Winnie Madikizela-Mandela’s 491 Days: Prisoner Number 1323/69 is a harrowing and defiant account of her sixteen-month detention by the South African apartheid regime from May 12, 1969, to September 14, 1970. The book is primarily composed of a secretly kept prison journal, which was lost for forty-one years before being returned to her in 2011, and a collection of letters exchanged between Winnie and her husband, Nelson Mandela, who was then serving a life sentence on Robben Island. The narrative provides a visceral look at the brutality of solitary confinement, the psychological warfare of the security police, and the resilient bond of a family torn apart by political struggle.
The Context of Arrest and the Terrorism Act
The detention began in the early hours of May 12, 1969, when security police raided Winnie’s home in Soweto. She was arrested in the presence of her two young daughters, Zenani (10) and Zindzi (9), who were left alone in the middle of the night without any arrangement for their care. This arrest was part of a larger crackdown in which at least 40 activists were rounded up under Section 6 of the Terrorism Act of 1967. This specific law allowed the security police to hold individuals incommunicado and indefinitely for interrogation, effectively placing them beyond the reach of the courts. Winnie notes that she was used as a “political barometer” by the Nationalists; they believed that if they could successfully break the wife of the “number one terrorist,” they could stifle all remaining opposition in the country.
Part One: The Journal – Life in Solitary Confinement
Winnie’s journal entries provide a meticulous and often poetic description of the “dim grim dark walls” of Pretoria Central Prison. She was held in a “death cell” measuring approximately 15′ x 5′. One of the most psychologically damaging aspects of her confinement was the electric light that burned 24 hours a day, making it impossible to distinguish between day and night. She describes the cell as a space that “corrodes” and “scars” the soul.
Daily Routine and Hygiene
Her daily existence was defined by “empty long lonely minutes”. Her cell inventory was starkly limited: two sisal mats, four stinking blankets, a filthy plastic water bottle, a metal mug, and a “pon” (sanitary bucket). She had to train her body to function once a day because the bucket was only emptied in the morning. Hygiene was virtually non-existent; she was forced to wash her face and hands into the same sanitary bucket using her limited drinking water. For nearly two hundred days, she and her fellow detainees were denied the right to bathe or shower until legal intervention forced the installation of a crude, unroofed corrugated iron shower that was unusable in winter.
The Diet of Degradation
Winnie describes the prison food as an intentional tool of humiliation. The menu consisted of:
- Breakfast: Often uncooked or “rotten” porridge, sometimes containing maggots, and black sugarless coffee.
- Lunch: Dried cooked mealies known as “inkobe”.
- Supper: More porridge, occasionally with pork fat that the porridge would “actually swim in”.
She recounts how, as an awaiting-trial prisoner, she was legally entitled to food from outside, but the wardresses would break her bread and smash her fruit into pieces to search for contraband, rendering the food unhygienic and inedible.
The Walls as an “Encyclopaedia”
To maintain her sanity, Winnie scrutinized the cell walls, which she called an “encyclopaedia” of past prisoners. She found vulgar insults directed at prison staff, drawings of emaciated families, and messages of faith. She recognized the handwriting of fellow activists, such as Zozo Mahlasela, who wrote “I will not be terrorised,” and Shanti Naidoo, whose scribbled prayer “Trust in the Lord thy God” moved Winnie to tears when they eventually met in court. These markings served as a “mute expression” and emotional catharsis for those held in isolation.
The Assault Chamber
Winnie’s cell was located next to the prison’s assault chamber. She describes the “piercing screams” of other prisoners being beaten with canes or hosepipes by a young white matron. The sounds were so visceral that Winnie felt the lashes “tearing at your own flesh mercilessly”. She writes that these screams “pierce through my heart and injure my dignity so much”.
The Psychological Battle: Interrogation and Defiance
The core of her detention involved intensive interrogation by the Security Police’s “Sabotage Squad,” led by the notorious Major “Rooi Rus” Swanepoel and Major Ferreira. Her first interrogation session lasted for five days and five nights without sleep. Winnie describes these sessions as a “battle of wits”.
The interrogators used various psychological tactics, including:
- The “Phillip Golding” and “Caleb Mayekiso” methods: Sarcastic references to other detainees who had been tortured or had died in custody (Mayekiso died just eighteen days after his arrest).
- Mockery of her health: Knowing she had a heart condition, Swanepoel would taunt her, saying, “Leave us some inheritance before that heart stops”.
- Attempts to isolate her from her legal team: They tried to force her to use a pro-government attorney, Mendel Levin, instead of her trusted lawyer, Joel Carlson.
Winnie remained steadfastly defiant, telling her captors, “There is only one place where you and I can talk to one another that is in court”. She used silence as a weapon, refusing to reply to their “trash” and insults.
Health Crises and the “Decision” to Commit Suicide
The combination of solitary confinement, poor diet, and chronic stress took a massive toll on Winnie’s physical health. She suffered from:
- Sinus Tachycardia (nerve heart) and Hyperventilation.
- Severe Anaemia and Bronchitis.
- Blackouts and “bouts of semi-unconsciousness”.
- Walking in her sleep and having “horrible nightmares” where she conversed aloud with her absent children.
In April 1970, Winnie reached a breaking point. She describes a moment of profound despair where the “long and empty hours tore through the inner core of my soul”. She made the decision to commit suicide, but planned to do so “gradually” by refusing her medication and food so that it would appear to be a natural death. Her goal was to focus world attention on the “terror of the Terrorism Act” without causing Nelson and the children the specific pain of knowing she had taken her own life. She only abandoned this plan on May 1, 1970, when she was taken for re-interrogation and learned of student protests and international pressure regarding her case.
Part Two: The Letters – The “Golden” Strength of Correspondence
The second half of the book features the correspondence between Winnie and Nelson, which highlights the emotional anchor their relationship provided despite the physical and institutional barriers.
Nelson’s Role as Mentor and Husband
Nelson’s letters from Robben Island are characterized by a blend of tender affection and stoic political guidance. He frequently referred to her first letter to him in 1962 as a “precious possession” that he read “over and over again”. He urged her to remember that “hope is a powerful weapon” and that “nothing can be as valuable as being part and parcel of the history of a country”.
However, as the detention dragged on, Nelson’s tone shifted. He began addressing her as “Dade Wethu” (Sister) instead of “My Darling,” explaining that in the freedom struggle, they were equals and “brother and sister” until they could return to a normal life. He provided specific advice on her legal strategy, warning her that the state would try to “destroy the image we have built” and that her best defence was “truth, honesty and courage of conviction”.
The Tragedy of Thembi’s Death
A central tragedy discussed in the letters is the death of Nelson’s eldest son, Thembekile (Thembi), in a car accident in July 1969. Winnie was informed of the death by Swanepoel during an interrogation in a brutal, offhand manner. Nelson wrote a “Special Letter” to Winnie expressing his “anguish and depression,” noting that losing a mother (his mother had died in 1968) and a first-born son within ten months, while his wife was incarcerated, was a “burden too heavy for one man to carry”. Both were denied permission to attend the funeral.
Domestic Chaos and House 8115 Orlando West
The letters also reveal the “unbelievable chaos” of their household affairs during Winnie’s absence. Their home, 8115 Orlando West, was left without a legal caretaker, leading to family feuds over who should live there. Nelson expressed extreme concern for Nomfundo (his niece), who was left living “all alone, exposed to all kinds of danger” in Soweto. They struggled to manage the education and maintenance of Zenani and Zindzi from within their respective prison cells, often writing letters that were withheld by prison censors for months or “lost” entirely.
The Legal Farce: Acquittal and Re-detention
The “491 days” were marked by a series of legal manoeuvres that Winnie described as a “mock trial”.
- Trial of the 22 (1969): The group was charged under the Suppression of Communism Act for allegedly attempting to revive the ANC and inspecting railway targets.
- The First Acquittal (February 16, 1970): The Attorney General withdrew all charges. However, as the judge pronounced them free, security police immediately re-detained them in the courtroom under the Terrorism Act.
- State vs Benjamin Ramotse and 19 others (1970): The group was re-charged with virtually identical offences under the Terrorism Act. Winnie noted the “neurotic and pathetic” fear the state had for their defence team, led by Sydney Kentridge, George Bizos, and David Soggot.
- Final Release (September 14, 1970): The court eventually accepted a “special plea” that the second prosecution was an “abuse of the process of the court” because the charges were essentially the same as the first. Nineteen of the accused were acquitted and released.
The Aftermath and the Epilogue
Winnie’s release on September 14, 1970, was not the end of her persecution. Within two weeks, she was served with new banning orders and placed under house arrest for five years. She was restricted from leaving her home between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. and was forbidden from receiving visitors other than her children.
In her Epilogue, written in 2012, Winnie reflects on the long-term impact of the detention. She notes that the leadership on Robben Island was “cushioned” compared to the “foot soldiers” like herself who were “cannon fodder” for the regime. She reveals the lasting trauma her children endured, recalling how she returned home to find them “covered in sores” from malnutrition. She emphasizes that she deliberately fought to establish her own identity as Zanyiwe Madikizela, refusing to “bask in his shadow” or be known merely as “Mandela’s wife”.
Ultimately, 491 Days serves as a testament to the “infinite capacity for endurance” of the human soul. Winnie concludes that despite the “serrated scars” of the past, she would “do it all over again” because the liberation of her people was the greatest reward. She published the journal so that future generations would see the “window of darkness” through which they had passed and ensure the country never “degenerates to levels such as those” again.