Ichikowitz Family Foundation

26/09/2026

Today, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela would have turned 90.

A woman whose courage helped sustain a struggle. A mother and grandmother whose family shared her with a nation. A voice the apartheid state tried, again and again, to silence.

She paid an immense personal price for refusing to accept the place others had decided she should occupy. Imprisonment, banishment and separation from her children could not extinguish her determination to fight for her people.

As we mark her birthday, we remember how much women have given to the freedoms we inherit, and how often their contributions have been diminished, questioned or left untold.

Through The Trials of Winnie Mandela, we have sought to make space for her story in all its humanity and complexity. Today, we celebrate the woman, the courage and the enduring force of her life.

Happy 90th birthday, Mama Winnie.

You gave so much of yourself for a better future. We still have a part to play in making it happen.

21/08/2026

"I wanted it know that it was Winnie Mandela and not Mandela's wife"

Wife. Symbol. Threat. Problem.

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela has often been remembered through the words others used to contain her.

But she was not adjacent to history.

She organised. She resisted. She led.

Remembering her honestly does not mean removing complexity. It means recognising a woman as a political actor in her own right.

How many powerful women are still being described before they are heard?

Watch The Trials of Winnie Mandela on Netflix in Africa

12/08/2026

"Young people cannot be called “the future” while being excluded from the decisions shaping it.

For Zama Obiri, a Youth Ambassador for the African Youth Survey 2026, democracy demands responsibility in both directions.

Young citizens must participate, stay informed and hold their leaders accountable.

Governments must create real opportunities for young people to be heard, represented and entrusted with leadership.

Youth voice must become youth power.

This International Youth Day, tell us: what would meaningful youth participation look like to you?

Head to the link in our bio to access the full African Youth Survey 2026.

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12/08/2026

Young Africans are not walking away from democracy.

They are asking it to prove itself.

On International Youth Day, Michelle Hadebe reminds us that this generation is renegotiating democracy’s terms—and demanding systems that keep the lights on, create jobs and hold countries together.

This is not disengagement.

It is a generation expecting democracy to work.

And young women are not an addition to that conversation. They are helping lead it.

Head to the link in our bio to access the full African Youth Survey 2026, then tell us: what must democracy deliver to keep your confidence?

11/08/2026

How should history judge a woman who lived, led and resisted under a system built to destroy her?

New research released from the African Youth Survey for Women’s Day suggests that young South Africans do not want a sanitised Winnie Madikizela-Mandela. They want a historically honest one.

They are asking that her life be judged with history intact.

51% name Winnie as Africa’s greatest female liberation fighter.

89% regard her as one of the greatest icons of the anti-apartheid struggle.

76% believe her actions and legacy must be judged within the context of apartheid.

Not sainthood. Not erasure. Context.

Swipe through the findings newly released from the African Youth Survey, then tell us: can history judge a woman honestly if it removes the system she was fighting?

09/08/2026

History is never neutral.

What we preserve determines whose courage is remembered, whose ideas are inherited and whose power is recognised.

Seventy years ago today, more than 20,000 women marched to the Union Buildings in one of the defining acts of resistance in South African history.

One reflection captures the political intelligence behind their resistance:

“Women were not seen as a threat, and we exploited that.”

The apartheid state underestimated women, and women turned that underestimation into strategy. They organised, mobilised and helped reshape the course of history.

Yet women can be erased twice: first by being denied power, and then by being reduced to supporting characters in the story of freedom.

Through the African Oral History Archive, we preserve the voices, choices and leadership of the African women who made history.

But remembrance is not enough.

The truest tribute to the women of 1956 is to build an Africa in which women are recognised, represented and empowered to lead.

Today, we remember them. We celebrate them. And we recommit ourselves to ensuring that the women writing Africa’s next chapter are never erased from it.

Happy Women’s Day.

29/07/2026

TODAY IS THE DAY

We are enormously proud to launch Report 1 of the African Youth Survey 2026: Africa’s Place in a Disrupted World

The findings reveal a generation that is increasingly optimistic about Africa’s future and increasingly clear about what it expects from those in power.

47% now believe their country is moving in the right direction, up from 30% in 2024.

73% say democracy is always preferable, but 56% believe Africa needs a democratic model better suited to its own realities.

And when it comes to global powers, young Africans are looking beyond rhetoric. They want partners who deliver.

Our sincere thanks to H.E. Ms Macenje “Che Che” Mazoka, Dr Isaac Olufadewa, Emmanuel Kwezi Tabaro, Fasika Lachore Laba, Michelle Hadebe, Stephen Mensah-Apenteng, Jihane Cherif and Mohamed Okash, whose contributions brought vital depth and perspective to the findings.

This is our fourth African Youth Survey and the purpose remains unchanged: To ensure Africa’s young people are not merely discussed, but heard.

Read the report at the link in our bio and join the conversation.

18/07/2026

Nelson Mandela’s story was never his alone.

It was carried by the comrades, communities, lawyers and activists who stood beside him—and by his willingness to sit across from those who did not.

In 2008, Mandela told the world:

“It is time for new hands to lift the burdens. It is in your hands now.”

Mandela Day is not only about remembering what he did. It is about deciding what we will do next.

Memory carries the story forward.
Action carries the work.

It is still in our hands.

24/06/2026

Have we failed her?

"It is one thing I will never forgive... You actually dig a spear into my heart when you do that."

She was not talking about apartheid. She was talking about us.

Today, her words remain as uncomfortable as they are relevant.

South Africa's liberation was not achieved by South Africans alone. Across the continent, nations opened their borders to exiles, hosted liberation movements, trained freedom fighters, and bore the consequences of standing against apartheid.

As xenophobic rhetoric and violence once again dominate headlines, perhaps the question is not whether Winnie would recognise the South Africa she fought for.

Perhaps the question is whether we have forgotten her.

Whether we have forgotten what she stood for.

Whether we have forgotten those who stood with us.

We Are Because They Were.

24/06/2026