She
was a woman of all walks of life who could not restrain her temper once she
noticed an African iks being molested by a member of the minority regime of the
then a despotic Apartheid system of South Africa. The Canadian diplomat Gary
Bedell first met Winnie Madikizela-Mandela when she accompanied Nelson Mandela
on his first visit to Canada and the United States, shortly after his release
from Victor Vester prison. Bedell developed a deep friendship with
Madikizela-Mandela - a woman he describes as "bigger than life" -
that spanned over two decades. It was the summer of 1990, and Gary Bedell found
himself standing on a New York City sidewalk arguing with Winnie Mandela. The
wife of Nelson Mandela was adamant. She had made her own indelible mark as an
anti-apartheid campaigner, a central member of the struggle, during her
husband's long imprisonment. And so she would indeed be attending an important
meeting with business leaders at the World Trade Centre with the rest of his
delegation. He was definitely not going to appear instead on The Phil Donahue
Show, as planned. "Send somebody
else to go talk to the housewives of America,"
Nelson
and Winnie Mandela on his release from prison in February 1990
Mr Bedell recalls Mrs
Madikizela-Mandela telling him. "Why does it have to be me?" Mr Bedell was sympathetic, but Mr Mandela had
urged him: convince her. "She was not going. Stubborn as she was,"
the former diplomat recalls. "In the end I just said: 'You're going to be
the one to lose because it's going to be a blank screen and it's going to say:
Winnie Mandela didn't show up.'" Mrs Madikizela-Mandela relented, and her
appearance on the talk show - broadcast at the time to almost 200 cities across
the US - was a triumph. "Leading crowds in her 'Amandla!' (Power!) chant
and hailed from midtown television studios to Brooklyn street corners as an
inspiration and a role model for African
Winnie
Madikizela-Mandela, then-wife of Nelson Mandela, addressing a meeting in Kagiso
township in 1986
American women, the anti-apartheid
leader delivered potent messages with unflappable dignity," The death of
South Africa's veteran anti-apartheid activist Winnie Madikizela-Mandela at the
age of 81 has sparked a national debate about how she should be remembered. The
more traditional sections of society, including her staunch supporters, want us
to remember her as a faultless woman. Others, particularly those who are still
in the trenches fighting the old battles in favour of white supremacy, want us
to remember Mrs Madikizela-Mandela as a violent and deeply flawed individual.
Nelson
Mandela, Gary Bedell, and Winnie Mandela
But
anyone who wants to truly understand the Winnie Madikizela-Mandela I knew needs
to go back in time and trace the steps of humiliation she suffered under the
racist system of apartheid. She was a freedom fighter; a revolutionary who was
at the coalface of the anti-apartheid struggle - not an armchair activist who
waged a revolution on Twitter or Facebook. She was left to raise two young
daughters when her husband of four years, Nelson Mandela, was arrested in 1962
and sentenced to life in prison on the notorious Robben Island prison. The
Canadian diplomat - tasked with organising Nelson Mandela's first visit to
Canada when he was months out of prison - had met the Mandelas just weeks
before. Mr Mandela - still coming to terms with the new realities of his
freedom - was grateful for Mr Bedell's advice on protocol, and they developed a
rapport.
Winnie
Mandela being arrested in 1991 while staging a protest calling for the release
of detainees on hunger strike
He also appreciated Mr Bedell's ability to appease Mrs
Madikizela-Mandela's "fierce personality", once joking that the
diplomat handled her better than he did. So Mr Mandela asked Canadian Prime
Minister Brian Mulroney if Mr Bedell could continue to accompany the couple,
joining them on their visit to the United States. Mr Bedell and Mrs
Madikizela-Mandela soon formed their own bond over mutual attempts to ensure Mr
Mandela, then 72, was given enough time to rest during their whirlwind
three-week US tour, which included a ticker tape parade along lower Broadway
and celebrities and politicians jockeying for his time. Mrs Madikizela-Mandela
too was good, he remembers, showing political instinct and a natural charisma,
charming journalists who tried to press her on scandals back home. But amidst
the pomp of the tour, Mr Bedell noticed the couple had a naïveté about them. At
a glittering celebrity fundraiser in New York, hosted by Robert de Niro,
attended by the likes of Eddie Murphy, Robin Williams, and Spike Lee, Mr Bedell
says: "Winnie turned to me and whispered: 'Who are all these
people?'"
Winnie Mandela
and Gary Bedell
He also noticed early strains between the newly reunited pair. Mrs
Madikizela-Mandela was a "very vivacious and passionate woman" and
the man she had married had aged during his 27 years in prison. "You almost got the sense he was more of
a father figure to her than a husband at that stage," he says. Those
tensions were more obvious when, a few months later, Mr Bedell flew to South
Africa at Mr Mandela's request to develop a training programme for protocol
staff and to reform their security teams. The challenges Mr Mandela faced as he
led the African National Congress in its negotiations for an end to apartheid
and worked towards forming a new, multi-racial democracy were obvious. Mr
Bedell says nobody carried more pressure than Mr Mandela in the years between
1990 and 1992. "In private he often exploded," he says. "The
language was incredible, like a truck driver. Mrs Madikizela-Mandela had her
own personal trials. She had been frequently detained during her husband's
incarceration - jailed and placed in solitary confinement for her activities,
banished to a rural area by apartheid authorities, her house burned down. She raised the couple's daughters alone. Her resistance in those years led to her being
dubbed the "Mother of the Nation". In her family's recent words, she
became "one of the greatest icons of the struggle against apartheid".
"All I know is I am terribly brutalized
inside. I know my soul is scarred," she said. Now, she was feeling pushed
aside as her husband campaigned for a moderate path towards his goal of
national reconciliation.
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