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Abstract
Winnie Madikizela-Mandela and Wambui Waiyaki Otieno are both iconic, yet controversial, women who made important contributions to nationalist and feminist thought in South Africa and Kenya, respectively. Their lives constantly pushed the boundaries of socially sanctioned gendered behavior relating to motherhood, widowhood, and iconicity. In this essay, the author examines the implications of the two women’s responses to their status as mothers and widows from their positions as public figures invested with symbolic meanings in their communities. The author also explores how the textualization of women’s lives and experiences as symbols often comes with containment within the dictates of gendered sociopolitical and moral economies.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1 Presley, “Introduction,” 6, 7.
2 Samuelson, Remembering the Nation, 196.
3 Kanogo, African Womanhood, 5.
4 Schipper, “Mother Africa”; Stratton, Contemporary African Literature; McClintock, Imperial Leather; Lewis, Kuzwayo, and Ramphele, “Gender Myths”; Gqola, What Is Slavery?
5 Ramphele, “Political Widowhood.”
6 Ndebele, The Cry, 2.
7 Gates, Thirteen Ways.
8 Hassim, “A Life of Refusal,” 65.
9 Atieno Odhiambo “Foreword,” xii.
10 Muchiri, “Intersection,” 83.
11 Waiyaki’s relationship with the British colonial administration was marked with ambivalence. On the one hand, he is said to have generously donated land to Captain Frederick Lugard, the leader of an Imperial British East Africa expedition, to set up a station. However, a violent conflict ensued between Lugard and Waiyaki and the Kikuyu, in which several people were killed. Waiyaki was subsequently captured and taken to a detention camp in Kibwezi. According to the British, Waiyaki died by his own hand. Kikuyu historiography, however, holds that Waiyaki was buried alive, upside down. This legend was later taken up as a source of inspiration for the Mau Mau struggle, as captured in Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s A Grain of Wheat.
12 Waiyaki Otieno, Mau Mau’s Daughter, 23.
13 Waiyaki Otieno, Mau Mau’s Daughter, 40–44.
14 Mason, “The Other Voice,” 321.
15 Ngoshi, “Masculinities and Femininities.”
16 Olney, Tell Me Africa, 76.
17 Jameson, “Third World Literature.”
18 Neubauer, “One Voice,” 118.
19 Peterson, “Casting Characters.”
20 Eakin, How Our Lives.
21 Were, “Contested Filial Voice,” 171.
22 Smith and Watson, “Introduction,” 12.
23 Bridger, “From ‘Mother,’” 451.
24 Munro, “Nelson,” 94.
25 Munro, “Nelson,” 92.
26 Hassim, “A Life of Refusal,” 59.
27 Michael, “Gender and Iconography,” 78.
28 Michael, “Gender and Iconography,” 78.
29 Schipper, “Mother Africa,” 37.
30 Benjamin and Madikizela-Mandela, Part of My Soul, 25.
31 Waiyaki Otieno, Mau Mau’s Daughter, 78–79.
32 Benjamin and Madikizela-Mandela, Part of My Soul, 30–31.
33 Benjamin and Madikizela-Mandela, Part of My Soul; Gilbey, The Lady.
34 Madikizela-Mandela, 491 Days, 238.
35 Pohlandt-McCormick, “Controlling Woman,” 571.
36 Madikizela-Mandela, 491 Days, 234–235.
37 Samuelson, Remembering the Nation, 205.
38 Lewis, “Mother of the Nation.”
39 Hassim, “A Life of Refusal”; Msimang, Resurrection of Winnie Mandela.
40 Hassim, “A Life of Refusal,” 57.
41 See South African History Online at https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/winnie-madikizela-mandela
42 Truth and Reconciliation Commission, “Special Investigation,” 580–581.
43 Hassim, “A Life of Refusal,” 68.
44 Preez Bezrob, Winnie Mandela: A Life.
45 Ndebele, The Cry of Winnie Mandela.
46 Bridger, “From ‘Mother,’” 446–447.
47 Interview with Malou von Sivers, qtd. in Hassim, “A Life of Refusal,” 70.
48 Waliaula, “The Female Condition.”
49 Waiyaki Otieno, Mau Mau’s Daughter, 39–44.
50 Waiyaki Otieno, Mau Mau’s Daughter, 83.
51 Waiyaki Otieno, Mau Mau’s Daughter, 84.
52 Ruark, Robert, Uhuru.
53 Waiyaki Otieno, Mau Mau’s Daughter, 107.
54 See Amnesty International, “United Kingdom.”
55 Kariuki, “Feminist War,” 5.
56 Cohen and Atieno Odhiambo, Burying SM.
57 Cloete, “Re-telling Kenya.”
58 Sunday Nation, July 20, 2003.
59 Sunday Nation, July 20, 2003.
60 Heffernan and Wilgus, “Introduction,” 2.
61 Ndebele, The Cry of Winnie Mandela.
62 Lewis, “Mother of the Nation.”
63 Musila, “Embodying Agency.”
64 Benjamin and Madikizela-Mandela, Part of My Soul, 19–20.
65 Ramphele, “Political Widowhood,” 101.
66 Gates, Thirteen Ways, xvii.
67 Gates, Thirteen Ways, xvii.
68 Gates, Thirteen Ways, 17.
69 Ndebele, The Cry, 91.
70 Lewis, “Gender myths.“
71 Lewis, Kuzwayo, and Ramphele, “Gender Myths.”
72 Ndebele, The Cry, 42–43.
73 Benjamin and Madikizela-Mandela, Part of My Soul, 21.
74 Benjamin and Madikizela-Mandela, Part of My Soul, 7.
75 Benjamin and Madikizela-Mandela, Part of My Soul, 26.
76 Benjamin and Madikizela-Mandela, Part of My Soul, 73.
77 Madikizela-Mandela, 491 Days, 237.
78 Waiyaki Otieno, Mau Mau’s Daughter, 11–13.