Former Wife of Nelson Mandela Has Passed Today

Former wife of Nelson Mandela has passed today.. Clickbait.. That first line I purposely used for a reason.

Yes, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela was the former wife of the international symbol of anti-Apartheid (Nelson Mandela), but Winnie Mandela was much, much, much more than that. When you create a bio for a person the caliber of Winnie Mandela, it can present several challenges. Instinctively, she could be relegated to just “the former wife of ______”—it would be an understandable yet undeniably lazy mistake to make. Winnie Mandela was several things; and she was all those things simultaneously. Her resume would resemble that of a comic superhero or a created player in the video game universe—attributes all turned to 99. She was a revolutionary. She was a warrior. She was a military strategist. She was an intellectual. She was a lawyer. She was a mother. She was a majestic speaker. She was a politician. She was a woman’s rights activist. Oh yea, and she was the former wife of the aforementioned most recognizable African in all of the world during and post-Apartheid.

Winnie is unquestionably our most accomplished revolutionary on the grand scale. Well hell, what do you mean by that? Well it’s rather simple: Winnie is one of the only equal rights activists to partake in the frontline battle and live well into their elder years continually making an equal or even greater impact than the notoriety that was gained from their prior years of fighting social injustices. She was the revolutionary caterpillar that actually blossomed into the multifaceted butterfly that she had become and exhibited for so long. Malcolm died too young. We marvel at Malcolm’s intellect, yes. But we admire him most for his ferocious heart. We didn’t get to see the complete man, the man that returned from Mecca—the butterfly. Same in reverse order for MLK. We saw and admired his humility and strong resolve, but never saw the side of the man that so many close to him had whispered he was becoming. We never saw MLK pick up a rifle and say “Man fuck this shit—let’s ride on them fools!”

We have to understand that Winnie Mandela’s legacy has extended beyond the battlefield and into the psychology of not only Africans and the diaspora globally but has also had major influence on non-Africans as well. She belongs on the metaphorical Mount Rushmore of modern revolutionaries with any of the greats regardless of era or gender.

-Sunquil Wooten