Critical dispute

Winnie Mandela was a contentious person. She applies as "Mother of Nation" but also as a ruthless woman who sticks at nothing. 

A lot of people think Winnie Mandela was just the woman next to Nelson Mandela, but she also was a strong woman with a remarkable story. She was a political activist and social worker in a time where claiming was really difficult. Especially for people of colour but also for women. She raised their children as a single mother because Nelson was in jail and she got involved in political work parallel. She was arrested by police quite often and also was held in solitary confinement. Despite her disputed way to get what she wanted, a lot of people although call her "Mama Wetu" - "Mother of the Nation" - a sign for fondness and respect for her stake. Through all her arrests she became radical and was filled with bitterness. 

Winnie was already corporal as a child, she often got in hard fights with her siblings. Her interest in politics loomed early while helping her father at work and through her education. She was grown up traditionally and with the African culture. After the dead of her mother and sister, Winnie had to take on responsibility for her family early. She made a lot of experiences with Apartheid and racial segregation. Learning about the inequality of the world around her was a part of her life and she was sensitized. Winnie never understood the injustice and the racial hatred she was faced with. Over the years, she applied for the black community and made herself a name. Despite the marriage with Nelson Mandela, she was often lonely because of the political activity of both and the arrestation.

Winnie empoisoned while her arrest on Robben Island, she was isolated from her children and was maltreated. After that she got unethical and callousness. Unfortunately, all the pain she went through made her to a person who wasn’t better because she got involved in the dead of a little boy for getting her goals and advocated ‘necklacing’. Again and again, Winnie Mandela got confronted with allegations of bribery also after the end of the apartheid regime.

Despite her debatable and partly radical politics, she stays a icon for the women rights movement and the rights of the poor.