Fare Thee Well, Winnie!

By SOC Okenwa…

Penultimate week the Rainbow nation in particular and the world in general were treated to the melancholic news about the demise of the former wife of the late Nelson Mandela, the iconic former South African President, Winnie Madikizela Mandela. She was 81! She passed peacefully away in a hospital in Johannesburg after a protracted illness linked to old age. The average life expectancy of the average African woman is less than 50 years, so any woman of such character who died an octogenarian could never be considered to have died untimely. While we mourned her inevitable final journey to the unknown we are consoled by the fact that she lived a worthy life worth remembering by time and circumstances.

And just as recently as few days ago the former glamorous American First Lady and wife of former President George H.W. Bush, Barbara, kicked the bucket at the ripe age of 92. Barbara was the mother of another former US President, George W. Bush. She died after reportedly electing to stop receiving further treatment from heart and respiratory disease. She would be remembered in US history as the second American woman to have been the wife of one President and the mother of another! The first was the formidable Abigail Adams centuries ago. Besides, Americans would forever remember her for her defense of the Bush presidential dynasty and the strong support she gave to both husband and son as they, in different epochs, piloted the affairs of Uncle Sam.

Last weekend Winnie was laid to rest after a week-long national mourning declared in her honour by the South African government led by President Cyril Ramaphosa. Almost every South African, from the Head of State down to the artisan on the street of Soweto, had an emotional story of appreciation to tell about the departed iron lady, a Sowetan township ghetto girl who rose to international prominence by her remarkable conviction, courage and possession of a combination of brain and beauty. The last public funeral farewell was held inside the Orlando Stadium in Soweto.

Married at a tender age of 21 to the divorced late Nelson Mandela Winnie was not given enough opportunity to enjoy her marriage. The connubial bliss associated with a young newly-married couple was disrupted early enough by the apartheid system that made sure that the breadwinner, Madiba, was thrown into a gaol somewhere in Robben Islands. For 27 odd years Mandela was arbitrarily locked up for standing up to an obnoxious satanic system whose major objective was to see the white minority rule prevail over the majority black population.

Faced with many challenges thrown her way by the entrenched resistance movement to apartheid Winnie had no choice but to continue where her jailed husband had stopped. She was bold and intrepid in the protracted struggle to free her subjugated people from the organized segregation imposed by ‘foreigners’ ruling over the Adams and Eves (sons and daughters) of the soil.

In the end after a bloody battle apartheid was conquered and Nelson Mandela, regaining his freedom in 1994, became the first black President of the Rainbow nation. But before that historic presidential event happening Winnie had been divorced by Mandela following rumours of infidelity. Of course it is very hard for any woman to endure decades of forced seperation from her husband!

Yet even post-apartheid Winnie continued to make name for herself for good and bad reasons. The Desmond Tutu-led Truth and Reconciliation Commission had found her guilty of torture and corruption. The Mandela Football Club was used as a soccerless militia to harrass and intimidate opponents. In the ANC ruling party she had problems even with Madiba as President. As a Minister in the government she was sacked for some indiscretion cum insubordination. Problems mounted but she remained unfazed by them.

Back home in Nigeria the late enigmatic Madiba had to intervene during the protracted June 12 national crisis involving the late Bashorun MKO Abiola and the military top brass led by retired General Ibrahim Babangida who inexplicably annulled the poll throwing the nation into an avoidable national mayhem. Mandela clashed with the late Gen. Sani Abacha, the then dictator-in-Chief, who was busy jailing, killing and persecuting opponents. The diplomatic row led to Nigeria boycotting the African Nations’ Cup continental soccer competition hosted by South Africa — even with the Super Eagles as the defending Champions!

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Winnie Mandela had her human faults as a woman oppressed. But no matter what she did wrong what she did right far outweighed whatever shortcomings she could be associated with. Few women in Nigeria could ever be compared to the anti-apartheid heroine in terms of conviction, battle-readiness, stand for the truth and love for a people whose rights were trampled upon. Perhaps only the late wife of the June 12 1993 presidential poll winner, Kudirat Abiola, could compete with Winnie as regards confronting oppression and refusing to blink in desperate moments of mortal danger.

Besides, we could equally mention the present First Lady of Nigeria, Aisha Buhari, who has shown that a President’s wife could rise up against a cabal in Aso Rock hell-bent on monopolising power on behalf of the then indisposed elected number one citizen. The late Stella Obasanjo was too busy improving her beauty features to notice any struggle for the betterment of the down-trodden in our society. She died suddenly in a Spanish hospital while trying, by cosmetic surgery, to make herself more appealing to the ugly Baba Obasanjo, the then imperial President of the federal republic.

According to the all-time literary great William Shakespeare: “Beauty needs no pencil; and truth no colour”. Instead of searching for better things to improve the miserable lives of her compatriots Stella was content with undertaking an exorbitant beauty tourism abroad in order to impress a presidential woman-beater who could easily have won a pageantry for beast if one ever existed. In the event of an epic beauty contest taking place in Dakar or Lagos one could not predict who would come out top between the gorilla of Ota and the Senegalese Abdullahi Wade!

Dame Patience Jonathan was busy looting the national treasury to see any need to empower anyone, not even the aggrieved restive youths in the creeks of Niger Delta. Today, ‘Mama Peace’ is still locked in an impressive judicial ‘war’ with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission over the ownership of some millions of Dollars and billions of Naira deposited in some discovered bank accounts traced to her.

Hajia Mariam Abacha, the wife of the late dictator from Kano, was more pre-oocupied with coveting power during the tyranny of Abacha to take heed of the ‘wailings’ of the ‘talakawas’ on the streets of Kano and elsewhere. Today, the aggrieved abandoned jobless youths up north have been recruited as Boko Haram terrorists and Fulani herdsmen — armed and dangerous.

The first-ladyism in Nigeria had become a nauseating branch of executive power where nocturnal kitchen contracts were signed and sealed and primitive plots hatched to sustain the oppressive federal government. Bottom power could pay dividends indeed!

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela would not be remembered for torture, murder, corruption, infidelity or whatever bad things she must have done in her life-time. She would rather be remembered more for her love of her natural blackness, patriotism, steadfastness, strong-heartedness and fearlessness. And above all, for her immutably justified loathsomeness for apartheid and loathsomeness for the last two executive enablers: Pietha Botha and Federick de-Klerk.

Fare thee well, Winnie! We grieve for you! You came, you saw and you conquered! Adieu!!

 

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