Adieu Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, the Great African Warrior

A saddened world has just received news of the passing of the superheroine of the decades-old struggle that eventually brought an end to Apartheid in South Africa in 1994. (https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/02/africa/winnie-mandela-south-africa-intl/index.html). Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, age 81, has joined the ancestors. While the superhero of that struggle, the late Nelson Mandela was kept in political incarceration for 27 years, Winnie Mandela energetically and relentlessly kept alive the flame of that struggle. It was a turbulent journey for which, at various times, she was jailed, tortured and even banished by the apartheid regime. But not for one moment did she let the world forget about the prolonged travail of Mr. Mandela, who in 1994 emerged as the first President of a Free South Africa, not long after being released from 27 years of political imprisonment. Not surprisingly, while Nelson Mandela richly earned an accolade of “Father of the Nation,” Winnie Madikizela-Mandela also rightfully came to be known as the “Mother of the Nation” of post-apartheid South Africa.

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela was a world figure. Her sacrifices, her resoluteness, her unflinching commitment to a struggle to free her people from the bondage and indignity of apartheid—without caring about her own safety and comfort—produced, in my view,  a net effect of helping to steer and influence the evolution and texture of human conscience in the 20^th century. Winnie Mandela fearlessly confronted and spoke truth to power during a period when an arrogant, conscienceless and blood-thirsty Black-loathing apartheid regime in South Africa intimidated many less courageous though decent men and women into obsequious silence. She subordinated her material wellbeing and personal freedom to the human interest/desire of her people to be liberated from the shackles of apartheid.

Indeed, South Africa, Africa and the world-at-large have lost one of the greatest yet selfless political giants that shaped the trajectory of human history in the 20^th century. Like her late ex-husband and political warrior (Winnie and Nelson got divorced in 1996), Winnie Madikizela-Mandela’s entire life was a life of struggle, a life of living and working for the betterment of others, and not for self. She was a rare gem that embodied intellectual acumen, oratory, political wizardry, a passion for social justice, a deep love of freedom, charisma and physical beauty. Winnie Madikizela-Mandela was one of the most beautiful women that ever lived! Despite all these attributes, she led a humble life and felt at home with the grassroots.

There goes a true warrior, a quintessential political activist, a true daughter of Africa, a jewel, a real-life superheroine! Her journey back to eternal home is one that prodigiously merits a colorful ancestral welcome marked by blaring trumpets, pomp and pageantry. May her great and lion-hearted soul rest in perfect peace!