Chadwick’s picnic is perfunctory and idealized. Chadwick and his screenwriter William Nicolson liked the idea of a lovers’ picnic because the narrative needed a romantic interlude. Mandela’s autobiography does not mention a picnic during his courtship of Winnie Mamzamo Madikizelain.
This is true; at the time, Mandela was married and awaiting trial for treason, but he courted Madikizelain with fervor. He says they walked long grass in a rural area outside Johannesburg, like the Transkei where they had been raised.
Mandela divorced and married Winnie in 1958. But their marriage was not picnicky. Both were philanderers. Mandela was convicted and sentenced to Robbin Island prison, where he served twenty-seven years in solitary confinement before being released in 1990. Winnie carried on with many lovers, besides being alcoholic and addicted to drugs.
Featured Image: Idris Elba as Nelson Mandela and Naomie Harris as Winnie Mamzamo Madikizelain
See Justin Chadwick’s Mandel: Long Walk to Freedom (2013). Screenplay by William Nicolson based on Nelson Mandela. Long Walk to Freedom. Boston: Little Brown, 1994; Jonny Steinberg. Winnie and Nelson: Portrait of a Marriage. New York: Knopf. 2023