NELSON MANDELA: The Women Who Loved And Fought Alongside Nelson Mandela

 

As the world continues to mourn the death of Nelson Mandela, many of us are getting the chance to learn more about him and all the great work he has done throughout his life. We’ve also had the chance to learn about the women who have been in his life: His wives, the women who fought with him in the ANC and against apartheid, and the women in his life who were influenced by his activism and story to tell their own .

EVELYN MASE

Mase was the first wife of Nelson Mandela. The two were married in 1944 after meeting through friends (and Mandela’s fellow activists), Walter and Albertina Sisulu. Though things became strained during their marriage as Mandela became more interested in African Nationalist ideologies (and accusations of infidelity arised), Mase had four children with him (all but one have passed on) before pushing away politics for Jehovah’s Witness work. They divorced in 1958.

WINNIE MADIKIZELA-MANDELA

The same year that Nelson Mandela and Evelyn Mase ended their marriage, he went on to marry Winnie Madikizela, the first black medical social worker in South Africa. At the time, Mandela was already the leader of the African National Congress, and she also became heavily involved in activism, especially when Mandela was targeted by the government and inevitably imprisoned in 1964 for life. She was so heavily involved while trying to raise their two daughters by herself that she wound up being jailed quite a few times for her anti-apartheid work. She became a controversial figure for believing in violent retaliation against black South Africans who supported the apartheid regime, and for future legal trouble (including being involved in acts of violence, as her bodyguards, the Mandela United Football Club, were infamous for kidnapping individuals, torturing them and even killing a teenager). But despite all that, she was known as the “Mother of the Nation.” She continued with her political pursuits and after the release of Nelson Mandela from prison, he made her his deputy minister of arts when he was elected (before being ousted in 1995), was president of the ANC Women’s League, and a member of South Africa’s Parliament. Nelson and Winnie Mandela would divorce in 1996.

GRACA MACHEL

Machel, an advocate for women and children’s righs from Mozambique, is the widow of Mozambican President Samora Machel. She wed Nelson Mandela in 1998 on his 80th birthday.  But before that marriage happened, Machel was the Minister of Education and Culture in Mozambique, and later, was behind a major report for the United Nations on how children are impacted by armed conflict. She was awarded the Nansen Medal in ’95 for all her humanitarian work, and has been a member of the Elders, a group comprised of world leaders in 2007 to help find solutions to major world problems.

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Nelson Mandela: 10 Facts You Didn’t Know

Here are 10 surprising facts you probably didn’t know about Nelson Mandela:

1. He lived up to his name: Mandela’s birth name was Rolihlahla. In his Xhosa tribe, the name means pulling the branch of a tree ortroublemaker. (The name “Nelson” was given to him by his teacher on his first day of elementary school. It’s not clear why she chose that particular name. It was the 1920s, and African children were given English names so colonial masters could pronounce them easily).

2. He had a cameo in a Spike Lee film: He had a big part in Spike Lee’s 1992 biopic “Malcolm X.” At the very end of the movie, he plays a teacher reciting Malcolm X’s famous speech to a room full of Soweto school kids. But the pacifist Mandela wouldn’t say “by any means necessary.” So Lee cut back to footage of Malcolm X to close out the film.

3. There’s a woodpecker named after him: From Cape Town to California, streets named after Mandela abound. But he’s also been the subject of some rather unusual tributes. Last year, scientists named a prehistoric woodpecker after him: Australopicus nelsonmandelai. In 1973, the physics institute at Leeds University named a nuclear particle the ‘Mandela particle.’

4. He married a first lady: Before tying the knot with Mandela on his 80th birthday, Graca Machel was married to Mozambique President Samora Machel. Her marriage to Mandela after her husband’s death means she has been the first lady of two nations.

5. He was a master of disguise: When Mandela was eluding authorities during his fight against apartheid, he disguised himself in various ways, including as a chauffeur. The press nicknamed him “the Black Pimpernel” because of his police evasion tactics. “I became a creature of the night. I would keep to my hideout during the day, and would emerge to do my work when it became dark,” he says in his biography, “Long Walk to Freedom.”

6. A bloody sport intrigued him: Besides politics, Mandela’s other passion was boxing. “I did not like the violence of boxing. I was more interested in the science of it – how you move your body to protect yourself, how you use a plan to attack and retreat, and how you pace yourself through a fight,” he says in his biography.

7. His favorite dish is probably not yours: He’s been wined and dined by world leaders. But what Mandela loved eating most was tripe. Yup, the stomach lining of farm animals.

8. He quit his day job: He studied law at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg and opened the nation’s first black law firm in the city in 1952.

9. He was on the U.S. terror watch list: Mandela wasn’t removed from the U.S. terror watch list until 2008 – at age 89. He and other members of the African National Congress were placed on it because of their militant fight against apartheid.

 

10. He drew his inspiration from a poem: While he was in prison, Mandela would read William Ernest Henley’s “Invictus” to fellow prisoners. The poem, about never giving up, resonated with Mandela for its lines “I am the master of my fate. I am the captain of my soul.” You may know it from the movie by the same name starring Morgan Freeman as Mandela

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