How Winnie Mandela bonded with Uganda
Venerated. Nelson and Winnie Mandela wave to the crowd during their visit to Uganda in 1990 as President Museveni and First Lady Janet look on. COURTESY PHOTO
What you need to know:
- The second picture shows Uganda’s First Lady Janet Museveni standing next to Winnie. That visit to Uganda, according to the ANC website, was to drum up support for the party’s cause from its allies. Since then, Winnie has visited Uganda from time to time, according to the former ministry of Foreign Affairs Permanent Secretary James Mugume, who also helped in establishment of Uganda’s High Commission in Pretoria, South Africa.
KAMPALA. By press time last evening an avalanche of tributes continued to pour in from all corners of the world, from among others world leaders, celebrities and people from all walks of life, to celebrate South Africa anti-apartheid crusader Winnie Madikizela-Mandela.
The veteran politician and ex-wife of former South African president Nelson Mandela died early on Monday aged 81 after a long-term illness.
She is remembered for having played a central role during the struggle against the White minority racial segregation system. She was married to Mandela from 1958 to 1996 when they divorced. Mandela died in 2013.
President Museveni in a twitter message described Winnie, better known in South Africa as ‘Mother of the Nation’ as a “comrade” who played a central role to the anti-apartheid movement “especially during the time Mzee Mandela was in prison”.
She is remembered to have played a key role in organisation of the Soweto students uprising in 1976, when thousands of black students took to the streets following a government decree forcing all black schools to use English and Afrikaans as the language of instruction.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, who described her as a “a voice for the voiceless”, spoke of the country losing a “a mother, a grandmother, a friend, a comrade, a leader, and an icon”.
The African Union Commission (AU) chairman, Mr Moussa Faki Mahamat, said she would “forever be remembered as a global icon, a fearless campaigner who sacrificed much of her life for freedom in South Africa and for women everywhere”.
Honoured in Uganda
In Uganda, just like her former husband, Winnie was highly revered. At its just concluded 68th graduation ceremony, Makerere University honoured her with a one of its most prestigious awards, the Honorary Doctorate of Laws for her contribution towards the fight and eventual elimination of apartheid. Her niece Gandai Baai received the award.
The Makerere University Vice Chancellor, Prof Barnabas Nawangwe, said news of her death, two months since he draped her in the university PhD gown, had left him “in deep shock”.
The bond between the Mandelas and Uganda was forged over several decades, when Uganda’s leaders supported the African National Congress (ANC) in its fight against apartheid.
Thus, Uganda was the first African country that Nelson Mandela and Winnie, then as First Lady, visited following his release from prison.
That two-day visit started on July 5, 1990, only five months after Mandela was released from a 27-year ordeal in prison on February 11, 1990.
Mandela’s maiden visit to Uganda is captured on the website of the African National Congress (ANC), South Africa’s anti-apartheid movement and current ruling party, which has archived pictures of the South African statesman waving to crowds alongside Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni, atop a limousine.
The second picture shows Uganda’s First Lady Janet Museveni standing next to Winnie. That visit to Uganda, according to the ANC website, was to drum up support for the party’s cause from its allies. Since then, Winnie has visited Uganda from time to time, according to the former ministry of Foreign Affairs Permanent Secretary James Mugume, who also helped in establishment of Uganda’s High Commission in Pretoria, South Africa.
“From my many interactions with her I remember she was always charming but firm,” Ambassador Mugume recalled. “The experience she went through while her husband (Mandela) was in prison taught her how to handle matters decisively.”
Former ICT minister and Samia North MP Aggrey Awori, spoke of an icon, feminist, social worker, liberator and activist who did more to inspire hundreds of women but said “it is unfortunate that she was not able to spread her wings outside Africa.”
“As a women freedom fighter she was in her own league and there are few women of her calibre but sadly history and many of us tend to focus a lot on men,” Mr Awori said. “She did a lot for the women emancipation movement and a lot of uplifting the youth: it’s just that politics overshadowed her social work.”
