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Winnie Madikizela-Mandela: A Controversial Life

When: —
Venue: Birkbeck 43 Gordon Square

No booking required

Screenings: Winnie (Lamche, 2017), Winnie Mandela and the Missing Witness (Claxton, 2010).

In death as in life, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela excites strong views. Excoriated by critics, most significantly, for her association with the Mandela United Football Club’s violent activities in the 1980s, her life and legacy have gained a renewed saliency in South Africa where her vision of a radical democracy speaks powerfully to a new generation of activists disillusioned with the fruits of the ‘Mandela miracle’ and with compromises and ‘betrayals’ of the ANC leadership. If the life of Madikizela-Mandela calls for reappraisal, so too does her representation on film. Her luminous presence in the documentaries made of the South African liberation struggle from the 1960s, the various interpretations made of her in re-enactments in ‘biopics of her and Nelson Mandela merit study because of the nexus between Madikizela-Mandela and 'usable history' in this televisual age.

Two documentaries of her life, the recent Sundance Award Winning film Winnie (2017), directed by Pascale Lamche, and the 2010 BBC documentary Winnie Mandela and the Missing Witness [distributed by SABC as the Truth Commission Special Report, TRC episode 99], directed by Nicholas Claxton, form the focus of discussion for this symposium. The controversy generated by Lamche’s film reflect the contending views of Madikizela-Mandela today; while some critics decry it as a ‘whitewash’, others celebrate it as restoring the rightful place of Madikizela-Mandela in the pantheon of liberation heroes. In contrast, the BBC Inside Story episode takes participants back to the controversies that surrounded her in the 1980s and to her reluctant ‘apology’ at the Truth and Reconciliation’s hearing for the deaths of Stompie Seipei and Dr Asvat.

 

Programme
9.00am: Registration


9.30am: Session 1: "Winnie Madikizela-Mandela on Film: Reconsidering and Documenting a Controversial Life"
Screening 1. Winnie Mandela and the Missing Witness, BBC Inside Story series. (67 minutes)
10.30am: Tea & Coffee
11:00am: Screening 2. Winnie (98 minutes)
Directors’ discussion with Pascale Lamche (Director of Winnie), Nicholas Claxton (Director of Winnie Mandela and the Missing Witness), moderated by Dr Jacqueline Maingard (University of Bristol).

1.15 – 2.15pm: Lunch


2.15pm Session 2: "Winnie Madikizela-Mandela: The Debate Continues" - Roundtable
Chair: Martin Plaut (BBC World Service News [Africa Programme Editor] and Senior Research Fellow, Institute of Commonwealth Studies)
Speakers: Palesa Morudu (writer and publisher), Fred Bridgland (writer and narrator of Winnie Mandela and the Missing Witness), Professor Colin Bundy (Honorary Fellow, St Edmunds College, University of Cambridge), Dr Emily Bridger (University of Exeter), Dr Elizabeth Williams (Goldsmith College, University of London)
Respondent: Moshopyadi Hannah Heil, Director Reputation House
4.30pm Closing Remarks

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