It was Winnie’s first experience of black–white relationships in South Africa. Deep in her mind she heard the echo of her father’s words about the injustices towards blacks, and afterwards she began to notice that his neatly pressed suits and darned shirts were shabby in comparison with the clothes worn by white officials who came to the school. Reminded of the losses suffered by her people in the Xhosa wars and fired by youthful indignation, she made a resolution to start where her ancestors had left off, and get back her land.
Columbus’s passionate lessons about Xhosa history stirred anger among his pupils and a determination to work for change – emotions that were the forerunner of their political consciousness. During music lessons, he taught the children rousing patriotic songs. One was about the founding of the African National Congress (ANC) in Bloemfontein in 1912, and Winnie remembered the words for years after she had left school.
Columbus also taught them other songs about the history of the Xhosa people, songs that had been written by traditional composers, and at home Winnie listened to the songs her brothers had learned from the elders about the contract workers who went to work on the mines, and their sadness at having to leave their homes and families behind.
Whites who mistook the dignity and respect of tribal blacks for docility and subservience could not have been more wrong. Increasingly, black parents were realising that their children had to be educated if they were to have a future in the changing world. This often required back-breaking sacrifices by black families, because education was neither compulsory nor free, as it was for whites. Nevertheless, many black parents were prepared to endure whatever hardship was required to pay for their children’s education.
Winnie was fortunate that in her family an education was taken for granted, and the highlight of her existence continued to be the hours she spent at school. She took to heart her father’s repeated admonitions on how important it was to have a proper education and, moreover, to speak fluent English. But when she was in Standard 6, the highest class at her father’s school, her education was interrupted when Columbus told her he had been instructed by the department to close down the senior class because the school was overcrowded. With immediate effect, Standard 6 would become the responsibility of secondary schools, and Columbus’s school would only offer classes up to Standard 5 in future. Winnie and all the other senior pupils would have to leave at once.
Winnie was distraught. It was March, close to the end of the first term, and all the secondary schools in Bizana and neighbouring Ndunge were full. Columbus decided Winnie could work on the lands until the start of the next school year. She was heartbroken, but would not have dreamed of questioning her father. Every day for the next nine months she walked the long distance to a little stream to fetch a drum of water for cooking and washing, returning with the container balanced on her head, a difficult feat learned at an early age by all young black girls in rural areas. Winnie also herded cattle and sheep, milked the cows, tended crops and helped with the heavy work of preparing the fields for planting. There was no division of labour on grounds of gender – in fact, black women traditionally performed the lion’s share of manual labour, and still do, in rural areas. Winnie toiled industriously, waiting patiently for the year to pass until she could return to school and complete her education.
Luckily for her, Bantu Education – which was inferior in every way to that of the whites’ – was not introduced until the early 1950s, and she thus received as sound an education as any white child at the time. The standards were high and all schools followed the same syllabus, with an emphasis on academic subjects such as Latin, English, chemistry, physics and mathematics. With the introduction of Bantu Education, standards for black children dropped dramatically, with fewer subjects being taught and with a more parochial focus. Pupils no longer learned about the outside world, and over time fewer blacks were taught to speak proper English.
Amid the demands of daily life, the trauma of Gertrude’s death began to ebb, and her family gradually came to grips with the changes her loss had brought. Columbus struggled to feed and educate his nine children on a less than adequate salary, and worked hard to supplement his income from his farming enterprises. Between teaching and caring for his family, he had time for little else. But in their closed community it was inevitable that he, an attractive and educated man of influence and means, a man with status – and a widower to boot – would be noticed by the eligible women.
A new teacher, Miss Jane Zithutha, joined his school, and soon began to single Winnie out, spoiling her and giving her sweets. Then she started giving Winnie letters for Columbus. When Winnie told Makhulu, her grandmother nodded knowingly, deep in thought. Miss Zithutha rented a room about a kilometre from Winnie’s home, and one day, without warning, Columbus asked Winnie to go and live with her, because she was lonely and uneasy about living alone. When Makhulu heard this, she again nodded knowingly.
But Miss Zithutha would not become Mrs Madikizela. Nature at its most terrifying would prevent that. One day, while a fierce storm was brewing, Makhulu told Winnie to fetch the cattle from the field. The clouds were darkening fast, and in the distance there was thunder and lightning. As Winnie approached the kraal, there was a resounding explosion and a blinding flash. She heard Miss Zithutha scream as the tree in front of her hut crashed and fell on the structure. Within seconds the hut was enveloped in an orange blaze. Columbus was running and shouting, trying to get water to put out the fire, but it was too late, and Miss Zithutha was dead.
With their lives having barely settled back into a pattern after the untimely deaths of Vuyelwa and Gertrude, the Madikizelas were once again plunged into tragedy, with conflict soon to follow. Despite embracing aspects of the Western way of life, centuries of tradition could not be discarded without cost, and the family did not escape intrigue and upheaval as modern influence clashed with tribal custom.
Winnie’s brother Christopher, having completed his studies for a teacher’s diploma, was teaching in the district. One day he arrived home unexpectedly, bringing with him what appeared to be a person, completely wrapped in a blanket. It was early in the morning, and he asked a startled Winnie to check whether his bedroom was clean and the bed made up. She did as he requested, neither protesting nor asking any questions. Then he asked her to stand guard in front of their father’s room, and slipped the blanketed bundle into his own room. Winnie was asked to prepare food and to bring water for washing to the room, after which Christopher locked the door and left. Eerily, for the rest of the day no one said anything about the person locked in the room. Winnie suspected it was a woman, but couldn’t ask anyone. That evening, Christopher came home with one of their uncles, and they disappeared into Columbus’s room, where they talked for hours.
The next day, Christopher took the woman, still wrapped in the blanket, to another hut. Everyone pretended not to look, but Winnie caught a glimpse of a slender, fair hand. During the day a group of women went into the hut and hung a curtain, behind which the woman remained hidden for a week. During this time her relatives arrived, and had long meetings with the Madikizela elders. At the end of the week Winnie’s uncle returned with representatives from the kraal of Chief Lumayi, and it finally emerged that it was his daughter in the hut. More shocking was the news that she and Christopher were already married, despite the strict convention that children did not marry without their parents’ blessing.
Winnie was too young to be told why there had been no wedding, with the compulsory family tradition of a church ceremony and the bride in a white dress and veil. But there appeared little else to do except celebrate the strange marriage. An ox was slaughtered, and the young, very beautiful bride emerged from behind the curtain in a long green printed robe and elegant traditional headdress. She was fair skinned, as Gertrude had been, but Columbus appeared not entirely happy with the situation, and Christopher and his bride soon left and set up their own home. Winnie surmised that her father was probably upset because they had
eloped and married without consulting him. Xhosa custom dictated that marriages be arranged by the tribal elders, and it was uncommon for young people to make their own decisions and arrangements. Some years later, when she was confronted with a similar situation, Winnie would be reminded of the dramatic circumstances surrounding her brother’s marriage.
The family’s bad fortune continued. An aunt fell ill, and although they nursed her lovingly, she died. Then Winnie’s sister Irene took ill and was sent home from boarding school. She seemed possessed of strange spirits, wailing constantly and babbling unintelligibly while her body went into spasms. To prevent her from harming herself, her distressed family had to tie her to the bed.
Columbus, not knowing how to deal with his daughter’s affliction, went to fetch the inyanga [witch doctor] Flathela, who was known to see and talk to witches, and could exorcise evil spirits. Flathela said Irene’s problem was linked to the entire family. He put muti [protective charms] around the house, burned strange objects in Irene’s room and ordered everyone to shave their heads. Placing the family in a semicircle formation, he made incisions on their cheeks and rubbed a black substance into the cuts. He pressed on Irene’s head with the palm of his hand and spoke in a strange language. From the tone of his voice, he seemed to be pleading and scolding in turn. Then he beat Irene, who cried in a voice that was not her own until she collapsed and lay still, fast asleep. Flathela said he had exorcised the witches – and when Irene awoke, she was well.
Irene’s affliction led to an unexpected reversal of Winnie’s fortune. Columbus arranged for her to take her sister’s place at the school in Ndunge, which was also where Granny lived, and during the school terms she stayed with her maternal grandparents.
In September, almost six months after her education had come to an abrupt halt, Winnie was back in the classroom, facing new challenges. She had fallen behind the other children, and was shocked to learn that her class was about to write revision tests in preparation for the year-end examinations. But she was not too disappointed by her results. There were 200 Standard 6 pupils at Ndunge, divided into three classes, and Winnie was placed fifty-eighth in her group of seventy-two. For the rest of the year she worked even more diligently, and two months later was one of only twenty-two pupils in her group to pass the final examinations. Winnie was overjoyed, as was Columbus, who knew better than most what odds she had overcome, and he slaughtered a sheep in her honour – something he had never done for any of his daughters before. Ever conscious of her mother’s rejection, Winnie was deeply grateful for her father’s recognition.
Now it was time for her to go to boarding school at Emfundisweni in Flagstaff, a hundred miles from home. Winnie packed two steel trunks that she would take with her, one containing her clothes, the other a considerable amount of food, which Makhulu said was a waste of money, but Columbus seemed deaf to her criticism.
It was the start of a new and exciting period in Winnie’s life. For the first time she would have to wear shoes, and her father took her to Bizana to buy them, along with the black and white uniform she would wear at school. As she tried her shoes on for the first time, Winnie embarked on a lifelong fascination with clothes, even though wearing the new footwear was unexpectedly painful. Her feet, toughened by years of going barefoot in the veld, rebelled against confinement. For quite some time she experienced acute discomfort, discarding the shoes whenever she could to spare her aching feet. As a reward for her good marks, Columbus also bought her an overcoat. At home, the children wrapped themselves in blankets to keep warm.
The coat was far too large for her, but like most of the children she knew, she was used to wearing clothes that didn’t fit properly. Limited resources forced parents to pass clothes down from one child to the next, and when they did buy something new, it was usually a few sizes too big to allow the child to grow into the garment and make it last as long as possible. Winnie treasured her coat and wore it for the next few winters, studiously ignoring other children’s sniggers at her oversized apparel.
Inevitably, venturing into the outside world meant exposure to the racial discrimination that was the reality of life in South Africa. It was impossible to ignore and touched every facet of black people’s lives. All the shops in Bizana, even those catering exclusively to the black population, were owned and run by whites, and customers from the outlying areas might walk for a day or more to reach them. Some of the Pondo tribesmen rode into Bizana on horseback, proud and erect; while others made the long journey on foot, walking for a day or more, their wives often toting a baby nestled snugly on their backs, other children in tow. They arrived tired, hungry and covered in dust, but there was nowhere in Bizana for them to refresh themselves, nowhere they could sit down and have a meal, not even an outdoors area where the exhausted travellers could rest their feet. White arrogance made no allowances for the dignity, wisdom and practical experience of people from other cultures. It took many decades before whites even began to grasp that some of the blacks they treated with such disdain were people of stature in their own communities, where they were respected, even revered. The tribesmen were dignified people, and when they went to town the men tended to their business, met in small groups in the street to exchange news and share views; while their wives talked and gossiped with one another before setting out, once more, on the long journey home.
After shopping for her new clothes, Winnie and her father went to buy food at one of the stores. It was crowded with Pondo tribesmen wrapped in colourful traditional blankets. As Winnie waited for Columbus to be served, she noticed a tribesman buying a loaf of bread, some sugar and a cold drink, which he took to share with his wife, who was trying in vain to soothe her wailing baby. Clearly exhausted, the woman sat down on the floor in a corner of the store and put the baby to her breast. The man squatted on his haunches next to her and broke off pieces of bread for them to eat. Without warning, the white youth who was serving Columbus started shouting and charged at the man and his wife in the corner. He yelled at them to get out, that he wouldn’t have kaffirs making a mess in his shop, and kicked at them and their food.
Winnie was appalled. She fully expected the shop owners, apparently the boy’s parents, to intervene, but they just laughed. The buzz of conversation died abruptly, and no one uttered a word. Winnie looked expectantly at her father, who always spoke out strongly against any wrongdoing. Surely he would say something?
But Columbus, too, was silent. He had taught all his children to respect others and to have pride in their race, and Winnie could see that he was deeply disturbed at the humiliation meted out to his kinsman, so she could not understand why he said nothing. Only in later years, once she understood the complex dynamics of the relationship between the races, did she realise that had her father spoken, he might have made the situation worse.
The incident left an indelible impression on Winnie and made her aware, for the first time, that her father was fallible. In time, she would recognise that one of apartheid’s by-products was that from an early age, black children saw their parents and families humiliated without making any attempt to protest or defend themselves. For children from families who taught them respect and compassion for fellow human beings, this was confusing. They could not understand why their parents were so often treated so shabbily by whites, and parents were at a loss to explain that they had done nothing to deserve such treatment, meted out on no other basis but the colour of their skin. It was an injustice that created an entire nation of people who expected to be victimised and brutalised, and in the long term cowered and did almost anything to avoid situations that might lead to humiliation and punishment, accepting servility as the norm. The pent-up frustration of generations would reach breaking point in Soweto in 1976 – but that was a long way off, and twelve-year-old Winnie Madikizela could not even begin to imagine her role in the future South Africa.
In January, with beating heart, she boarded a bus in the company of other children on their way to Flagstaff. She spent thr
ee years at Emfundisweni, where the only diversion from her studies was a flirtation with the idea of having a boyfriend. All the girls in her class wrote notes to the boys they liked, but there was no physical contact, and the relationships were confined to furtive glances exchanged in church.
Bit by bit, Winnie’s character was taking shape. Outwardly, she was still an unsophisticated country girl, but her parents had laid a solid ground for her development: Gertrude, with her strict religious morality and uncompromising discipline; Columbus, by sharing his passion for acquiring knowledge and skills, through his pride in his people, and by his example of compassion and assistance for those in their community who were in need.
Not surprisingly, she passed her junior certificate (Standard 8) with distinction, and when she went home for the holidays Columbus surprised her with news of his ambitious plans for her. It had been clear to him for some time that Winnie possessed both the ability and motivation for further study, and he was pondering the best route for her to follow. Initially, he wanted her to go to Fort Hare University, but a nephew who had studied there warned against it. He said there were too few female students, with the result that the young men were always pursuing them, and it was not the right place for Winnie. So, mindful of her natural compassion for others, Columbus decided on the Hofmeyr School of Social Work in Johannesburg, the only institution that trained black social workers. But Winnie had two more years of school to complete, and she would have to do even better than before in order to be accepted as a student.
Winnie Mandela Page 5