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What Winnie Mandela Means To Me?
International Women’s History Month
International Women’s History Month immediately makes me think of Winnie Mandela.
When I was in college, I became acquainted with Winnie Mandela, and the struggle against apartheid in South Africa. I was in my political infancy trying absorb the international Black experience, and Winnie Mandela, the mother the movement against South Africa was my guide.
South Africa’s African population was fighting day by day, tooth and nail, to end racial apartheid in their country. The African National Congress led by the lawyer Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo, Walter Sisulu and others was leading the fight. Nelson Mandela was married to Winnie Mandela.
However, for refusing to compromise, and for waging his struggle, Nelson Mandela and all of the other ANC leaders were tossed in prison sentenced to life. Others had to take up the fight. One was the more militant and equally as courageous, Winnie Mandela.
As I slowly educated myself about the struggle in South Africa and attended conferences, poetry readings, and student meetings on the fight thousands of miles away, Winnie Mandela was always at the center.
Some nights I would come home and cut on PBS television and there would be a documentary about the struggle or a…
