Biography of Winnie Mandela
By Radiyah Shakur
 Winnie
Madikizela-Mandela is a freedom fighter, a politician,
a mother and former wife to one of South Africa’s
most famous equal rights fighters, Nelson Mandela.
Similarly, she is also one of South Africa’s
most outspoken and controversial figures.
Nomzamo Winifred Zanyiwe Madikizela was born on 26
September in Bizana, Transkei in 1934. She was
one of eight siblings from a family that was better
off than most black people in South Africa in those
years. At age16 Winnie left home to attend the
Jan Hofmeyer School of Social Work in Johannesburg,
Gauteng. After graduating she became the first
African social worker at the Baragwanath Hospital.
Winnie also completed a Bachelor of Arts degree
in International Relations at The University of
Witwatersrand, in Johannesburg, one of South Africa’s
top universities.
Winnie’s social work exposed her to the disparities
among the black majority and privileged white minority
in South Africa. "It was while working as the
first black medical social worker at Baragwanath
Hospital that I started to become politicised" says
Mandela. "I started to realise the abject poverty
under which most people were forced to live, the
appalling conditions created by the inequalities
of the system."
In the 1950s Winnie started meeting young people
from the African National Congress and became involved
in South Africa’s liberation struggle. She
became heavily involved in encouraging the women
of South Africa to stand up and refuse to be subjected
to the laws of apartheid. In 1957 she met Nelson
Mandela and a year later they married.
In their early married life, Winnie grew accustomed
to spending long periods away from her husband who
was either touring townships, in hiding or in prison
awaiting his trail. In 1962 when Nelson Mandela was
imprisoned for life, Winnie Mandela assumed the responsibility
of Nelson Mandela’s successor, eventually becoming
known as the ‘Mother of the Nation’.
In 1969 she was imprisoned in solitary confinement
for 17 months. Over the years she was banned and
jailed on other minor charges. After being involved
with the Soweto uprising in 1976, serving a half
year sentence, and being banned from Soweto, Winnie
Mandela became well known in the West and was promoted
by the ANC as a symbol for the fight against apartheid.
In subsequent years, Winnie Mandela’s personal
activities and public remarks have caused her to
be in the center of much controversy. Despite the
contentious aspects of her life, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela
inspired generations of young black people to resist
The System. Even though she is no longer politically
affiliated with the ANC, she remains to be especially
popular among South Africa’s poor.
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