Prometheus 6   

Winnie Mandela

Sorry for being so terse. Got a lot going on in my little head this morning.

Mac Diva's take on Ms. Mandela.

My take, carved from a conversation with so nice, but young, folks:

She #1: It just makes me wonder if this was the quality in her that caused their divorce.

Me: Nah. The quality was Nelson getting out of the joint.

Winnie held the movement down while Nelson was being a symbol. She's mad radical, and felt she earned a seat at the table for all her work . . . with which statement I agree.

But they needed Nelson to be the up-front symbol with no competition. on accounta his noble acceptance of the folks what jailed him--a Ghandi/MLK type was the only thing that could keep the Afrikaaners in the country thru the transition. So Winnie had to be shut up, shouted down or discredited.

She #2: But does one really thing Winnie yields that much power over the 'radicals'? It seems that Nelson easily distanced himself from that by as you say embracing his captors & divorcing her.

Me: I'm not saying Nelson embraced his captors. He hasn't been silent.

Aparthied had reached the pont where legally it had to end. But look at what happened in the USofA when our version of it was legally ended.

Nelson Mandela's release, and his deportment afterward, was part of the deal to end the legal support for Apartheid. But Winnie never signed on to that.

She used to have the kind of leverage that made her a concern. But (male supremacy being what it is) Nelson was the symbol and she was the loyal wife fighting to keep his memory and movement alive--that was the public stance.

Now, to use a really crass metaphor, if your preacher's been telling you about the second coming, who you gonna follow when the Christ returns . . . your preacher or the Christ?

posted by Prometheus 6 at 4/27/2003 03:46:00 PM |