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Mandela’s 2nd Wife Winnie
Mandela also acknowledged in his
autobiography that he was ''too-often a
distant father,'' and that the children grew up
largely without his help. Mandela married his
second wife, Winnie Madikizela, in 1958 one
year after his divorce to Evelyn.
As a couple, Winnie and Nelson Mandela
was said to be made for each other. And apparently most of
Mandela’s friends agreed that Winnie was the love of his life.
Winnie is also the only one that most of the world was familiar
mainly because of the social struggle that ensued.
Winnie was a young and attractive social worker, and
developed into a political activist with a fiery flare. The couple
got married while Nelson Mandela was still under government
investigation (in 1958). They had two daughters, Zenani
(Zeni), born 4 February 1958, and Zindziswa (Zindzi)
Mandela-Hlongwane, born 1960.
In 1959, the University where Mandela attended, restricted
registrations of black students for most of the apartheid era
and that certainly did not help his cause.
It resulted in Mandela incarcerated for most of the years he
was married to Winnie, but she continued the struggle and
maintained contact with her husband in jail.
Over the years Winnie campaigned tirelessly for Mandela’s
release, but in return, she was arrested and banished to the
extreme part of South Africa by the apartheid authorities. It
was said that Winnie’s visits and letters was a tremendous
comfort to Mandela and helped him cope during his long
years in jail.
The couple was re-united when Mandela was released from
prison in 1990 after 27 years, but by that time allegations of
misconduct against Winnie continued to mount. She was
accused of being unfaithful during Mandela’s years of
incarceration, but the big blow was the fraud and kidnapping
charges brought against her.
The couple separated in 1992, until their divorce was
finalized in 1996. Within that time Mandela was elected as
the first black President of South Africa in 1994 and Winnie
never got the privilege of serving as First Lady of South
Africa due to the separation.
For us at SSR, Winnie’s name will always be held in close
association with Nelson Mandela, because apartheid,
leadership, family, imprisonment and freedom was the fabric
of Nelson Mandela’s life, and Winnie was very much a part of
all of these phases. Unfortunately their marriage did not
survive Mandela’s political fortitude and what was seen by
some as Winnie embarrassment to the ANC political party.
Former South African President
Nelson Mandela and his former wife
Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, right,
ibn social settings
2010-02 (AP Photo)