Winnie and Nelson – Portrait of a Marriage

Nelson Mandela has been written about by many biographers and historians. But his marriage to Winnie Madikizela-Mandela remains largely untold.

During his imprisonment, Nelson grew ever more in love with an idealised version of his wife, courting her in his letters as if they were young lovers. But 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 civil war.

Steinberg tells the tale of this unique marriage, turning the course of South African history into a page-turning political biography. Winnie and Nelson is a modern epic in which trauma doesn’t affect just the couple, but an entire nation – a Shakespearean drama in which bonds of love and commitment mingle with timeless questions of revolution.

Steinberg tells this story with power and tender emotional insight, revealing how far these forever entwined leaders would go for each other, and also where they drew the line. For in the end both knew theirs was not simply a marriage, but a struggle to define anti-apartheid itself.