---"I am the product of the masses of my
country and the product of my enemy"---Winnie Madikizela Mandela
The reason I love Rhodes is primarily due to the
fact that I learn something new everyday. Literally, not a day goes by without
new insights presenting themselves to me. So here we were, having lunch when
one of the most enlightening conversations I have had all year springs up. Allow
me to paint it for you...
-Scenario-
Kebabetswe: So have you decided on whether you are
going to enter the 'Educate to Liberate' poetry competition?
Madingane: I'm still not too sure hey. The only
'woman of topic' I am remotely familiar with is Graca Machel.
Kebabetswe: Okay, so why don't you write about mam
Graca then?
Madingane: Nah...I don't know, I don't see it, you
see me I'm more a Winnie Mandela kind of girl!
Lethabo: Oh come on. That murderer? How can you
even?
Madingane: Come again...a what? Call her what you
may but I happen to think what Winnie did for South Africa is truly a
revolutionary act. So you say she killed someone, apartheid was war and in a
war people are bound to die.
Lethabo: Yes but not if 'people' is a young black
boy whose entire death she orchestrated.
And the story goes on and on and on but a few
things have happened here. Firstly I have been caught dead in the middle of an
ignorance exposure attack, secondly I have stumbled upon a very interesting revelation,
that I idolize an apparent murderer -at this stage I had no insight into the
inhuman acts of violence that Nomzamo has been accused of since the country she
fought for saw the light of democracy- and lastly I have tasked myself with a
mini research on the life of Winnie Madikizela and tracking the record of her
infidelities to her husband and her people.
The search rapidly begun and the search, just as
speedily fizzled out. The reason is that my opinion of Winnie Madikizela before
I knew of her 'dark' past is the same opinion I hold after finding out that she
allegedly kidnapped and murdered 14-year old ANC activist Stompie Moeketsi (Sepei)
back in 1988. The same respect I had for Winnie before I heard of her
corruption dealings and brutal attacks on the youth of Soweto has not shifted
an inch. Yes I will catch a lot slack for admitting to this but personally I
happen to believe that the case of Winnie Madikizela’s controversies has been
blown way out of proportion and to an extreme extent I even believe that this
mother of our nation is a victim of a conspiracy set against her by the (then)
ruling National Party.
We are all entitled to ours and mine is that it
would be extraordinarily naive of me to believe that Winnie is only a victim
and that she glows of innocence, of course not, but I am saying that a lot does
not add up for me, I watched the wounded families during the Truth and
Reconciliation periods in South Africa, I saw them cry, hurt and point fingers
but I also saw Winnie, not a flicker of remorse and so that led to my thinking that
this woman is tired of trying to tell her version of the story only to be
flipped aside like hers was a struggle in vain. It saddens me that a woman that
went through so much heartache and misery has been subjected to nothing less
than a liar, a murderer and a burden to the society that she helped free.
I am reminded of an article I read by Esther Armah
on Neslon Mandela's birthday, this open letter was addressed to Winnie
and the opening line read as follows...
"It is not
that I refuse to celebrate your ex's birthday. It is that I do not know yours".
Miss Armahs theory is that as a black people, who
are descendants of oppression we need to serve ourselves with emotional
justice, a term she coined herself in a plead to the black nation on
addressing, discussing dealing with, and healing from the "legacy of
untreated trauma that affects us globally".
This brilliant concept is unfortunately one we
easily look past down in these shores. The idea of emotional justice as
interpreted by our people is that the black majority forgive the white minority
while we all pretend to shake hands, fake smiles, call it a truce and start
afresh--clean slate and all. But our understanding of it is flawed beyond repair
because we are not at the root of the problem, mending the damage that was
done, we are instead concealing it by pretending that we are fine and all is
well. But I disagree, like Miss Madikizela herself states, she is a
constant reminder of a past that we are trying so hard to forget.
You see what Esther Armah is saying is that we
forgave a whole race of people that did us wrong for years yet we turn our
hearts cold at the thought of forgiving one of our own. We chose to drag Winnie
Madikizela Mandela’s name through a concoction of hatred and disgust at a time
when our hands should be in one another's clasps as we move forward and lead
this continent to better times. What’s to happen when the incidents of one
woman have driven an entire nation to dialogues that cannot be rewritten in favor
of the contributions of this apartheid opponent? Why have we instead opted to
replace these narratives of revolution with negation and subjugation? Is it not
a dreadful shame that the calamities of apartheid's climax still haunt us to
this day?
When is the day that we shall turn a crisp page
with nothing but forgiveness of self and our people as its title? This irony is
daunting- that we forgave the 'enemy' the minute Mandela asked that we do yet
here we are, twenty four years later and Winnie Madikizela Mandela's name still
leaves a bitter, angry taste in our mouths.
I am by no means condoning her actions--if indeed
there is any truth to them. But I do give rise to questions that need some
thought and analysis. How do we move forward in strides of peace and authentic
reconciliation when our hearts are settled in an era we are so quick to label
as 'dead and gone', or is it really?
Let’s flash back to the times we boiled with anger
and rage and start by forgiving ourselves, and then forgiving our brothers and
sisters of the same struggle. Only then can we move on from a past that
obstructs the progress of a true rainbow nation. I end this with a quote from
Esther's letter that I believe captures the abstract of this piece....
“I call
this emotional justice - looking at the toll of injustice on who we become
emotionally and how that legacy reaches from those past moments into our
present and far into our future, demanding our attention...Forgiveness for me,
like black love, is revolutionary. So, I waited to hear your ex ask black South
African men and women to forgive themselves and each other for what they must
have put themselves and their families through in order to navigate hostile
apartheid waters and come out breathing. That didn't happen."
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Until next post,
Africa Rising, Peace &
Revolution...
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