Season 1

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela's death sparks a national reckoning over how she should be remembered, with the nation contending whether she was a saint or a sinner. The narrative returns to 1952, when a young Winnie leaves her rural home for Johannesburg and meets Nelson Mandela, an ascending leader of the anti-apartheid movement. Their marriage places her at the center of the struggle—and in the sights of the apartheid security police. When Nelson is sentenced to life in prison, Winnie becomes both symbol and target, enduring years of detention, torture, and bannings from the notorious apartheid security police. Hardened by the relentless siege and becoming increasingly uncompromising, she declares she is prepared to kill for her ideals. At their table decades later, her granddaughters Swati and Zaziwe begin where history leaves off: how did the first black medical social worker become a woman the world would one day fear and revere in equal measure?