WINNIE MANDELA: Life of Struggle

The author of vivid, well-written biographies of Lena Home and Katherine Dunham tells the story of the wife of a long-imprisoned anti-apartheid activist, herself a leader in black Africa's struggle for freedom. After an opening scene in which Mandela speaks movingly to people massed for a funeral, Haskins flashes back to narrate her earlier life, skillfully interwoven with background information on South African history. Raised in the rural Transkie region, Mandela moved to Johannesburg and became the first black medical social-worker in South Africa. Brought up to be a loyal and dutiful daughter, she matured to become a leader's wife whose first loyalty is to the needs of her people--needs demonstrated in Haskins' description of the barriers erected by the Afrikaners' government. As her father says, she has married not only Nelson Mandela but the struggle. Final chapters deal with her own imprisonments and the harassment that now continues into the next generation. A painful picture of black South Africa's plight, with more useful historical information than has been included in other biographies of Winnie Mandela. Current through 1985; a story readers won't forget.