FOR SHE'S GOT PERSONALITY
PT 2
If those of us who faced the
demons of apartheid and those of us who did not, find it absolutely necessary
to judge Winnie Mandela, let us judge her, I repeat, for her faith, her
courage, her commitment and her active and constructive participation in the
affairs of her beleaguered country. We cannot expect any one person to be all
things ideal. A close look at our black societies will show that many of our
women are thrown into playing the unnatural role of the male while expected to
act solely as a female. Winnie Mandela, like many of our black sisters,
mothers, grannies and aunts, played both roles extremely well. I don’t have to
elaborate on that. Her life is an open book. In addition, Higher Than Hope, Mr. Mandela’s
authorised autobiography is very enlightening in its extremely positive
messages about her on that score.
Bear with me while I share
with you this excerpt of what Fatima Meer, with the full authority of Mr
Mandela, says about Winnie:
“The people
sent a hero to prison, but generally ignored the fact that he had
responsibilities and dependants. Nelson, in the loneliness of his cell, worried
about the survival of his family. He had left behind a mother, a wife and five
children. But his sense of responsibility did not stop with them; it extended
to his sisters and to their children and to the children of kinsmen who had
supported him.
There was no
doubt that the state, through its police, sought to ruin the Mandelas as a
family by destroying the Mandela financial base, however humble. Winnie had
lost her job as a social worker and then her clerical job at a tutorial college
because it was held that in terms of her banning order she could not be on the
premises of an educational institution. Winnie’s salary was important to the
family as it was their only livelihood. She took on jobs as salesgirl and
clerk, earning half the amount she would have as social worker. Then, when she
found a good job as a credit controller, she was imprisoned. In the
circumstances the goodwill of others became crucial, but it was in short supply
in the 1960’s and 1970’s. It was only in the 1980’s that the Mandela name
became an international legend and began to carry a ‘goodwill’ in itself.
Mandela’s
imprisonment in 1962 made the local headlines, but not the international. As
the 1960’s closed so the memory of Mandela dimmed, leaving Winnie very much to
her own resources. Without the help of close friends, and admirers from home
and abroad, the family’s plight would have been worse. It is only in recent
years, with international awards, film rights and book royalties that the
Mandelas have become solvent. Both in good years and lean, Nelson ultimately
turned to Winnie to find the necessary funding and she has proved remarkably
resourceful at all times. Pgs.340-341
Bob Marley says that there
are a lot of things that one can say but is not everything that one should say.
Pickin’ up? Nuff said!
I remember shuddering on
hearing how people, globally, were desecrating and destroying monuments to
Winnie and changing names of streets and institutions named after her the
moment news of the scandal hit the airwaves and the newsstands -- the scandal
which was to change so many people’s positive perception of her world-wide. Yes,
Sons and Daughters of African ancestry, at home and abroad, our Winnie was
declared a persona non grata by
worldwide opinion. Hold it, hold it! Not everyone condemned her as a persona non grata. I didn’t and many other
admirers of Winnie at home and abroad, including our ancestors, did not condemn
her. Instead, we continued and still
continue to pay homage and respect to her, to honour, admire, bless and embrace
her with love.
I’ll put it in Bob
‘Marleyese’ when I say that ‘hypocrites and parasites came up and took a bite’.
My admiration for the second Mrs. Nelson Mandela did not shake even one teeny
weeny bit. I was cheered to find that there were many who felt like me. It is
not that I thought her innocent or that I condoned all of the things they said
she did. I thought she had done a great deal for my people in South Africa and
that what she had done should not be easily forgotten or trivialised. Memories
of our rejection of Marcus Garvey and Kwame Nkrumah and Haile Selassie assailed
me and I couldn’t help but think of how ungrateful and bootlicking my people
can be. We are well known for our attitude of ingratitude. I think it was
Shakespeare who wrote that ‘ingratitude is monstrous and monstrosity is a
beast’. I watched the most hi-profile leader of the world involved in the most
terrible sex scandal of all time – a scandal that had him kneeling at the door
of impeachment, yet the very people who could not find it in their hearts to
forgive Winnie, laughed away that scandal as if it were a huge locker-room
joke, and forgave that presidential figure. Jackass say dat de wurl no lebel*,
and is true.
*Donkey says that the world is not level.
Beloved Sons & Daughters
of Africa, have you ever stopped to think what would have happened if, like
Steve Biko, Winnie had become a fatal statistic by discourtesy of the apartheid
regime before her husband was released and before all the scandal started to
dog her? She would have been eulogised in death from here to kingdom come, far
surpassing the excitement and grief surrounding the death of Britain’s Diana,
Princess of Wales. Every country would rise up in eponymous zeal to name
institutions, streets, babies, pets, holidays and whatever could bear a name,
after Winnie Mandela, Mother of South Africa, crème de la crème of the anti-apartheid struggle. They would set up
statues and plaques to enshrine her name, deeds and memory for ever. Just
imagining such an eventuality boggles the mind. I don’t have to put words in
your mouth. Just give your imagination full sway.
Since expressing the above
thought, I was privileged to read Harold Marcus’ Foreword in Beyond The
Throne by Indrias Getachew, a positive work about His Imperial Majesty,
Emperor Haile Selassie I, the 225th Negus of Ethiopia. From it I
extracted this passage which I thought so fitting for our sister, Winnie:
In contemporary Ethiopia, there are no
squares, hospitals, schools, boulevards, and the like that bear the name of
Emperor Haile Selassie I (1892-1975). Had he died before the revolution of
1974, his name and achievements would today be celebrated. Instead, he was
deposed by a military clique that vilified him as the cause of Ethiopia’s many
ills and then transformed into an un-person. The new government’s propaganda
apparatus either totally ignored Haile Selassie’s reign or recalled him as a
scapegoat for its own faults and failures.
People of African ancestry, my
kith and kin, wherever and whoever you may be, when you reject Winifred
Madikizela Mandela, don’t ever forget that white racism has never respected,
admired, honoured, paid homage to, or desired a black woman to enjoy and to
continue to enjoy prestige, privilege and distinction personally, nationally or
internationally, especially when she openly fights white racism with no holds
barred. Put one and one together and come up with the simplest answer which is
two. It’s as simple as that. The harassment of Nomzamo Zanyiwe Winifred
Madikizela Mandela is a prime example of white racist victimisation and total
disrespect for black womanhood.
And that, well-wishers of
Winnie, and detractors also, is one of the reasons that I will not join white
racists or ungrateful black people, people of African ancestry at home and
abroad, with selective memories, in denying the courage, goodness and greatness
of our Winnie Mandela. I will not join that section of the ANC in persecuting
this African woman of distinction. I will not sweep her deeds, her struggle or
the respect due to her under the carpet of self-righteousness, ‘yes-menism’ and
ass-licking and put a question mark beside her name when the roll of heroic
Africans is called. Rather, I will place her way up on the lists of African
heroes in the struggle against the foes of African liberty, dignity and redemption.
Ah yu dat, Winnie! I thank the Almighty for your presence here on Planet Earth.
You make me proud. I salute you!
La luta continua!!!!
In signing off, let me borrow
a few lines of Lloyd Price’s classic song, Personality to tell Winnie Mandela how many, many of us male
and female people of African ancestry feel about her:
♪♪Wooo..over
and over, I said that I love you.
Wooo..over and over, Honey love, it’s the truth
Wooo.. over and over, they still say I’m
a fool
But ooo over and over, I’ll be a fool
for you
Cause you got personality! ♪♪
THE END
All the images were taken from the Internet and I claim no copyright.
