(Parker Wellington, Professor John Macomber, Joe O’Regan, Ntuli Qoboza-Akyeampong, Mama Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, Professor Emmanuel Akyeampong, Cynthia Agyepong, Joseph Agyepong)
Johannesburg, South Africa - June 2017
Dear Friends of CAS,
The Center for African Studies wants to express our sincere condolences to the family of Winnie Madikizela- Mandela who passed on April 2, 2018 in Johannesburg. She was 81. Her instrumental contribution to ending apartheid will not be forgotten. During Nelson Mandela’s time in prison, Winnie was placed under house arrest and banished to a town in the Free State. She was detained for 18 months in solitary confinement before being charged under the Suppression of Communism Act of 1950.
We were honored to have visited her daughter, Ambassador Zenani Mandela’s home to pay a courtesy visit to Mama Winnie Madikizela-Mandela in June 2017 after the CAS Africa Office Launch in Johannesburg . Mama Winnie Madikizela-Mandela shared stories and wisdom of her past that touched so many. Up until today she was living in Soweto among her people and experiencing the everyday struggles of South Africans as she did during apartheid.
The Center for African Studies sends our deepest sympathy to the family of Mama Winnie Madikizela-Mandela and the countless lives she has changed and touched in her life and beyond.
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Read Shireen Hassim's, Harvard Radcliffe Fellow, thoughtful piece on the passing of Mama Winnie Madikizela-Mandela here.