Johnny Steinberg’s new book, Winnie and Nelson: Portrait of a Marriage is set to partly update their history
The intimate yet profoundly important overview of their relationship and the impact they had on our country gets a new look in an astonishing book.
Love Books in Melville was the stage for two media heavyweights to discuss the world’s most well-known and written-about couple, the Mandela’s.
Johnny Steinberg, acclaimed author, and broadcaster Eusebius Mckaiser were in conversation at the launch of Steinbergs latest book, Winnie & Nelson: Portrait of a Marriage.
Marriages are by their very nature complex, add the horrors of Apartheid, a nearly 30-year separation, affairs, and politics and you have all the makings of a gripping read in a book that exposes many previously unknown details to an otherwise well-known tale.
Jonathan Ball publishers write in the book, “Winnie, every bit his political equal, found herself increasingly estranged from her jailed husband’s politics. Behind his back, she was trying to orchestrate an armed seizure of power, a path he feared would lead to an endless war.”
Mckaiser opened the discussion with, “This is about their marriage, love life, affairs, divorce, and betrayal. We don’t often think of them as public figures that are all too human. They have been so mythologised as being beyond human.”
Steinberg replied, “Indeed, and they chose to be mythologised. I think when they met that their marriage was a political tool. They were beautiful, glamorous, and had an instinct to know that what they looked like mattered politically. They built their marriage as a political vehicle from the beginning with extraordinary success.”
“They became synonymous with the anti-Apartheid struggle and so their ambitions were realised. And yet what that myth meant was that they lost control as the years went on with a marriage that embodies a nation. It embodied the dark side of a nation and the pain of a nation. This marriage took off in a way that nobody could control.”
Nelson is described as a very bad father and husband. “The irony is we probably wouldn’t have known who he was if he hadn’t been.
“He lived his life in this crazy vortex of energy and danger. It was what gave him the vigour for his genius which was to present himself as a figure that could embody black South Africa. If he had been a decent family man, he probably couldn’t have done it. He was able to play that role because he wasn’t that nice.”
Steinberg says he believes Nelson felt enormous sorrow while sitting in jail knowing he had not been nice and felt deep remorse. “He knew he had probably ruined the lives of the people not just closest to him, but the people most dependent on him.”
This biography is not only focused on the love life of the main players though but also delves into the broader political landscape of the time for a truly enthralling tale of South Africa’s battle for freedom.
The book is exquisitely researched and frames the couple in a way that is possible now that they are no longer alive said Steinberg.
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