The Cry of Winnie Mandela

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A group of African women at a specific period in Southern Africa’s history find their family life under pressure from capitalist modernity and apartheid. These ordinary, ‘private’ stories are anchored to the more powerful public stories of Penelope of ancient Greek mythology, who waited eighteen years while her husband Odysseus was away and Winnie Mandela who waited for twenty-seven years. The life story of Winnie Mandela remains one of the most great unfolding dramas of our times; a tale of triumphs and tragedies that is only just beginning to be examined.

This is a deeply humane, sympathetic and generous book on the one hand but is unflinching in its honesty. Ndebele represents a rare breed of writer able to combine political awareness with a sensitivity towards context, language and characterization. The result is a gift offering to the present. This is one of the best books about women’s sacrifices and contributions to the struggle against apartheid.

Praise for the Book

“Njabulo Ndebele has walked where angels fear to tread: he has made Winnie Mandela a character in an epic story that speaks powerfully about South Africa’s recent history and legacy.  Penelope. Winnie. Two proud women of legendary beauty. And how have they been defined? Through the imperative society places on women who wait for their husbands, their giftedness and destinies bent only to that end and no other. Defined utterly by their faithfulness or the lack of it.” – Beverley Roos, Cape Argus

“The Cry of Winnie Mandela attains the height of imaginative power to pursue the inconsistencies of human emotion and behaviour that reveal something of the always unattainable truth.” – Nadine Gordimer, South African Writer and Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature 1991

“Ndebele represents a rare breed of a writer: he combines political awareness with a sensitivity towards context, language and characterisation. The result is a gift offering to the present time…” – Ato Quayson, Professor of English and Director of the Centre for Diaspora and Transnational Studies, University of Toronto

“For so many decades South Africans have been thirsting for this text. I feel privileged to be of the country where it has originated.” – Antjie Krog, South African Award Winning Writer and Journalist

“The Cry of Winnie Mandela is ingeniously conceived, imaginatively structured and elegantly written. A humane, sympathetic and generous book on the one hand, but unflinching in its honesty.” – Dr Adotey Bing, Former Director of the Africa Centre, London

Additional information

Weight 0.500 kg
ISBN

978-0-9547023-0-4

Pages

160

Year Published

2004

Format

Paperback

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The Cry of Winnie Mandela

80.00