You all must realize that Mandela was not the only man who suffered. There were many others - hundreds who languished in prison and died. Many unsung and unknown heroes of the struggle.
Interpretation
Winnie Madikizela-Mandela emphasizes that while Nelson Mandela is well-known, many other heroes of the anti-apartheid struggle also suffered and deserve recognition.
In this quote, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela highlights the collective struggle and sacrifice of those involved in the fight against apartheid in South Africa. She reminds us that while Nelson Mandela is often celebrated for his leadership and resilience, countless other individuals endured significant hardships and injustices, many of whom remain nameless and unrecognized in history. This sentiment advocates for acknowledging the broader spectrum of heroism and suffering in social movements.
In practice
During a speech commemorating those who fought for freedom, this quote could remind the audience of the unsung heroes.
In the normal course of things, journalists want their story, and as soon as they are through with it, they pack their cameras and go. That was never the impression that David Astor gave when you were interviewed by him. It was far deeper than that.
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.
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 were hard-pressed, too.
We shall liberate our country.
I learned to deal with the police... to be tough... to survive.
I am not sorry. I will never be sorry. I would do everything I did again if I had to. Everything.
Of all the human figurines discovered so far from 30,000-3,000BC, 92% are of the female form. This is not to say there was any kind of matriarchy or worship of a mother goddess - far from it - but women are conspicuous by their presence.
When we dwell on the enormity of the Second World War and its victims, we try to absorb all those statistics of national and ethnic tragedy. But, as a result, there is a tendency to overlook the way the war changed even the survivors' lives in ways impossible to predict.
My father was a Japanese prisoner of war, a survivor of the Thai-Burma Death Railway, built by a quarter of a million slave labourers in 1943. Between 100,000 and 200,000 died.
Our prime minister could embrace and forgive the people who killed our beloved sons and fathers, and so he should, but he could not, would not, apologise to the Aboriginal people for 200 years of murder and abuse. The battle against the Turks, he said in Gallipoli, was our history, our tradition. The war against the Aboriginals, he had already said at home, had happened long ago. The battle had made us; the war that won the continent was best forgotten
We lost the American colonies because we lacked the statesmanship to know the right time and the manner of yielding what is impossible to keep.
The search for a Jewish national home came about due to centuries of anti-Semitic pogroms, expulsions, discrimination and hate. The Holocaust was simply the evil culmination of all that came before it.
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