PART OF MY SOUL

by Winnie Mandela

Winnie Mandela, one of So. Africa's most visible & articulate apartheid foes, spent many years as a banned person in her own country. She lived under virtual house arrest & was forbidden to address public gatherings or meet with more than one person at a time. She endured a forced separation of 27 years from her husband, Nelson Mandela. Here, in interviews & letters, she tells the story of her life & political development.
A Tribute to Nomzamo Winnie Mandela/Bishop Manas Buthelezi
My Little Banished to Brandfort
When My Father Taught Me History I Began to Growing up in the Countryside (Pondoland)
Life with Him was Always a Life without Meeting Nelson Mandela
I Always Waited for that Sacred Life Underground
He was a Pillar of Strength to Being Alone
No Human Being Can Go On Taking those Humiliations without In Prison
We Couldn't Stop Our The Soweto Uprising, 1976
The Chapter of Dialogue is Finally The Political Situation
Part of My Soul Went with Visits to Robben Island & Pollsmoor
Freedom Charter
Winnie Mandela's Banning Order
Conditions of Visit to Nelson Mandela on Robben Island
Conditions with which Winnie Mandela Had to Comply to Travel from Brandfort to Robben Island & Back

Genres: Nonfiction, Africa, Biography, History, South Africa, Politics, Autobiography

176 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1984

About the author

Winnie Mandela is seen as one of South Africa's most celebrated, but controversial women of the country.

Married to Nelson Mandela until 1996 she is a struggle icon in her own right. After the fall of Apartheid-government she served as a Member of Parliament until her death. From 1994 to 1996 she also served as a Deputy Minister in Nelson Mandela's cabinet.

Reviews

[leynes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Little did I know that when I found this book at a local flea market for 50 cents that I would devour it in two days and that it would become a new favorite. I was even apprehensive of picking it up since I don’t like reading in German but my mom convinced me that we couldn’t pass up a deal as good as this, and she got it for me in the end, bless her!

Before jumping into Winnie’s memoir I knew next to nothing about her, as a person. I wasn’t even aware of the fact that she only died two months ago, on April 2. I knew the general facts of South Africa’s anti-apartheid struggle and Nelson Mandela’s resulting presidency, however, his wife hasn’t piqued me interest before. I am very grateful that I was introduced to her in her own words. She is one of the most admirable women I was ever exposed to.

“Winnie Mandela has been silenced for all these years. And yet her life has told us more than all the speeches she could have given had she not been banished.” — Mangosuthu Buthelezi

Winnie Mandela is a woman who always had a packed suitcase at the ready, a woman who knew that she would eventually be locked away. A woman who marched ahead as an example for her peers, desegregating shops by “simply” walking into them. Her resilience and fearlessness empowered others.

Winnie Mandela is a woman who called prison “her second home”. Also, her husband was incarcerated for so long that when the time arose when he was finally allowed to receive visitors, his daughters had to be introduced to him. A traumatic experience for everyone involved. He wasn’t allowed to touch his family members for decades. An exception was made for his youngest daughter as she married into the royal family of Swaziland and thus had diplomatic status. How fucking crazy is that? It makes you wonder how these people endured living in a system that stripped them of all of their rights.

Winnie Mandela is a woman who was forced to live in severe poverty, yet refused to be stripped of her dignity. Even when she had next to nothing, she never missed the opportunity to give back to others, to uplift others. When she was banished to Brandfort, she didn’t lose any time to get connected within its Black community and mobilise them in their fight for their rights.

“You can be humiliated and endure it to a point. But not further! There is a degree of humiliation, dehumanization that provokes the worst violence in the degraded. You just have to fight back. Everyone. There is no other way.”

All of the atrocities she had to endure left their scars. In prison, she says, white people taught her how to hate. Prison changed her, made her more brutal and ruthless in her fight for freedom. She isn’t afraid of death, but she also isn’t afraid of killing people anymore. When it comes to freedom, she won’t make any compromises. From vaginal inspection to the denial of sanitary napkins, Winnie narrates all of the atrocities incarcerated women had to endure. But even in such a hopeless situation as this, brought to the brink of starvation, she managed to beat the shit out of a female warder who purposefully ruined all of her clothes. Bless this women and her strength.

Part Of My Soul Went With Him was published in 1984, eight years before Nelson would be set free, ten years before he would become president, twelve years before the two of them would divorce. Thus, this memoir provides a unique and timely insight into Winnie’s thoughts during a time of her life where she was still at point zero, feeling hopeless and frustrated. When Winnie looks back at the last 20 years of her life and the situation in South Africa, she sees only few changes, and more for the worse. It’s always easier to look back when you have already won the fight, as this was not the case for South Africa in 1984, Winnie’s memoir is brutally honest. At the time she didn’t know how long it would take for her to be reunited with her husband, how long it would take for apartheid to be finally abolished.

“The black man does not want his chains to be turned into gold; It's not about getting them a bit polished by blacks who sit in the comfort of white parliament buildings. The black man does not want chains of gold or copper, or anything else. He wants to get rid of his chains and be free. That's what he's fighting for.”

Winnie talks about intersectional feminism and the unique plight she has to go throw as a Black woman. Winnie narrates episodes of everyday racism, and how racism at its core is the white man’s problem, since he is the one perpetuating and profiting off it. She talks about the hypocrisy of white Christian missionaries and how they were the ones who brought terrorism to South Africa in the first place by lynching the natives.

Winnie’s memoir provides great insight into South African culture and politics, as her own writing is interspersed with Mandela's censored letters and timelines of the important events. Yet her narrative is also personal and caring, Winnie lets us see her more vulnerable and emotional side.

She talks with great care and love about her daughters and all of the sacrifices they had to make over the years. When Winnie was banished, her daughter Zindzi’s spirit almost broke due to the traumatic uprooting. Winnie says that being exiled left a wound in Zindzi that never truly healed over the years.

She narrates her infatuation and turbulent love affair with Nelson, who was still married at the time he met Winnie. Nelson was a man who put the nation first, and everything else second, that included his wife, his children. Winnie didn’t even know when he was divorced before she married him. She didn’t dare to ask. And Nelson also didn’t even care to ask her to marry him, one day he just wanted to know how many bridesmaids she wanted to have. That’s how she found out about her own wedding. Naturally, the question of emancipation arises.

Winnie says she never had the time to think about those things. She only had “the time to love him. To love him over the course of 20 years of separation, to live with the constant yearning for him.” A part of her soul went with him. But Winnie also makes it clear that she is her own person, with her own opinion and ideals. The public might see her only as “Nelson’s wife” but that isn’t enough for her, she knows she is more than that. She acknowledges that she has ceased to exist as an individual. She functions as a placeholder for a greater idea, becoming Nelson’s public face during the 27 years he spent in jail

Winnie said: “There’s no law against dreaming.” She is one of the women who kept that dream alive. The dream of equality. The dream of freedom. And for that, I’m thanking her from the bottom of my heart.

[Diron · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book years ago and up until this day remember the effect that Winnie Mandela's struggle had on me as a woman. Winnie throughout this book is described and distinguished as a woman of exceptional leadership who worked hard to keep the movement going. This story epitomizes her strength through adversity. I can now say Winnie represents a big part of the movement. Her service has benefited so many people.

Her struggle kept Mr. Mandela's name in the public eye and she never allowed anyone to forget the injustice that was being done to him. This book is truly Winnie, a great read.

[Hoda هدى · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thinks that’ll be the best book I read this year.
Why do I think this book is important and relatable to all that's been going on lately whether in Africa, South America in general, or in occupied Palestine?
Mandela, Winnie, and their comrades were fighting for freedom and the end of Apartheid.
They spent many years in prison, they suffered humiliation and state oppression, and yet they kept true to their struggle and never gave up.
I started reading this book in April, and I took my time reading it. I was almost finished with it when Israel started trying to forcibly evacuate Palestinians from their homes in Sheikh Jarrah, to give to the settlers, then followed it's failure to do so with the heavy bombing of Gaza for 11 consecutive days. It's natural to resist when you are attacked, right? Except, most of the world viewed Israel as the victim, and Gazanias were at fault for retaliating when Israel attacked.
Mandela, in his speech in front of the court in 1964, stated that,

"In my youth in the Transkei I listened to the elders of my tribe telling stories of the old days. Amongst the tales they related to me were those of wars fought by our ancestors in defence of the fatherland. […] Having said this, I must deal immediately and at some length with the question of violence. Some of the things so far told to the court are true and some are untrue. I do not, however, deny that I planned sabotage. I did not plan it in a spirit of recklessness, nor because I have any love of violence. I planned it as a result of a calm and sober assessment of the political situation that had arisen after many years of tyranny, exploitation, and oppression of my people by the whites.”

I think this clearly indicates the natural order of things; if I am attacked, I'll attack as well, it's my right, and no one has the right to condemn me. If I am forced out of my land, then I have the right to forcibly take it back. Again, the natural order of things.
So, when someone views all this and says that Israel has the right to attack, then that someone should finish the sentence, "and the Palestinians has the right to defend themselves and attack likewise."

In 1985 State President PW Botha offered Nelson Mandela his freedom on condition that he ‘unconditionally rejected violence as a political weapon’. His daughter Zindzi in turn read out his rejection letter to a mass gathering in Soweto in 1985. This is the last part of Mandela's letter to the people,

"What freedom am I being offered while the organisation of the people remains banned? What freedom am I being offered when I may be arrested on a pass offence? What freedom am I being offered to live my life as a family with my dear wife who remains in banishment in Brandfort? What freedom am I being offered when I must ask for permission to live in an urban area? What freedom am I being offered when I need a stamp in my pass to seek work? What freedom am I being offered when my very South African citizenship is not respected?

Only free men can negotiate. Prisoners cannot enter into contracts. Herman Toivo ja Toivo, when freed, never gave any undertaking, nor was he called upon to do so.

I cannot and will not give any undertaking at a time when I and you, the people, are not free."

This is the exact same copy of all that's been going on in Palestine since 1984 when Britain without any right in doing so, gave Palestine to the Jewish settlers.
They were imprisoned, massacred, kicked out of their lands and homes, and no one thought something was wrong with that.
Anyone should imagine how it would feel like if one day someone came to your door, said to you this is his house and forcibly kicked you out of it.
When you truly imagine and understand the heaviness of this, then you'll know how it is for the Palestinians.

That speech of Mandela's summarises everything, summarises all the struggles anyone in the world has been going through to take their freedom back from their oppressors.
It may take a very long time to succeed, but eventually, it'll happen.

[Guchu · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really like that this was published in the mid 80s, because I think it provides perhaps the "purest" legacy of Winnie, before return to Soweto and the ensuing troubles with Mandela UFC and her own marriage (although I would have loved her perspective on all of it).

At the time of the book, Winnie had been banished to Brandfort with a myriad of restrictions on what she could or couldn't do and she definitely couldn't write or publish- and so the book was put together through interviews. She reflects on her many run ins with the police from 1958 to present day, bringing up two children under those conditions, the general conditions of the black people, events leading to Mandela's arrest and imprisonment and the hardships of being married to a [very visible] man serving a life sentence.

I loved the oral delivery and the various interludes with letters or chunks of contextual history. This book is critical in understanding Winnie as a revolutionary and some of the events that preceded, and perhaps even explain, her controversies and militancy in later years.

I loved every bit of this. She was wise, unstoppable, kind and brave and South Africa is lucky to have had her as one of its leaders. Highly highly recommended!

[Stellamaris · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book strongly written, awe inspiring, especially for someone like me who left South Africa so long ago. A book that left an indelible memory on me.

[Lydia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bought this book after it was announced that Winnie and Nelson Mandela were divorcing. The news was disappointing. I thought it strange, that this couple who had been through so much together, could not sustain their marriage upon his release from prison. In my opinion, Winnie and Nelson were a couple long enough to produce two children. In my opinion, Winnie's groom was the Cause; Nelson's bride was the Cause. Winnie was Nelson's second marriage.

The destruction of the evil apartheid system was the overwhelming purpose of life's work of the Mandelas. The laws that black South Africans endured under the apartheid system were immoral and as bad as anything the Jim Crow system of United States had to offer. Winnie Mandela was under constant surveillance. She was not allowed to communicate with any person deemed a threat to the state. Jailings for the most minor offenses, mail read, unable to work, unable to address anyone public, her life was constant court battles and orders and jailings. You cannot forget those inhuman Pass Laws. Because of this, Winnie Mandela was barely able to rear her two daughters, which she basically had to do so alone because of Nelson's incarcerations and his travel for promoting the anti-apatheid cause.

The humiliations suffered by Winnie Mandela in public and private were more than most people could tolerate without mentally and physically cracking. Barbaric prison conditions; poor housing, especially during her banishment to Brandfort; separation from her daughters. The inability to touch her husband for 25 years of his incarceration on Robben Island. It was hell. More than anything, it was about her ability to endure. It was to be the visible substitute for Nelson Mandela while he was jailed. There were two chapters that I thought really summed her book and her views of the struggle of indigenous South Africans for their freedom and birth rights.

But to give a reader an idea of what Winnie had to endure: before Nelson's Rivonia trial, the Xhosa tribal elders attempted to give Winnie a vial containing some type liquid substance and herbs. According to the tribal elders, her failure to carry this vial assured that Nelson would be found guilty and sentenced for treason. It never occurred to elders that the deck may have been stacked against Nelson. But Nelson's being found guilty was Winnie's fault for not carrying the vial, guaranteeing Nelson's delivery to the white man.

Just like in the United States, any movement that asks for basic civil and human rights was linked to Communist influence. It was if those people who were demanding their rights did not have brain their head without some influence of the Communist Party. African-Americans know this racist stunt well. The anti-apartheid movement needed help from wherever it could get it. As usual, in all its liberty and justice for all, the United States was slow in embracing the anti-apartheid cause. When your own house is not clean, I guess you would be slow.

Winnie's take on Christianity was also an eye-opener. Christian missionaries arrived with a Bible in one hand and a gun in the other. According to Winnie, religion was ruse used to strip black Africans of their land, their culture and their respect for their elders and one another. It is a disgrace, but it is something that Native Americans can probably identify with. African-Americans too!

This book was not an autobiography according to the notes, but it certainly comes close. It does not address the breakdown of the Mandela marriage and Winnie subsequent run-ins with the law after Nelson's release. I'm sorry that the world did not see her become First Lady of South Africa. I thought that she deserved it.

I am happy that I read this book. Nelson Mandela passed away on December 5, 2013

[Nadine · Rating 3 out of 5]

It doesn't even attempt to be a biography of any kind. Knowing that from the start helps. It gives a valuable insight into Winnie's perspective on her time with Nelson / or rather her time not spent with Nelson Mandela. But it is unstructured. Various footnotes help the unfamiliar to South African history to understand some of the context and a small appendix with selected documents, like the Freedom Charter, does too. But it is not enough. A book that is so subjective already, needs a logical structure to allow the reader to understand not only context but also developments. This book doesn't manage to convey in all its power what you can feel it is intended to convey. All the disappointment, anger, frustration, love, passion, desire, ... that finds expression seem random and pointless as the reader can not follow the progression of those emotions and the context they appear in. Only one who is VERY VERY familiar with South African history will find this book truly insightful, albeit biased. I have the greatest respect for Winnie Mandela's endurance and perseverance, but this book was a pain too read, partly for the content, partly for the structure, gaps and missing pieces.

[Mrs Tupac · Rating 5 out of 5]

A classic fave of mine ! My spiritual husband ( Tupac ) had this book listed in his book soooo I had to buy it & I don’t regret it !!!! This was A phenomenal read of a woman who’s a timeless queen , who would not be broken ! If GOD is a woman then she definitely put a golden piece inside of Mrs.Mandela .

I definitely couldn’t hold a man down the way Winnie did I feel she should’ve been president before Mandela especially if he was just going to up & leave her .

I feel she laid her heart & life down for her country she was deprived of soooo much yet still stood tall , the title of this was so fitting . I wish she was still here to reap the rewards and praises for her labor ……

I wish Africa would get there sh it together because from the oppression these people suffered within these pages really haven’t changed ……

I know this woman was welcomed into heaven no doubt about it …. She was an activist who lived by what she believed she would give her last to her people , if I could come close to that type of strength I’d be sooo proud…..

I hope all the hard work she put in didn’t go to waste it’s beautiful her kids never hated her yet they understood & saw why her mother was fighting for her people & they followed suite.

Mandela made a horrible decision divorcing this woman I wonder on his death bed did her regret leaving her , I know I would !

[George Custodio · Rating 4 out of 5]

Winnie Mandela recalling a time in prison when cockroaches were so big, they had nicknames—and apparently personalities! That small bit of levity stands out in a book filled with pain, resistance, and resilience. This one is not for the faint of hearts and unless you are familiar with the struggle, it's key players - this could be a long read thought its only 150-ish pages. However, it's required reading if you want to learn more about Winnie.

Key points:
• Chronicles Winnie’s life as an anti-apartheid activist and wife of Nelson Mandela.
• Details her arrest, imprisonment, and brutal solitary confinement.
• Explores her deep political convictions and how motherhood clashed with activism.
• Sheds light on her controversial legacy, her strength, and the cost of defiance.
• Gives voice to the often-silenced suffering of women in the liberation struggle.

Ultimately, this memoir is raw, powerful, and deeply human. Winnie’s strength is awe-inspiring, but the pain of separation—from her children, her husband, even her identity—is heartbreaking. You leave the book admiring her fire, but mourning what the fight for justice took from her.

[Rachel Rice · Rating 5 out of 5]

Winnie Mandela truly was a remarkable woman, strong, brave, and loyal to her husband, family, and the country she loved so very much. The things she went through most people probably would have bolted at the first hurdle! I can't imagine how it must have felt being separated from her husband for more than 20 years, having restrictions on her movements, what she was allowed to speak about and only being allowed one letter every six months from her husband. I would love to have met the Mandelas. In all truthfulness, before reading this book, I knew little about her and only about her husband, Nelson, but glad I read this book!

[Sandrine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nomzamo Winnie Madikizela Mandela, the woman that you were! I cannot wait to read this again.

[Kassia · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book really hit me hard. Not only did I have to read it for my writing arts homework, but actually reading it for fun, really effected my heart. It talks about how much Mandela put up with her husband, and all the things she had to go through. In the end, she still stood up for what she believed in, and didn't depend too much on her husband and what people said about her. She is a true hero, and she really just wants the best for herself, and for the country, Africa.

[Marcia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Incredible the circumstances under which Winnie Mandela lived. The stories and words are Winnie's but had to be written and edited outside of South Africa. The story doesn't flow easily - likely because of how it was all put together.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really liked this when I read it. Sad to learn how corrupt she became.

[Alexandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this....it's such a moving portrait of a strong woman who's staying strong for her country whilst her family's been torn apart...Winnie Mandela really is one of my heroines

[Pricila Almeida · Rating 5 out of 5]

Comovente! De levar as lagrimas e refletir o quanto não conhecemos os por menores de situações tão difíceis causadas pelo próprio ser humano!

[Alexandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sure it's completely different in English, but it's nice enough all the same...

[Lily · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. That was an eye-opener.

[Rorisang Masetlha]

I need to find out where I can get this book, been looking for it for 6months

[Jordi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Todo un descubrimiento acercarse a la figura de Winnie Mandela a través de este libro, que recopila algunas de sus cartas y otros documentos referidos a ella y sobre todo, a su lucha por la liberación de la población negra en Sudáfrica.

Siempre a la sombra de Nelson Mandela, en el libro se descubre a una persona excepcional, pues sólo puedo definir de esa forma a una persona que es capaz de hacer asomar compasión en sus textos hacia las personas que torturaron y asesinaron a miles de sudáfricanos en más de cincuenta años de apartheid, sólo por el color de su piel. Hay que ser muy valiente para eso. Tampoco se esconde tras el pacifismo, y defiende y justifica la inevitable opción de la lucha armada cuando, después de 20 años de resistencia, se da cuenta de que su pueblo no ha avanzado apenas nada y que ella continúa en la cárcel en peores condiciones si cabe. Esas cárceles, que algunos de la época llamaban en el caso de la cárcel de la isla de Robben, la Universidad Mandela, por la labor de formación que Nelson Mandela hacía con los presos, fueron también donde señala Winnie que se gesto su conciencia de la lucha armada "yo era una trabajadora social y el instinto de preservar la vida era el centro de mi ser", y allí aprendió que sólo podía defenderse de los fusiles con fusiles "eso fué lo que enseñaron. Nunca hubiera podido lograrlo sola". Y sin embargo siempre se enfoca la lucha desde el punto de vista del mal menor y de la ausencia de daño a las personas, siempre conscientes de que la sociedad futura incluye a todas las personas de Sudáfrica; incluso conscientes de que la lucha armada iba a generar mucho daño y dolor si no se encauzaba bien desde el principio, pues los más jóvenes empezaban ya a tomar las armas con mucho menos criterio estratégico y humanitario. Lo encuentro tan avanzado, incluso en nuestro tiempo, tan integral y sabio pensar que la nueva sociedad no puede surgir del rencor, del asesinato y del daño entre hermanos, que no entiendo casi cien años después del nacimiento de Winnie, cómo no es una obviedad si ya había quién lo pensaba en 1950.

[AJ Payne · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

I found this book really interesting because of the time in which it was written. It was written while Mandela was still banished to rural Free State and was still viewed in a heroic and long suffering light - before the late 80s in which she became involved in more militant (and more violent) political activities including kidnapping and murder. Had this book been written 10 years later, it would be a very different book.

So, I liked the way it portrayed Mandela and it made me much more sympathetic to her and what she went through, before the taint of the late 80s. She was strong, and powerful, and had to deal with so much both from the state but in her family - being Nelson Mandela’s wife was obviously no picnic and they hardly had a marriage given his political activities and then prison sentence. And in the book she didn’t come across as bitter or angry - she saw her life and how it turned out as part of the greater good. And I really liked hearing about her thoughts and philosophies on a lot of it (I definitely put a lot of book marks in the book with ideas and phrases I enjoyed).

I also liked the format of the book, as a sort of ‘mixed media’ portrayal of her life with her narration interspersed with letters and photos and historical asides and lists of charges and other various things. It made the story richer, and gave a lot of context to the story and what was taking place in South Africa and how it all fit together.

Quite a good biography.

[Savvy · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a glimpse into the life of Winnie, largely spent without Mandela. We get to read the letters that she exchanged with Nelson while he was in prison and it was nice that they gave us a glimpse into their world. I cannot imagine what it must have been like to marry a man you can hardly spend time with, barely stay together for 4 years, and then spend the next 27 years seeing each other only occasionally. The apartheid regime was barbaric and inhumane, even worse than colonialism, white people have certainly shown just how much havoc they can and did wreak on black and brown populations.

The book was published in 1985, a full 5 years before Nelson was finally released from prison, the best years of his life wasted behind bars. She rose to the occasion and held fort all those years with her social and political work. The ending is bittersweet.

The book ends before Winnie's banning orders expire. Later, she went back to Orland and there, she might have committed horrid acts herself, and I suspect this was where/when the ideological differences between her and Mandela arose and their marriage could not survive after he was released from prison. (Less so any rumours of cheating).

[Denise Smith-Archer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was a great read. Nomzamo (Winnie) was more than the wife of a great leader; she in her own right was a great leader. Additionally, this book was a very good lesson in South African politics. I knew the gist of what the apartheid government was doing to the people of South Africa at a time when most other African countries were free from traditional colonialism. But I did not know the details of the oppression, of the banning orders that people were forced to live under. Some people they killed and others they didn’t. They couldn’t kill Nelson Mandela because of the uproar and backlash that it would have caused. So they sent him to prison for life, and only when the pressure was too much from all angles, did they free him from prison. Nomzamo was a fighter and she fought for people whenever and wherever she was. Even while imprisoned she fought for some of the inmates who were not political prisoners and were being forced to do things that broke all forms of human rights. Great book!

[Abby · Rating 5 out of 5]

Part of My Soul was such a fascinating read. I picked it up on a whim from books mu school’s library was giving away. It’s been years since then, and I finally got a chance to read it. It’s made up of many parts, which the chronology of is somewhat unclear. But regardless, the stories as told by Winnie Mandela were fascinating. The book did a great job of explaining apartheid and the details of both Nelson and Winnie’s lives. The book is mostly a mix of interviews from Winnie, as well as letters written by both of them and sections of text directly from the editor. As someone who is not from South Africa, all the names in the book were new to me, but there are footnotes explaining who each person is.

Part of My Soul is a short but fascinating read. It gave me an insight into South African politics, which i was only vaguely familiar with before. But more importantly, it gave a picture of Winnie Mandela’s life, which was so interesting to read.

[Nukes · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I read this book years ago, maybe twice maybe thrice, my country Kenya felt like South Africa. The country was struggling with its own share of forced disappearances in the hands of the regime, people being suicided in police stations, suspects "accidentally dying while escaping", many books were banned, some reggae songs were banned, ad infinitum. So the book really resonated with me.
The book so small and yet packed the punch. Winnie, a pretty young husbandless woman packed a punch protecting her family against, of ironies, the police!

[NaemaFrances · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is amazing how strong and brave both Winnie and Nelson Mandela were. They fought so hard and fought so long to abolish apartheid- and we’re talking DECADES they fought. They were treated so poorly to the point that they almost died - just so blacks can be seen as equals! It’s a shame that they got divorced a couple years after Nelson’s release. They were both so passionate and suffered greatly in the name of justice.

[Jean Christian · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Nothing is more important than what is happening in the labour movement. We are the wealth of this country. We dig the wealth of this land. We could bring this country down through our labour - these black hands. . . We don’t have to be told we are hungry. We are hungry. . . No code of conduct will mean anything to the black worker - it’s irrelevant.” (Pg 124)

[Tamara · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book could have been better w/ a little more ghostwriting. It was hard for me to follow the book and maybe this my own doing since I came into the book w/ service level knowledge of the ANC movement. I would love to see a new edition of this book w/ more context and better organization of the content.

[Brooklyn Sr · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is magnificent. A sleeper
I don’t think many people in the States know about this book or about Winnie Mandela in general. Always hear about Nelson but you learn a lot about Winnie is this book and her struggles she went through with the government. Terrible ways they treated her.
A must own!
Buy it right now!

[Tefo Manoto · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautifully written book recounting the extraordinary life of an icon. She's candid about her weaknesses.