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Winnie Madikizela-Mandela Quotes

Powerful Winnie Madikizela-Mandela for Daily Growth

I was so hooked by the fight for freedom that nothing mattered to us so long as we fulfilled the dream of years and years of our people being liberated. I thought normal life would come the day after.

- Winnie Madikizela-Mandela

Mattered, Years And Years, Normal Life

It is any wife's dream to lead a normal life with her family.

- Winnie Madikizela-Mandela

Dream, Her, Normal, Normal Life

Nelson was locked up on Robben Island, and wives like me had been warned we would bring our husbands home as corpses from that place. But I always believed he would be released. It was my duty to have a home ready for us.

- Winnie Madikizela-Mandela

Bring, Been, Had, Locked

I don't want a grand villa in a rich suburb alongside white people where many of my former comrades choose to live. I would never betray my roots in that way.

- Winnie Madikizela-Mandela

Want, Rich, Alongside, Comrades

The years of imprisonment hardened me... Perhaps if you have been given a moment to hold back and wait for the next blow, your emotions wouldn't be blunted as they have been in my case. When it happens every day of your life, when that pain becomes a way of life... there is no longer anything I can fear.

- Winnie Madikizela-Mandela

Wait, Next, Been, Blow

I am a living symbol of the white man's fear. I never realized how deeply embedded this fear is until I came to Brandfort.

- Winnie Madikizela-Mandela

Living, Realized, Symbol, Embedded

Mandela did go to prison, and he went in there as a burning revolutionary. But look what came out. Mandela let us down.

- Winnie Madikizela-Mandela

Look, Down, Go, Mandela

I have a good relationship with Mandela. But I am not Mandela's product. I am the product of the masses of my country and the product of my enemy.

- Winnie Madikizela-Mandela

I Am, Product, Country, Mandela

This name Mandela is an albatross around the necks of my family.

- Winnie Madikizela-Mandela

Family, Name, Necks, Mandela

No one under international copyright law has the right to depict me or my husband without our consent. I have been surprised by the many people, particularly Americans, who are either writing books or going to produce films about the Mandela family without even bothering to consult us.

- Winnie Madikizela-Mandela

Been, Copyright, Depict, Mandela

You all must realize that Mandela was not the only man who suffered. There were many others - hundreds who languished in prison and died. Many unsung and unknown heroes of the struggle.

- Winnie Madikizela-Mandela

Unknown, Died, Many, Mandela

As much as the South African racist regime is prepared to fight to the last man, so are we determined to fight to the bitter end.

- Winnie Madikizela-Mandela

Last, South, Regime, South African

The life of the President's First Lady would not have been for me. And I don't know how I would have been as a housewife.

- Winnie Madikizela-Mandela

Life, How, Been, Housewife

I'm like thousands of women in South Africa who lost their men to cities and prisons... I stand defiant, tall and strong.

- Winnie Madikizela-Mandela

Strong, Africa, South Africa, Prisons

Those 18 months in solitary confinement... bruised my soul. If I had had a weapon, I would have fought my way out.

- Winnie Madikizela-Mandela

Soul, Months, Bruised, Confinement

It dawned on me then that you either had to survive apartheid, or you had to perish with it. And I decided to survive.

- Winnie Madikizela-Mandela

Dawned, Either, Decided, To Survive

I learned to deal with the police... to be tough... to survive.

- Winnie Madikizela-Mandela

Police, Survive, Deal, To Survive

The government can become so elitist and concentrate on elitist interests. To help the government, you must constantly hold its attention.

- Winnie Madikizela-Mandela

Government, Help, Elitist, Concentrate

I don't say we should have performed miracles, but surely there ought to have been a difference between the apartheid regime and governance of the ANC after 17 years.

- Winnie Madikizela-Mandela

Been, Surely, Regime, Ought

It would be a most despicable thing to suggest I would exploit the poor for my own personal gain.

- Winnie Madikizela-Mandela

Personal, Own, My Own, Despicable

The brutality of apartheid drains you of that emotion of fear if you have gone through everything you can be put through in the process of harassment.

- Winnie Madikizela-Mandela

Process, Through, Drains, Brutality

One of the greatest things I fear is letting down my people. I wouldn't live with that type of conscience, of having let down my people after they've been brutalized for so long.

- Winnie Madikizela-Mandela

Conscience, Been, Having, Greatest Things

When I was born, my mother was very disappointed. She wanted a son. I knew that from a very early age. So I was a tomboy.

- Winnie Madikizela-Mandela

Born, Very, Very Early Age, Early Age

We should have sent the apartheid monsters to jail, not let them off with an amnesty.

- Winnie Madikizela-Mandela

Monsters, Should, Apartheid, Amnesty

I believe in myself and the justice I've fought for all my life.

- Winnie Madikizela-Mandela

Myself, My Life, Fought, All My Life

I often wonder why I attract so much criticism.

- Winnie Madikizela-Mandela

Why, Attract, Often, Wonder

They think because they have put my husband on an island that he will be forgotten. They are wrong. The harder they try to silence him, the louder I will become.

- Winnie Madikizela-Mandela

Think, Will, Louder, Harder

I am not the sort of person to carry beautiful flowers and be an ornament to everyone.

- Winnie Madikizela-Mandela

Beautiful, Flowers, I Am, Ornament

In the normal course of things, journalists want their story, and as soon as they are through with it, they pack their cameras and go. That was never the impression that David Astor gave when you were interviewed by him. It was far deeper than that.

- Winnie Madikizela-Mandela

Him, Through, Journalists, Deeper

I identify... with the ideas that Malcolm X stood for.

- Winnie Madikizela-Mandela

Ideas, Identify, Stood, Malcolm

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