Jonny Steinberg

Chances are, if Jonny Steinberg hadn’t been the author, I probably wouldn’t have read this book. I thought, incorrectly, that I already knew enough about Winnie and Nelson. I was very wrong.

Jonny Steinberg does not need to prove that he is a master in his field – I knew that the first time I picked up one of his books quite a few years ago. His attention to detail and rooting out facts and anecdotes that add much to the comprehension of a difficult and complicated subject is quite simply amazing.

Winnie has always been a disturbing individual in my eyes. She remains so, but with greater layers of understanding as to what made her the person she became. Nelson will probably become more controversial with time, and Steinberg’s book opens the door to a more profound round of the questioning of his legacy.

Perhaps on a wider scale, this book exposes the rot, deceit corruption and violence in politics, even when there’s a good story to tell. There’s no doubt that South Africa created Winnie and Nelson. In Winnie’s case, the violence of the apartheid government would forever colour her vision as would prison for her husband.

Winnie and Nelson were also humans – with desires and concerns like billions of others inhabiting this planet. Emotions would influence decisions, anger could get in the way of logic, as could love.

I don’t think that South Africa has moved very far beyond the concerns this country faced during the lives of the Mandelas and the Madikizelas. History is being painted with a very brush containing few strands. Steinberg’s book is an antidote to so many missing links.

I cannot end this gushing review without paying tribute to Eusebius McKaiser. I was at Love Books in Melville on May 24, 2023, to listen to Eusebius interview Jonny about this book. Eusebius was absolutely the right person to conduct the review – he had read the book, he understood it, he knew the context and the background intimately. The bookshop was packed. There were few in attendance, if any, who did not want to read the book after listening to the exchange between these two masters. RIP Eusebius, and Jonny, if you write a book about the mating habits of the common moth, I’ll buy it.