Answer to Question #231826 in Sociology for Lindiwe

Question

Write a short biography of Winnie Madikizela Mandela and Rain Queen Modjaji and explain if they can be regarded as African feminists or if they furthered the African Feminism Agenda. Justify your Answer.

Answer 1

Nomzamo Winifred Madikizela was born on September 26, 1936, in Bizana, South Africa. Later, in 1953, Winnie moved to Johannesburg to study social work at the Jan Hofmeyr. South Africa was under the system known as apartheid, where citizens of Indigenous African descent were subjected to a harsh caste system, while European descendants enjoyed much higher levels of wealth, health and social freedom (Hassim, 2014).

Winnie completed her studies and, though receiving a scholarship to study in America, decided instead to work as the first Black medical social worker at Baragwanath Hospital in Johannesburg. In June 1958, Winnie was married to Nelson Mandera. Winnie passed away on April 2, 2018, in Johannesburg of kidney infection.

Winnie Mandela was a force of nature; Mother to the Nation and a guiding light to women who endured the struggles of the Apartheid era. She reversed the historical perversion by colonial authorities of customary law to women’s land rights. Up to her last breath Winnie believed that women’s equal rights to land, housing and property are human rights that should be upheld by the courts of South Africa (Hassim, 2014).

Modjadji is traditionally the matriarchal leader of the Lobedu dynasty and believed to have special powers to control the clouds – she could bring rain to her allies and drought to her enemies, and each November directed a rainmaking ceremony (Owen, 2020).

At 25, the new Rain Queen, Modjadji VI, is not only the youngest ever crowned. She is also the first Rain Queen to have a formal education, and in a break from tradition, she has vowed to continue her schooling, possibly even accepting Mr. Mandela's offer to send her to university abroad.

How the Queens navigate their rule in such instances where the modern and traditional seek to occupy the same space calls for such a reading (Owen, 2020). Thus questions about their ability to autonomously dispense their duties as Queens and exercise freedom over their livelihoods in a culture that emanates from patriarchal rule form the core objectives in this research. It is to delve beyond sensationalist view awash on the internet about rain making to micro level of what such rituals mean to women in general. Diverging from the Western form of feminism which has been suspect of universalizing challenges faced by women to the more African one which is more context based, helps in unearthing patriarchal traits directly affecting African women (Owen, 2020).