{"id":1928,"date":"2014-03-04T14:00:48","date_gmt":"2014-03-04T20:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lovingonme.com\/?p=1928"},"modified":"2017-05-10T14:03:15","modified_gmt":"2017-05-10T19:03:15","slug":"winnie-mandela-liberator-to-the-oppressed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lovingonme.com\/2017\/2014\/03\/04\/winnie-mandela-liberator-to-the-oppressed\/","title":{"rendered":"Winnie Mandela: Liberator to the Oppressed"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"winnemandela\"<\/a>“Beside every great man is a phenomenal woman.”<\/i><\/p>\n

This statement couldn\u2019t be more fitting when it comes to liberator Winnie Madikizela-Mandela.<\/p>\n

Born Nomzamo Winifred Madikizela on September 26, 1936, in Bizana, South Africa, Winnie Mandela\u2019s dedication to her fellow citizens was evident even in her early years as a social worker, choosing to forego a scholarship to study in America after completing her studies. Instead, she decided to work as the first black medical social worker at Baragwanath Hospital in Johannesburg.<\/p>\n

At the age of 23, she married lawyer Nelson Mandela<\/a>, who was already active in the ANC. Shortly after their marriage, Winnie joined her husband in the fight against the apartheid regime and continued to do so even after he was sentenced to life in prison.<\/p>\n

Winnie Mandela took the baton in the race against oppression, eventually meeting the same fate as her husband and was jailed under the Suppression of Terrorism Act. She endured the horrors of torture while in solitary confinement, and had this to say about her experience:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe years of imprisonment hardened me\u2026When it happens every day of your life, when the pain becomes a way of life, I no longer have the emotion of fear\u2026there is no longer anything I can fear. There is nothing the government has not done to me. There isn\u2019t any pain I haven\u2019t known.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

After her release, Winnie Mandela continued to speak out against the oppressive system, even after being banned from the media and having her home firebombed in 1985.<\/p>\n

But Winnie faced even more challenges when she became known for endorsing deadly retaliation against black citizens who cooperated with the apartheid regime as well as facing economic fraud charges.<\/p>\n

In spite of the controversy, Winnie Mandela\u2019s activism and determination to bring change has gained her the title \u201cMother of the Nation\u201d by her fellow South African citizens and a place on our Power 31 list of Women Who Dared.\u00a0Where is it that you will work to bring about change? Drop us a line and let us know.<\/p>\n

Remember to come back to tomorrow and discover another woman who dared to defy the status quo!<\/p>\n

PS \u2013 Don\u2019t forget it\u2019s Women\u2019s History Month, and we\u2019re using the hashtag #Dare2BMe<\/strong>. Please join us in helping spread the inspiration.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Beside every great man is a phenomenal woman.” This statement couldn\u2019t be more fitting when it comes to liberator Winnie Madikizela-Mandela. Born Nomzamo Winifred Madikizela on September 26, 1936, in Bizana, South Africa, Winnie Mandela\u2019s dedication to her fellow citizens was evident even in her early years as a social worker, choosing to forego a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":11709,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sharing_disabled":false,"switch_like_status":false,"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":""},"categories":[107,13748410],"tags":[303378,204997456,204997441,204997450],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/lovingonme.com\/2017\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/winnemandela.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4eAxC-v6","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lovingonme.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1928"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lovingonme.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lovingonme.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lovingonme.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lovingonme.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1928"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lovingonme.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1928\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9023,"href":"https:\/\/lovingonme.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1928\/revisions\/9023"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lovingonme.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lovingonme.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lovingonme.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lovingonme.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}