Free Winnie!

by Elaine Brown, Essence Magazine June 1989

How soon we forget! How myopic we become. It is as though Winnie Mandela is the memory of a surreal past, as though she lives in some brief moment last year, or maybe the year before, when Mandela was on our minds.

Only a few historical minutes ago we cared about and made demands about our own freedom. Let us remember how we were infiltrated, divided and assassinated, right here in America, where racism and sexism are kinder and gentler--and subtler. We, at least, should know better by now, we transplanted, now-hyphenated African-Americans. We should recognize the tactic.

The South African government has learned how to divide and conquer. The South African government has assailed and maligned our sister Winnie Mandela, and we are silent. We allow her to be indicted by implication, by association and by character assassination. Perhaps it was government fear of Nelson's death that mothered its bastard invention: to destroy Winnie, the natural heir to his leadership. Only historical minutes ago, she was the voice of the struggle. Only minutes ago, we remembered her imprisonment at Pretoria Central Prison, the bombings of her home, her constant detentions, her bannings, the threats against her life. We remembered how she stood strong as activist, freedom fighter, wife, mother, comforter to her family and her people.

Now, without even reference to the democratic notion of due process, the illegal Botha government has made us forget our mother, our sister. The bastard Botha government, dying with its leader, is desperately fighting for breath. It implies, by rumor and innuendo, that Mandela, Winnie this time, has committed a crime. It makes nebulous connections: A 14-year-old Black boy is found murdered--no surprise in South Africa; there is a "secret" security force called the "soccer club"; a bloody knife has been found. Pieces of a scheme are strewn together by deviousness.

Western newspapers and media leap to ask: "What has Winnie Mandela done?" Previously silent on South Africa, Western press and media jump to query: "Will this hurt the cause of Blacks in South Africa?" "She is hurting her people," they editorialize disingenuously. "She is an embarrassment," they boldly propagandize.

Now comes the answer: silence. So-called progressives have become agents of the Angel of Death. "We will always remember her contribution," they respond meekly. "They" have probably infiltrated her security, they retort. She must be "instructed" to give up her madness, they conclude. She must retreat, they suggest, return to a more appropriate role: that of wife and mother.

I think of Daisy Bates. I think of the magnificent Ella Baker, only a footnote to the powerful histories of Stokely Carmichael and Rap Brown. I think of Fannie Lou Hamer, one eye closed by racists, the other steadfast on the prize. Fannie Lou Hamer, up from the bowels of Sunflower County Mississippi, the twentieth child of her mother, chopped cotton, fried chicken, raised babies, demanded justice for Black people--both beaten and burned in Mississippi--and still forced an entire nation to deal with the plight of Black people.

I remember that it really was said, back in the sixties, that the only position for a sister was prone. I remember how the NAACP and SNCC and the Black Panthers and CORE and other progressive Black organizations rejected women in leadership. I remember how hard it was to be a woman in the Civil Rights and Black Power movements. I remember how many times a day I was personally called "bitch" during those volatile times. Then I remember why I am so enraged over this present madness surrounding Winnie Mandela.

If Winnie Mandela were a man, I think tiredly, she would have been afforded the dignity of leadership attended by proper security. If Winnie Mandela were a man, her outspoken leadership would have been characterized not as an "embarrassment" but as strength of character. If Winnie Mandela were a man, fists, not eyebrows, would be raised, and heads would be lifted, not lowered.

The issue is the dismantling of apartheid in South Africa. The issue is the freedom of Black people in South Africa, lest we forget. The South African government has waged a campaign of chicanery. It has attempted to induce sleep upon our minds. We are nodding. It's time to wake up. It's time to free Mandela. It's time to free Winnie Mandela. It's time to put an end to apartheid. Power to the people. Remember?

Elaine Brown, a former leading member of the Black Panther Party, is a writer living in Los Angeles.

COPYRIGHT 1989 Essence Communications, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group

 June 1989