We like our heroines to be courageous, but we don't want them to be messy.
So says Sisonke Msimang in this clear-eyed portrait of Winnie Mandela, who was fêted all over the world as the loyal wife of Nelson Mandela while the South African Apartheid regime treated her brutally, but was shunned worldwide when she became implicated in violence herself. This is the blurb:

The Resurrection of Winnie Mandela charts the rise and fall—and rise, again—of one of South Africa’s most controversial political figures. ‘Ma Winnie’ fought apartheid with uncommon ferocity, but her implication in kidnapping, torture and killings—including the murder of 14-year-old Stompie Seipei—would later see her shunned.

Sisonke Msimang argues that this complicated woman was not witch but warrior: that her violence, like that of the men she fought alongside, was a function of her political views rather than a descent into madness. In resurrecting Ma Winnie, Msimang asks what it means to reclaim this powerful woman as an icon while honouring apartheid’s victims—those who were collateral damage and whose stories have yet to be told.

Feminism powers this book along, but The Resurrection of Winnie Mandela is more than a book about how female political leaders are perceived and treated differently to their male counterparts. It's also about the dilemmas faced by the leadership of any organisation fighting for political freedom. What strategies should be used, when non-violence has failed? What kind of violence can be justified in an unequal war? Can we reconcile the violent behaviour of freedom fighters, if they are activists in a just cause? And how do we respond if the violence gets out of hand because the participants have become brutalised and insensitive as a consequence of violence they've suffered themselves?

Most of us would prefer that strategies be non-violent, modelled on Gandhi's campaign in India. But Nelson Mandela—the man now hailed as a secular saint—co-founded MK:

Umkhonto we Sizwe (meaning "Spear of the Nation") was the armed wing of the African National Congress (ANC), co-founded by Nelson Mandela in the wake of the Sharpeville massacre. Its mission was to fight against the South African government. (Wikipedia, lightly edited to remove unnecessary links and footnotes)

MK wasn't just designated a terrorist organisation by South Africa, but also by the US. Oliver Tambo, another hero of the movement, was directly responsible for guerrilla actions which killed civilians:

Along with his comrades Nelson Mandela, Joe Slovo, and Walter Sisulu, Tambo directed and facilitated several attacks against the apartheid state. In a 1985 interview, Tambo was quoted as saying, "In the past, we were saying the ANC will not deliberately take innocent life. But now, looking at what is happening in South Africa, it is difficult to say civilians are not going to die."

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2019/05/01/the-resurrection-of-winnie-mandela-by-sisonk...

( )

Read 2019. ( )