Winnie Madikizela-Mandela

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

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

“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.”

“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.”

“You build dreams, you build castles in the air, and you hope that at least part of that will be realized, even under apartheid.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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...”

“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 writin...”

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

“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 du...”

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

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

“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.”

“I wanted to be a doctor at some point, and I was always bringing home strays from school: people who were too poor to pay fees or have food. My parents never rebuked me or told me that they...”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“We shall liberate our country.”

“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.”