Mandelas At War as Nation Prepares to Say its Goodbye to Beloved Madiba

There are 34 family members preparing for the passing of Nelson Mandela, the man who was to two of them a husband, to three of them a father, to 17 of them a grandfather and to the other 12 a great-grandfather. 

 

They are the Mandelas, the product of his three marriages who will now carry his name into the future.

As this week's row over where the father of the new South Africa should be laid to rest shows, the Mandelas are a divided lot, torn apart over their respective places within the pecking order and their perceived right to call rank over one another as they battle to lay claim to the Mandela legacy.

The children and grandchildren from his first marriage, to Evelyn Ntoko Mase, were for years sidelined by his second wife Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, who stole the limelight during Madiba's 27 years behind bars, only to abandon him soon after he walked free in 1990. He eventually divorced her in 1996.

"But I knew it wasn't him divorcing me," she said in a candid interview that she gave in 2010, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of his release from prison.

"I know it was never his intention to divorce. It was part of the struggle. In order for us to be free, I had to sacrifice him and he had to sacrifice me. I know the full story will be told one day," she said, armed with her intention to fight on.

However, when Madiba married his third wife, Graca Machel, in 1998, she opted for a more conciliatory role and attempted to draw the various family members together in what would only be, at best, a very fragile peace.

With the exception of Graca and Winnie, little is known about the Mandelas because for most of their lives they have tended to play a backstage role, wrapped in a thick cloak of privacy that elevated them to a status well and truly out of the public's reach.

However, as they slowly began to emerge a few years back, it was in various forms and guises, not all of them palatable.

So far, only two of them have opted for public office. Mandla took the first step in 2009 when he became a member of the South African Parliament.

Two years earlier, he had assumed the chieftaincy of the Mvezo Traditional Council in the home village. Nelson Mandela had always wanted the chieftaincy of his late father, Mphakanyiswa, who was deposed in 1926, returned to the Madiba clan and six years ago he asked that Mandla do it in their name.

Earlier this year, Madiba's second-oldest daughter Zenani, from his marriage to Winnie, became South Africa's ambassador to Argentina.

Something of an accidental diplomat, she joined the corps in her mid-50s, creeping out from what she called "the shadow" of her famous parents, and her somewhat famous former husband, who is a prince in the royal household of Swaziland.