Winnie Madikizela-Mandela Lives

Black Women, African Media, and the Subaltern Counterpublics on Mama Winnie’s Legacy

Bibliographic Data

ID21724156
AuthorsTiffany Thames-Copeland (Montgomery College, corresponding author)
Year2026
Pages1-36
Publication date2026-06-29
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAfrican Identities (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1472-5843 • E-ISSN: 1472-5851
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/14725843.2026.2680269
OpenAlexW7166590783
LanguageEN
References cited15

Western patriarchal media criminalized Winnie Madikizela-Mandela in obituaries published on the day of her death. In response, the African National Congress (ANC), specifically the ANC Women’s League, contested the epistemic violence via the launch of their hashtag campaign #AllBlackWithADoek and #DoekFriday on April 6. And Madikizela-Mandela’s granddaughter, Princess Zaziwe Dlamini-Manaway, encouraged use of the hashtag #IAmWinnieMandela. African media outlets – especially South Africa’s mediascape – amplified the campaign on X. Appearing stylishly adorned in doeks (African headwraps), raised clenched fists, and indicating ‘she didn’t die, she multiplied,’ users collectively embodied her legacy and constructed a womanist subaltern counterpublic and an Africana Womanism 2.0. This study examines how Black South African women – spearheaded by the women of a ruling African political party and supported by women staff from African media outlets – used an American social media platform to resist the Western patriarchal news media’s attempt at epistemicide. This analysis draws on Nancy Fraser’s feminist subaltern counterpublic, Clenora Hudson-Weems’ Africana Womanism, Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni’s theorization of decoloniality’s zones of non-being and epistemicide, and Judith Butler’s hierarchy of grief to explore how Black women assert a freedom fighter’s immortality by using social media in their quest for epistemic freedom

African american · Agency (philosophy) · Critical discourse analysis · Embodied cognition · Hierarchy · Patriarchy · Politics · Social media · Subaltern · African studies and sociopolitical issues · Gender, Feminism, and Media · South African History and Culture

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