The Untold Story of Winnie Mandela’s Darkest Years

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On the night of 12 May 1969, Winnie Mandela woke to the sound of boots on the porch and fists pounding on her front door. Police raids were nothing new, but this one felt different. Her daughters were home for the school holidays as officers tore through the house, searching cupboards and scattering belongings across the floor. When they were done, they took her away, leaving the children behind in tears. Winnie had been arrested under John Vorster’s Terrorism Act of 1967, a law that gave police sweeping powers to detain anyone they considered a threat to public order. It allowed indefinite imprisonment without trial or charge, cutting detainees off completely from the outside world. She spent about a year and a half in detention, most of it in solitary confinement. For the first two hundred days, she saw no one but her interrogators. Her cell was bare: three thin blankets, a tin mug, and a bucket. A single light bulb stayed on day and night, blurring the line between night and day. The interrogations were merciless. She was kept awake for days, pushed to the edge of collapse, and forced to listen as others were tortured in nearby rooms. It was a calculated effort to break her will….. This was only one of many confrontations Winnie Madikizela-Mandela endured at the hands of the apartheid police, who tried to crush her spirit at every turn. They knew how much influence she carried, and they feared it. But her story was never straightforward. The same determination that helped her survive years of harassment and imprisonment would later make her one of the most divisive figures in South Africa’s history…. ************************************************************************* Sources: https://theconversation.com/winnie-madikizela-mandela-revolutionary-who-kept-the-spirit-of-resistance-alive-94300 https://southafrica.co.za/winnie-mandela-continues-struggle.html https://sahistory.org.za/people/winnie-madikizela-mandela https://africasacountry.com/2018/04/no-more-caricatures https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2021-10-10-brandfort-place-of-hollow-forgetting-and-shallow-remembering/ https://mg.co.za/article/2018-04-06-00-stompie-burnt-into-winnie-legacy/ https://www.britannica.com/biography/Winnie-Madikizela-Mandela https://www.presidency.gov.za/winnie-madikizela-mandela https://sahistory.org.za/people/winnie-madikizela-mandela https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/02/winnie-madikizela-mandela-obituary https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/stompie-s-ghost-refuses-to-rest-in-peace-1258597.html https://workerssocialistparty.org.za/winnie-a-warrior/ Winnie Mandela: the Former Mother of the Nation: https://sahistory.org.za/sites/default/files/SMU%20-%20Andrew%20Mintz%20-%20TRC%20PAPER%20FINAL%201.pdf https://www.ru.ac.za/perspective/2013archive/what_winnies_prison_memoir_reminds_us_about_the_mandelas.html https://www.voanews.com/a/south-africa-winnie-madikizela-mandela-died/4327731.html https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/social-sciences-and-law/social-reformers/winnie-madikizela-mandela https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctMu9qr7oGA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZD4m12iTwRA https://mg.co.za/article/2018-04-06-00-stompie-burnt-into-winnie-legacy/ https://www.reuters.com/article/world/winnie-mandela-tarnished-mother-of-post-apartheid-south-africa-idUSKCN1H91A5/ Nomzamo: Teaching Complexity through the Life of Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, Meghan Healy-Clancy *********************************************************** Music: Epidemic Sound Meditation Impromptu 03 by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Attribution 3.0 International License. Arid Foothills Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/