Winnie's Stand a Digital Opera

Winnie Mandela informs the gathering masses that history will not judge her lightly. Haunted by an image of her younger self she remembers a time when life and choices seemed uncomplicated, a time filled with hope and potential. Now, desperate and filled with despair from the continuous abuse by the apartheid regime, Winnie, makes a final attempt to save her people and in so doing pays the highest price not with her life but with the ultimate sacrifice of her reputation. In April 1986 at rally near Johannesburg Winnie Mandela, made this highly inflammatory statement that evoked wide spread reaction from all sectors of the community " Together with our boxes of matches and our necklaces we shall liberate this country". With this call to arms, Winnie incited the nation to the most sadistic acts of violence. Used car tires were the weapon of choice for the most radical resistance to the apartheid regime. Placing a traitor of the resistance (impimpi) inside a tire, doused in petrol and set a light. This heinous act was called Necklacing.