South Africa: Books Paint Contrasting Pictures of Winnie Madikizela-Mandela

analysis

Writings on South African liberation struggle icon Winnie Mandela almost all fall into one of two categories - either hagiography or demonology. These two books - Truth, Lies and Alibis. A Winnie Mandela Story, by Fred Bridgland and Sisonke Msimang's The Resurrection of Winnie Mandela. A Biography of Survival, try to be more nuanced.

Bridgland was a correspondent for Britain's leading right-wing newspaper, the Daily Telegraph. For years, he dispatched empathetic reports on an anti-communist hero of the cold war, Jonas Savimbi and his UNITA movement, which were at war with Angola's ruling MPLA - an ally of the ANC.

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