Read Online Winnie Mandela by Anné Mariè du Preez Bezdrob - Free Book Online

to an abrupt halt, Winnie was back in the classroom, facing new challenges. She had fallen behind the other children, and was shocked to learn that her class was about to write revision tests in preparation for the year-end examinations. But she was not too disappointed by her results. There were 200 Standard 6 pupils at Ndunge, divided into three classes, and Winnie was placed fifty-eighth in her group of seventy-two. For the rest of the year she worked even more diligently, and two months later was one of only twenty-two pupils in her group to pass the final examinations. Winnie was overjoyed, as was Columbus, who knew better than most what odds she had overcome, and he slaughtered a sheep in her honour – something he had never done for any of his daughters before. Ever conscious of her mother’s rejection, Winnie was deeply grateful for her father’s recognition.
    Now it was time for her to go to boarding school at Emfundisweni in Flagstaff, a hundred miles from home. Winnie packed two steel trunks that she would take with her, one containing her clothes, the other a considerable amount of food, which Makhulu said was a waste of money, but Columbus seemed deaf to her criticism.
    It was the start of a new and exciting period in Winnie’s life. For the first time she would have to wear shoes, and her father took her to Bizana to buy them, along with the black and white uniform she would wear at school. As she tried her shoes on for the first time, Winnie embarked on a lifelong fascination with clothes, even though wearing the new footwear was unexpectedly painful. Her feet, toughened by years of going barefoot in the veld, rebelled against confinement. For quite some time she experienced acute discomfort, discarding the shoes whenever she could to spare her aching feet. As a reward for her good marks, Columbus also bought her an overcoat. At home, the children wrapped themselves in blankets to keep warm.
    The coat was far too large for her, but like most of the children she knew, she was used to wearing clothes that didn’t fit properly. Limited resources forced parents to pass clothes down from one child to the next, and when they did buy something new, it was usually a few sizes too big to allow the child to grow into the garment and make it last as long as possible. Winnie treasured her coat and wore it for the next few winters, studiously ignoring other children’s sniggers at her oversized apparel.
    Inevitably, venturing into the outside world meant exposure to the racial discrimination that was the reality of life in South Africa. It was impossible toignore and touched every facet of black people’s lives. All the shops in Bizana, even those catering exclusively to the black population, were owned and run by whites, and customers from the outlying areas might walk for a day or more to reach them. Some of the Pondo tribesmen rode into Bizana on horseback, proud and erect; while others made the long journey on foot, walking for a day or more, their wives often toting a baby nestled snugly on their backs, other children in tow. They arrived tired, hungry and covered in dust, but there was nowhere in Bizana for them to refresh themselves, nowhere they could sit down and have a meal, not even an outdoors area where the exhausted travellers could rest their feet. White arrogance made no allowances for the dignity, wisdom and practical experience of people from other cultures. It took many decades before whites even began to grasp that some of the blacks they treated with such disdain were people of stature in their own communities, where they were respected, even revered. The tribesmen were dignified people, and when they went to town the men tended to their business, met in small groups in the street to exchange news and share views; while their wives talked and gossiped with one another before setting out, once more, on the long journey home.
    After shopping for her new clothes, Winnie and her father went to buy