Winnie Madikizela-Mandela: A Woman Leader in South African Politics

There is a scarcity of psychobiographical studies on African women leaders. One psychological sequelae and abundant biographies and commentary texts on Madikizela-Mandela exist. This study aims to offer an alternative perspective on her and her leadership. The purpose is to contribute to the psychobiographical perspective of African women leaders. The study responds to the invite to provide psychobiographical perspectives of unique and extraordinary individuals in contexts that have not been maximally researched. The study adopts a hermeneutic psychobiographical research design through the authentic leadership model to describe her as an extraordinary woman leader in the South African context. This study selected Madikizela-Mandela based on convenient purposive sampling since there is abundant literature on her life history. A combination of first-person and third-person biographical data in the public domain is consulted. Content analysis is utilised to identify relevant data to pre-determined theoretical categories throughout her life. The family of Madikizela-Mandela was consulted to continue with this study and their response is awaited. The trustworthiness of this study is maintained through the unbiased approach and consideration of the quality assurance criteria for qualitative research.