“The Consummate Material Girl?”

Abstract

This paper examines one facet of the media persona of high profile South African liberation struggle figure, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela: how English-language media represented her conspicuous consumption during a monumental decade in the country's history, the 1990s. In the framework of theories of post-coloniality and intersectionality, the paper analyses the discourses in a corpus of thematically coherent media texts featuring Winnie's lifestyle and consumption practices. Media narratives of Winnie's taste for “diamonds,” “champagne,” “mansions,” and “expensive clothes” are deconstructed as ideologically loaded and influenced by racialized and gendered power struggles. The extent to which Winnie is presented as having “sold out” on the liberation struggle and having “bought in” to neoliberal values is theorized in the context of the politics of wealth and poverty in a newly liberated society.

Keywords:

• Winnie Mandela
• conspicuous consumption
• women politicians
• discourse analysis
• South Africa

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Nicky Falkof for valuable comments on the first draft of this paper, the reviewers for their constructive criticism, and Katlego Disemelo for research assistance.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by an NRF Thuthuka Grant, 2012–2014.

Notes on contributors

Mehita Iqani

Mehita Iqani is a Senior Lecturer in Media Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. E-mail: [email protected]