MADIKIZELA-MANDELA’S LEGACY
JONNY STEINBERG: How we fix Winnie in our minds is a measure of progress
In the immediate wake of her death, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela’s legacy remains profoundly unsettled
A war has broken out over Winnie Madikizela-Mandela. There are the white men on social media who say she was evil. And there are enraged counterclaims that she was a great woman, one of the greatest in our history. But the truth is that here and now, in the immediate wake of her death, her legacy remains profoundly unsettled; whether what anybody is saying in these days will make sense in future is impossible to know. How will Winnie be remembered in 50 or 100 years from now? Will she be considered a great woman, one of the greatest? The answers to those questions will tell us much about who our grandchildren have become and how they feel about one another. There are many reasons why Winnie might always be revered; the most obvious is her response to suffering. When she was tortured, she declared herself torture’s child, full of fury and rage. The more the apartheid state hurt her, the more defiant she became.Fortitude under suffering has long been revered in SA’s history. Winnie’s ...
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