On behalf of the Centre
for Reparation Research at the University of the West Indies, I pay tribute to Nomzamo Winifred Madikizela [Winnie]
Mandela, this anti-apartheid
warrior woman who has now transitioned to be with the ancestors; a woman so
loved by the people of Jamaica that when news broke of her divorce from Nelson
Mandela, the Mandela Park and Highway were renamed by the Jamaican folk The
Winnie Mandela Park and Highway respectively. So many of us have been inspired by her activism,
her passion, her elegance, her eloquence and deep understanding of what a
post-colonial society should be. As we in Jamaica continue to pour out our
tributes to her, we would do well to remember her words on economic freedom spoken at a Luncheon in
her honour in Douglasville, Georgia, USA in 2010: “Political freedom
without economic freedom is just half
way the road…. you cannot say you are totally free until you are economically
free”. May her words also resonate with the policy-makers of South Africa who
must complete the anti-apartheid struggle by making reparatory justice for
those scarred and deprived of resources an economic imperative. May the soul of
this Mother of the South African Nation who suffered so much in the cause of
Black liberation, rest in power.
Verene
A. Shepherd
Director, Centre for Reparation Research,
UWI
<centreforreparationresearchuwi@yahoo.com>
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