The musical story of Winnie Mandela, a wife of freedom
| Johannesburg, South Africa
鈥� A local, slice-of-life story from a Monitor correspondent.
If anyone in South Africa has lived the ego-inflating highs and crash-and-burn lows 鈥� the building blocks of opera 鈥� it is Winnie Madikizela Mandela.
Formerly married to the nation鈥檚 top freedom fighter (they divorced in 1996), Mrs. Mandela was also married to the cause. Her ex-husband Nelson Mandela was jailed for 27 years at a time when the apartheid regime would have done almost anything 鈥� including torture and assassination 鈥� to preserve its racist, whites-first system.
From the first scene of the $1.4 million 鈥淲innie, the Opera鈥� at Pretoria鈥檚 State Theater (an international tour is expected), I was won over. The music was gorgeous and the lyrics African National Congress-approved. The story humanizes a woman reviled for her complicity in the beating death of 14-year-old Stompie Seipei.
Normally, such a crime would sink a political career. But revolutions are all about turnarounds, and Mandela is enjoying one. Black South Africa is taking a more forgiving view of its wartime tactics 鈥� including the 鈥渘ecklacing鈥� of enemies with burning tires. That means a redemption of sorts for hard-liners like Mandela. All鈥檚 fair in opera, it seems.
