Winnie Madikizela-Mandela is arguably one of the most widely represented female figures in South Africa. The images presented of her are not static. Indeed, they are shot through with contradictions which include Mama Africa, Warrior, and Abhorrent Mother. The figure of Madikizela-Mandela is a nexus for different opinions and interpretations; she is a focal point for and of the divisions in South African consciousnesses. Therefore the depictions of this persona provide the reader with a means to analyse the discourses through which she is represented. Such an exploration might also provide South Africans with insight into some of the biases and beliefs generally held more than a decade after the advent of democracy. The South African texts Country of My Skull by Antjie Krog, and The Cry of Winnie Mandela by Njabulo Ndebele, extensively represent Madikizela-Mandela and (re-)mythologise her, and as such each provides interesting comparative material for a discussion of the ideological implications imbricated in each. These texts are also particularly appropriate to use in such a study because the writers, a white woman, and black man respectively, could not be further apart on the continuum of South African cultural identification. The politics of the representations of Madikizela-Mandela can thus be interpreted from opposing social extremes. The Mandela name is a powerful signifier, and often constitutes much of Madikizela-Mandela’s public identity. The power of naming is thus the focus of Chapter One of this dissertation. The romantic ideal of Nelson Mandela and Madikizela-Mandela’s relationship constitutes a major focal point in Ndebele’s work. On the other hand, Krog’s text denigrates Madikizela-Mandela’s refusal to toe the peaceful democratic line. As such, the needs of the public in relation to Madikizela-Mandela are illuminated through the impositions of the authors and characters in these texts.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:nmmu/vital:8466 |
| Date | January 2007 |
| Creators | Van Rooyen, Janine |
| Publisher | Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Faculty of Arts |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis, Masters, MA |
| Format | iii, 146 leaves ; 30 cm, pdf |
| Rights | Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University |
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