My hero

We all know the story of Mr. Nelson Madiba Mandela so I will talk about my lady Winnie Mandela, in my eyes represents one of the utmost heroines and a Master when it comes to comes to unwavering determination and survival. I have learnt enducrance and long suffering through her life, and also that Im the best advocte for and believer in myself. She had to deal which so much pain and adversity during her entire life that I think this brief bio I’m giving is so far from giving a picture of her complexity and strength. It will be a little please read on you won't regret it!
Winnie Mandela commands attention when she walks into a room full of people. She is a beautiful woman always dressed up in designer African clothes; when interviewed, she is grace personified and comes across as a warm and intelligent woman.
She was born Nomzamo Winifred Madikizela on 26 September 1936 in Bizana, she was fourth of eight siblings . Winnie experienced her first loss at the tender age of eight when her mother died, she attended primary school in Bizna and completed her school career in Shawbury. She received a diploma in social work at the Jan Hofmeyer School in Johannesburg, Gauteng. Winnie had drive, swag and ambition even in those early years - remember this was during the apartheid years and during a time when women were still oppressed in South Africa: she was both BLACK AND FEMALE. Yet she managed to complete a Bachelor of Arts degree, majoring in International Relations, at one of the leading universities in South Africa, The University of Witwatersrand, in Johannesburg. She was offered a scholarship for further study in the USA. However she turned it down and opted for a challenging position as the first qualified Black (male or female) medical social worker at the Baragwanath Hospital in Johannesburg instead.
During this time, she grew interest in politics, she met young people from the African National Congress and her political voice was first heard in the nineteen-fifties and later she was arrested and detained as a political prisoner for the first time in 1958. This did not deter her and she was heavily involved with encouraging the women of South Africa to stand up and refuse to be subjected to the laws of apartheid.
She met a young lawyer, Nelson Mandela during her early political years at the time he was on trial, along with 155 other people, in the now infamous Treason Trial following the civil disobedience campaigns of the early 1950s.; they married and during the years gave birth to children while he was still prosecuted. in the early years of their marriage, she had to learn to survive on her own , Mandela toured different townships, passing on the anti-apartheid message. After his arrest and imprisonment in 1962, she was banned - this meant that she became a prisoner within Soweto. In typical Winnie-style, she ignored the ban and visited her husband, Nelson, in prison in Cape Town in 1967. Her reward for this was one month's jail.
Over the years she was banned and jailed. At one time she was put into solitary confinement on the death row, probably, the then government's endeavour to weaken her beliefs. She was part of the newly formed African National Congress Women's League - a movement that till today has a powerful political voice. It was not long before the Women's League was banned as well but they continued to struggle against the apartheid laws.
Winnie was involved with the Soweto 1976 uprising and was sentenced to jail again - this time, she had to spend half a year in prison and after her release she was not allowed to go back to Soweto. The South African government re-stationed her in the town of Brandfort and there she remained for nine years, enduring assaults on her house and received numerous death threats. Being the strong woman that she is, she was arrested numerous times for ignore the ban and going to Soweto
After all these Mr. MADIBA was released, she went through slanderours rumours, dissing and prosecutions, he always had her back because he know she a woman of valour. They eventually divorced but this is their privacy. Today she is still has a very influential voice in SA. I just wanted to share with all you some of the reasons which make Mr Nelson Madiba Mandela and WInnie Mandela my heros.