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A black woman stands in front of a white policeman, glares at him menacingly, and shouts: “What are you doing here killing our people? What are you arresting our people for?”
He cannot maintain eye contact and responds sheepishly, evoking the image of a teenage boy caught smoking behind the house by his mother.
“I do not know,” he says and walks away. The woman follows him. “You do not know? What are they doing in your van? Why did you go and take them from that squatter camp when they have done nothing?”
This is Winnie Mandela. Fearless, strong and confrontational in a short video clip from the 1980s that did the rounds on social media this week.
This is the Winnie feared by the apartheid government and its police force; the Winnie who was widely admired by 80s and 90s anti-apartheid activists in the US; the Winnie who is still looked up to now and quoted by today’s African-Americans dealing with white supremacy and police killings in their own country.
Dr Karen Daughtry, the founding chairperson of Sisters Against South African Apartheid (Sassa), said: “We are saddened by the passing of Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, but we continue to be inspired by her not to sit down as we see now the climate that has been created in this country, in which blatant racists can say or do whatever they want.”
Daughtry, who organised Winnie’s visit to Brooklyn, New York, in 1990, told City Press that her organisation was founded in February 1986 when she and a group of other women heard about what was happening to Winnie in South Africa.
“We were concerned about her safety and that of her children, as well as her state of mind. We were inspired by her courage and dedication to help free her people. So we dedicated ourselves to providing support for those living under the racist apartheid regime in South Africa,” she said.
Sassa sent clothing, medicine, books and hygienic supplies for women in South Africa. Along with thousands of others across the US, they participated in demonstrations, rallies and educational forums.
When Nelson Mandela was released from prison in 1990, he and Winnie travelled to the US. Their first stop was New York City, which fell in love with both of them.
Winnie accompanied Madiba to public engagements at the UN; sat next to him during a parade through the streets of the Big Apple and led crowds in loud cries of “Amandla!” before he spoke. She watched his speech to the UN General Assembly and attended a lunch hosted by the UN African Mothers Association.
Then it was off to Daughtry’s church, The House of the Lord in Brooklyn, where a women’s leadership symposium of about 200 women from all walks of life waited to hear from the woman they had fought with for so long but had never met.
Daughtry clearly remembers the moment Winnie entered the church.
“Everybody was excited to see her. The church was packed, and women were lined up outside just to catch a glimpse of her. She told us she was watching the negotiations with government very carefully and, if they broke down, she would be the first one to go back to the bush.”
Dr Hazel Dukes, the president of New York’s branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People, told City Press on Friday that she was saddened by the passing of Winnie Mandela, “who was the true leader of the war against apartheid because her husband was in prison”.
Dukes said Winnie was kind and gracious to the women who attended the church gathering, and she spoke to them about leadership.
A crowd of 3 500 people gathered for a community tribute at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in Winnie’s honour after the church symposium. Her entourage included New York’s then first lady Joyce Dinkins, Malcolm X’s widow Betty Shabazz and Julie Belafonte, then the wife of actor and activist Harry Belafonte.
A playwright read some of Winnie’s speeches and a children’s choir sang songs of welcome.
Everywhere Winnie went, she was greeted with adulation. At Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, people chanted, “We want Winnie!” before she came out to speak to the crowd. Her speech seemed to excite the people gathered there more than Madiba’s did.
The couple visited eight US cities in 12 days.
In Atlanta, Georgia, they laid a wreath at the Martin Luther King Jr Centre for Nonviolent Social Change and met members of the King family.
Winnie remained close to US civil rights activists and attended a Martin Luther King Day ceremony in 1992 at Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church with King’s widow, Coretta Scott King.
The Mandelas were back in the US in July 1993 to raise funds for the ANC and were again received with fanfare. In Chicago, a public school was named the Winnie Mandela High School. The school was closed in 2016.
Winnie is still as revered in the US today as she was during the 1990s. Messages of condolence poured in this week from politicians and celebrities alike as news broke that she had died.
US civil rights activist and politician Jesse Jackson tweeted: “In the darkest hours of the struggle to free South Africa, with Nelson Mandela in prison, the face of hope and courage was #Winnie Mandela.”
Illinois Congressman Bobby Rush, who called the Mandelas’ 1993 visit to Chicago “one of the highlights of my life”, said: “She was a revolutionary and courageous figure in the fight against apartheid, whose fearless dedication to activism was an inspiration to all that followed her transformative life.”
California Congresswoman Maxine Waters said: “Today I mourn the loss of my dear friend and one of the greatest leaders and activists in the world: Winnie Mandela.”
The Reverend Al Sharpton called her a “true warrior” and “queen”.
Some US media outlets were criticised for only referring to her as “Nelson Mandela’s former wife”, instead of as the struggle leader she was.
Daughtry, whose church will host a celebration of Winnie’s life on Tuesday night, said: “We will not allow revisionists to overpower what the actual reality is. We were there, we were involved, we know what Winnie Mandela stood for, and we choose to think of the legacy and inspiration she left behind. That is what we are going to teach our children.”
- Lihle Z Mtshali is a South African writer living in New York City
