Women Activists and Civil Rights Leaders in Auto/Biographical Literature and Films

Delphine Letort, Benaouda Lebdai, Delphine Letort, Benaouda Lebdai

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN:
  9783319770802
• eBook ISBN:
  9783319770819
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Film & Video

This collective book offers new insight on the genres of biography and autobiography by examining the singular path of those deemed to be 'outsiders', such as Winnie Mandela, Ida B. Wells, Malcolm X and Harvey Milk. Its specific focus on these female leaders and civil rights activists, who refused to be constrained by gender, race and class, shifts attention away from the great men of history and places it solely on those who have transformed their personal lives into a fight for collective goals. With an interdisciplinary approach that looks at literature, cinema and cultural studies, Women Activists and Civil Rights Leaders in Auto/Biographical Literature and Cinema argues that life writing is a key source of artistic creativity and activism which enables us to take a fresh look at history. 

Part IThe Lives of Women Activists

© The Author(s) 2018

Delphine Letort and Benaouda Lebdai (eds.)Women Activists and Civil Rights Leaders in Auto/Biographical Literature and Filmshttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77081-9_2

Begin Abstract

Winnie Madikizela Mandela: The Construction of a South African Political Icon

Benaouda Lebdai¹

(1)

Le Mans University, Le Mans, France

Benaouda Lebdai

Email: [email protected]

End Abstract

An emblematic figure in South African history , Winnie Madikizela Mandela (hereafter referred to as Winnie Mandela) is one of the rare African National Congress (ANC) historical figures still alive. Her two autobiographies, Part of My Soul Went with Him (1984) and 491 Days: Prisoner Number 1323/69 (2013),¹ provide valuable historical testimonies about her growing up within the turmoil of South African history , enhancing her image as an adamant anti-apartheid resistant. This essay retraces the construction of the woman’s image as a political icon, using her autobiographical writing to shed light on the events that have prompted Winnie Mandela to take political action. She has authored two books that portray a woman who developed her charisma independently of her husband Nelson Mandela , showing how her political views matured and her personal political consciousness evolved. If her life and actions have aroused public criticism, including rumors which gave rise to various fantasies and journalistic comments about her, I will eschew these controversies by focusing on the struggles of black South African women, whose efforts have all too often been neglected and relegated to passive contributions within the national storytelling of the struggle against apartheid . This analysis will show that Winnie Mandela is indeed a black South African anti-apartheid militant, a character who has always had “an exceptional grasp of the popular mood” (Krog 1999: 369)² and of black women, in particular. Both autobiographies ensure that she remains “a powerful political figure in her own right” (Krog 1999: 378), underlining that her life path has been determined by the political choices she made in times of national crisis.

Unplanned Publications

Retracing the genealogy of both publications enables us to understand the complex relationship between Winnie Mandela and the political context of her life. Critical history acknowledges that life storytelling participates in the construction of a public personality. Invited to speak about herself during apartheid by the white anti-apartheid militant Anne Benjamin, Winnie Mandela was propelled to the forefront of international and national news as a significant figure in Soweto . Anne Benjamin convinced her to comment on her role as the leader of a struggle which her husband Nelson Mandela had been compelled to abandon while imprisoned at Robben Island . Anne Benjamin proposed to record her testimonial in secret, because blacks were not allowed to speak in public, let alone write and publish, in apartheid South Africa . Winnie Mandela’s secret recordings were then transcribed and adapted by Mary Benson, her white anti-apartheid militant friend, into an autobiographical book entitled Part of My Soul Went with Him . Personal letters exchanged with Nelson Mandela and other testimonies by various militants were included in the book, which shows the impact she already had on those militants and on women prisoners. Anne Benjamin made her reveal the events which nurtured her political development, and which ushered her into the struggle against a discriminatory political system imposed by the Pretoria government. The transcripts of the recording were smuggled out and the book version was published in New York in 1984.

Her diary 491 Days: Prisoner Number 1323/69 also has great significance for the writing of South African history in connection with Winnie Mandela’s own epic political story. The story surround the publication process is worth a reminder. Winnie Mandela wrote a secret diary while in prison from May 1969 to September 1970. She succeeded in giving the pages to her solicitor David Soggot , an Englishman, who smuggled them out of prison and hid them in his London residence. His wife Greta Soggot discovered the manuscript in the attic of their house forty years later. She then traveled to Johannesburg and returned the forgotten pages to Winnie Mandela. Reading the manuscript was a traumatic shock for Winnie Mandela, bringing back “horrifying memories” of her imprisonment in the 1970s (fourth cover page, 491PN). She later added in the introduction to the published version: “I was afraid. There are memories you keep in a part of your brain; it is part of those things that hurt so much you do not want to remember” (491PN 232). Winnie Mandela’s two daughters urged her to publish the diary and the letters she had both sent to and received from Nelson Mandela when he was a captive at Robben Island . The published diary sold out within three days in South Africa in December 2013.

Literary critic and autobiography specialist Philippe Lejeune contends that an autobiography is a “retrospective story written in prose in which a living person gives of his/her own existence and his/her personality.”³ Part of My Soul Went with Him and 491 Days: Prisoner Number 1323/69 correspond to this definition insofar as the narrator abides by the “autobiographical pact ” defined by Lejeune. While “the character does not have a name as he/she is ‘I’” (Lejeune 1996: 26) in autobiographies, the genre allows the narrator to assert his/her identity as the author. Winnie Mandela’s texts disclose views that help characterize her as an individual; yet the first book also includes various letters which convey another perception of the woman and therefore complete her portrayal. It appears that Winnie Mandela used autobiographical writing to gain a voice that was subdued in apartheid South Africa .

Winnie Mandela’s Family Background

Both autobiographies are far from being mere political pamphlets. Part of My Soul Went with Him shows the impact of history on her own life narrative, and that of her own people, those who live in poverty in the townships and the Bantustan. Her childhood and teenage years memories are interwoven with the history of South Africa , highlighting the impact of apartheid on her intimate life. Her autobiography discloses private feelings that underpin political actions, leading her to be perceived as the “Mother of the Nation.” Interestingly, the reader discovers that she became a politically aware subject when a child, realizing that blacks were always inferior to whites whatever the level of their education:

I became aware at an early stage that the Whites felt superior to us. And I could see how shabby my father looked in comparison to the white teachers. That hurts your pride when you are a child; you tell yourself: If they failed in those nine Xhosa wars, I am one of them, and I will start from where those Xhosas left off and get my land back. (POS 28)

These lines also show that Winnie Mandela’s sense of community devotion originated from her childhood experience. Her love for her father, whom she wanted to protect because of the historical circumstances, nurtured a strong feeling of responsibility. As a history teacher, he would not tell the same history as Afrikaners who declared that they set foot on virgin land when they disembarked at Cape Region in 1652. Her father glorified those South African heroes whom Afrikaners never mentioned; he related the Xhosa wars against the whites, knowing that all the black tribes fought the whites, including the Zulu with King Chaka. Winnie remembers:

We had textbooks, naturally written by white men, and they had their interpretation, why there were nine ‘Kaffir’ wars. Then he would put the textbook aside and say: ‘Now, this is what the book says, but the truth is: these white people invaded our country and stole the land from our grandfathers’… My father taught us other songs which dealt with events in the history of our people. They were songs from tribesmen, by traditional composers. (POS 30–31)

Her father’s political education consisted in revisiting black history . Philippe Lejeune observes that “social and political history have their place” in autobiographies (Lejeune 1996: 15), which both Winnie Mandela’s texts emphasize by referring to everyday conversations with her father and her paternal grandmother Makhulu. Both discussed historical facts in front of her, feeding her growing awareness of South African racial reality. They brought her a realistic picture of the tribes where white people were called Aba Nyephi—a phrase that implied that whites illegally enjoyed the wealth of a country whose lands they stole from her ancestors on their arrival. Winnie Mandela always heard her grandmother warn children against stealing: “You must not behave like an Aba Nyephi!” (Meer 1993: 126). Her autobiography shows that in everyday life moral education and politics were intertwined and the memory of such details had great importance in Winnie’s political awareness of the history of South Africa : she was not brought up in denial of a tragic reality that had serious consequences on the life of the tribe.

In terms of family influence the autobiography also points out the influence of her relationship with her mother who died when she was eleven. Their relationship was fraught with tension: her mother’s overt preference for boys over girls led her to pray day and night for a boy when she was pregnant. Winnie suffered from that rejection and decided to challenge her mother: “I will prove to her that a girl is as much of value to a parent as a son” (POS 29). Winnie Mandela consequently developed awareness of gender inequalities within the black community, and this deeply rooted experience planted the seeds of feminism in her life. Her successful studies were also a response to her craving for liberty and independence, and knowledge. Winnie Mandela also suffered from her paternal aunts’ disdain regarding physical features (her straight hair and greenish eyes) which indicate her mixed blood genealogy, as her mother was half Xhosa, half English. Winnie Mandela never “boasted” about her European genealogy and claimed her “Africanity” instead—a source of pride and self-esteem in her tribe.

Autobiographies shed light on events the autodiegetic narrator chooses to tell. By focusing on her moral and political education, Winnie Mandela self-consciously displays the elements that paved the way for her political choices.

An Intimate and Political Struggle

Part of My Soul Went with Him underlines Winnie Mandela’s primary political education, which foretells her involvement in political organizations and social actions. ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Front Matter
• Introduction
• Part I. The Lives of Women Activists
• Part II. Black History in Auto/biographical Texts
• Part III. Biographical Films and History
• Part IV. Postface
• Back Matter