Africa mourns passage of Winnie Mandela

The African continent was thrown into mourning with the death of Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, on Monday in Johannesburg.

Besides President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria, President of Kenya Uhuru Kenyatta expressed that he was saddened with the news of the death of Madela’s wife.

“This evening, I learned that Winnie Madikizela-Mandela had left us. The news is saddening, for we have lost a heroine and a liberator,” Kenyatta had declared in a statement.

Kenyatta further declared:  “Though born before formal apartheid, she came of age in state devoted to White domination. She chose a life of service and valour, qualifying as a nurse, and devoting herself to the struggle for African liberty.

“She soon met Nelson Mandela, with whom she had a family, and whose partner in the fight for liberation she became. When he was jailed, she continued the fight — against incredible odds — and held her family together, even when she was exiled, jailed and continually tormented by the apartheid state.

“In the end, her courage was rewarded: she lived to see Mandela free; she lived to see her country liberated; and she went on to serve a free South Africa until her death.

“In the second half of the 20^th century, Africa won its liberty. We who have it can scarcely understand the trials of those who fought for it. In the life of Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, who endured and won, we see plainly what our freedom cost. May her courage inspire us to make the most of the liberty she won for us; may her family be comforted by the memory of her heroic life; and may she rest in perpetual peace.”

More so, Nigeria’s Former Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, described Winnie as “a towering figure of African womanhood and activism”.

“Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, is dead. We grew up admiring her courage and got older appreciating her challenges. She will be missed,” she wrote in a Facebook post.

South Africans have continued to hold processions in front of the residence of Winnie Mandela since her death on Monday.