In South Africa, longtime anti-apartheid activist Winnie Madikizela-Mandela died Monday in Johannesburg at the age of 81. Under apartheid, Winnie Mandela was jailed repeatedly by the white minority-led government and survived torture and nearly 500 days in solitary confinement. In 1958, she wedded Nelson Mandela, and the pair remained married for 38 years—even as it appeared Nelson Mandela would never be released from prison following his arrest in 1963. This is Winnie Mandela speaking in 1986.

Winnie Mandela: “We bring up the white man’s children. We could have killed them any day we wanted to.”

Winnie Mandela was known widely by South Africans as the “mother of the nation,” but became a controversial figure in later years. In 2003, she was convicted of dozens of counts of bank fraud and theft, and sentenced to a 5-year jail term. In 2010, she publicly criticized her ex-husband, saying Nelson Mandela’s deal to end apartheid had preserved the economic subjugation of the country’s black majority.