries, the Black women who led struggles for liberation from violent governments, colonial rulers, and enslavers.
These women had the courage to imagine radically different worlds, and they used their power to try and pull those worlds into view.
Today we're talking about a social worker and an anti-apartheid activist named the Mother of the Nation.
She was the wife of Nelson Mandela throughout his years in prison, and she herself lived a life of revolution and controversy.
Please welcome Winnie Madikazela Mandela.
In September of 1936, Winnie was born Nonzamo Mandaizakela.
Her family was part of the Xhosa-speaking Pondo tribe in Trans-Gai.
Trans-Gai, now part of the Eastern Cape, was one of the designated Black territories under
South Africa's apartheid system.
Both of Winnie's parents were teachers.
Her father taught her the history that was missing from textbooks using songs.
This was how Winnie learned about Trans-Gai's fight against white settler violence and her Pondo roots.
When Winnie was still just a kid, both her elder sister and mother died from tuberculosis.
Winnie's given first name, Nonzamo, means she who must endure trials.
This would show throughout her life.
Winnie was a very erudite child.
After high school, she pursued her studies in Johannesburg, attending the first school
to train Black social workers.
After graduating in 1955, she was offered a job at Johannesburg's Barangwano Hospital,
becoming the first Black woman to be hired as a social worker in South Africa.
It was during that time that Winnie met Nelson Mandela.
By then, Mandela was already gaining a reputation in the fight against apartheid.
He had constant meetings and court hearings. When thinking back to this time, Winnie later told reporters, Even at that stage, life with him was a life without him.
Mandela was 18 years older, married, and a father of three children.
He was also enthralled by the 22-year-old Winnie.
Mandela divorced his first wife and married Winnie that same year. By 1960, Winnie and Mandela had two daughters of their own.
In 1962, just four years into their marriage, Mandela was charged on two counts,
illegally striking and exiting the country without a valid passport.
He was sent to the Robben Island Political Prison in 1963.
The next year, he was sentenced to life for sabotage against the apartheid government.
Winnie was married to Mandela for 38 years, 27 of which he was imprisoned.
Throughout those decades, Winnie served as the liaison between Mandela and the movement,
and she also became a revolutionary figure in her own right.
Winnie and her children were often terrorized and forced to endure home raids and banning orders.
Winnie later described it as, quote,
seizure at dawn, dragged away from little children screaming and clinging to your skirt,
imploring the white man dragging Mummy away to leave her alone.
By 1965, Winnie was no longer allowed to leave the neighborhood,
which left her struggling to find a job.
And when she did, police would harass her employers to get her fired.
In May 1969, the police came to her home and separated Winnie from her daughters.
They took her in a van and arrested her under a far-reaching anti-terrorism law
that allowed anyone to be detained without a warrant.
She was imprisoned for 491 days, much of that in solitary confinement. In confinement, she was constantly tortured and interrogated.
In the early 1970s, Winnie was imprisoned again, this time for five months without trial.
By the late 1980s, Winnie was allowed to return to Soweto, Johannesburg, and her fight against apartheid took on a new level.
Gangs and police brutality were at an all-time high.
To provide a place for use in the neighborhood, Winnie started the Mandela United Football Club.
But the club gained a reputation for kidnapping and violence.
Some even referred to the club as Winnie's personal gang.
Her approach to liberation was said to become more violent and erratic.
In 1986, controversy sparked around Winnie after she spoke publicly to a crowd.
She said,
Together, hand in hand, with our boxes of matches and our necklaces,
we shall liberate this country.
The necklaces she was referring to were a practice of burning suspected police informants alive
using tires and gasoline.
Then Winnie was said to have ordered and participated in the 1989 murder of a 14-year-old activist who was suspected to be a police informant.
She was eventually charged with kidnapping and accessory to assault.
When the Truth and Reconciliation Commission investigated the murder years later,
Winnie testified that
things went horribly wrong.
Winnie endured years of torture, harassment, paranoia, and violence under apartheid.
In 1990, Mandela was released from prison.
Winnie stood next to him and held his hand. Both raised a fist in the air and a black power salute. Negotiations to end apartheid formally began that same year.
Two years after his release, Mandela and Winnie separated. Winnie was open about her infidelity in affairs during their marriage, and four years later, their divorce was finalized.
In 1994, Winnie was appointed as the Deputy Minister of Arts, Culture, Science, and Technology of South Africa. She was eventually dismissed for corruption.
In April 2016, Winnie was awarded the Order of L'Toullée, a South African honor that recognizes those who contributed to the fight for democracy.
After a life of persecution, controversy, and struggle for liberation, the revolutionary titan passed away in 2018.
All month, we're talking about revolutionaries. For more information, you can find us on Facebook and Instagram at Wamanica Podcast.
Special thanks to co-creators Jenny and Liz Kaplan for having me as a guest host. Talk to you tomorrow.
