by Kingseyi Fri Jul 20, 2018 3:53 amNELSON Mandela, whose birth centenary the
world marked this Wednesday, July 18, was a
mortal. However, in a fractious world governed
by class, racial, religious, regional, gender and
numeorus other cleavages, it is almost
impossible to find a person who is generally
accepted by all as a hero and legend. This is
the basis of Mandela’s legacy.
Nelson Mandela
This legacy was built on six broad pillars. First,
he was born into colonial South Africa which
degenerated further into the Apartheid system.
The struggle to decolonise, defeat Apartheid and
allow the people exercise their fundamental
human rights, threw up Mandela. He believed
that : “To deny people their human rights is to
deny their very humanity.” His philosophy was
that: “When a man is denied the right to live the
life he believes in, he has no choice but to
become an outlaw.” So he became an outlaw.
That decision could cost him his life. But it was
a struggle he believed in and was convinced
ultimately of triumph even if he would not be
alive to partake of the victory feast.
The second platform is the collective. He knew
that in truth, nobody can overcome a system as
an individual. He was convinced that: “No single
person can liberate a country. You can only
liberate a country if you act as a collective.” So,
he joined the African National Congress, ANC.
The third base was courage and sacrifice. He
wrote: “I learned that courage was not the
absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The
brave man is not he who does not feel afraid,
but he who conquers that fear.” He argued that
the choices people make should reflect their
hopes, not their fears.
The test of his courage as well as those of his
comrades arrested in 1963 came when they
were charged with sabotage and conspiracy to
violently overthrow the government. Facing
the death sentence, he told Justice Quartus de
Wet: “I have cherished the ideal of a democratic
and free society in which all persons live
together in harmony and with equal
opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live
and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for
which I am prepared to die.”
He and his fellow defendants escaped the
death sentence, but were given life. He was to
say: “Real leaders must be ready to sacrifice all
for the freedom of their people.” He and his
fellow liberation fighters truly made all the
human sacrifice possible. Mandela was in jail for
27 years, losing perhaps the most active part of
his life, practically lost his marriage and almost
lost his family as he was in prison while his
children grew up.
But he was the rejected stone which became his
country’s cornerstone. When South Africa
needed to transit from war to peace, it turned to
Mandela and his courageous comrades. He
knew the burden and understood that if he
carried the spirit of revenge in his heart, a lot
would be lost. He reflected: “As I walked out the
door toward the gate that would lead to my
freedom, I knew if I didn’t leave my bitterness
and hatred behind, I’d still be in prison…For to
be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains,
but to live in a way that respects and enhances
the freedom of others.”
He knew that if South Africans can learn to
hate, they can also be taught to love. So he
taught them that: “Courageous people do not
fear forgiving, for the sake of peace (and) as we
let our own light shine, we unconsciously give
other people permission to do the same.”
But he was emphatic that the past must be
firmly defeated and that the process of freedom
must be irreversible: “Never, never and never
again shall it be that this beautiful land will
again experience the oppression of one by
another.”
It was an optimistic future for South Africa. But
like Amilcar Cabral admonished in 1965 during
the anti-colonial war in Guinea Bissau and Cape
Verde: “Always bear in mind that the people are
not fighting for ideas, for the things in anyone’s
head. They are fighting to win material benefits,
to live better and in peace, to see their lives go
forward, to guarantee the future of their
children.” So did Mandela realise that freedom
and liberation would be meaningless if it does
not translate to food on the table, roof over the
head, clothe on the back, healthcare for the
sick and education, at least for the children.
Mandela who was elected the first democratic
President of South Africa on May 10, 1994 said:
“Poverty is not an accident. Like slavery and
apartheid, it is man-made and can be removed
by the actions of human beings.” He correctly
posited that: “While poverty persists, there is no
true freedom (and) overcoming poverty is not a
gesture of charity, it is an act of justice.”
He did not limit this to South Africa alone. He
links it to insecurity in the world arguing: “As
long as poverty, injustice and gross inequality
persist in our world, none of us can truly rest.”
His basic solution to universal crisis and the
crisis of globalisation is: “Let there be work,
bread, water and salt for all.”
He, however, recognised the negative role of
international capital in denying humanity this
basic solution and in enslaving the world. He
told Africa and the underdeveloped world: “We
need to exert ourselves that much more, and
break out of the vicious cycle of dependence
imposed on us by the financially powerful: those
in command of immense market power and
those who dare to fashion the world in their own
image.”
As part of his challenge to those who hold
humanity in vice grip, he openly befriended
Cuban hero and international revolutionary, Fidel
Castro whose country played a pivotal role in
the military defeat of the Apartheid armed forces
in Angola, making the independence of Namibia,
and subsequently, South Africa, irreversible. He
also solidarized with the Libyan government of
Mouammar Ghadafi by amongst other actions,
breaking the no-fly ban imposed by the West.
He said of Africa: “I dream of the realisation of
the unity of Africa, whereby its leaders combine
in their efforts to solve the problems of this
continent.”
On his legacy, Mandela said: “What counts is
not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what
difference we have made to the lives of others
that will determine the significance of the life we
lead.” Mandela not only lived, but made a
difference in the lives of the human race. That is
his irrefutable legacy.
world marked this Wednesday, July 18, was a
mortal. However, in a fractious world governed
by class, racial, religious, regional, gender and
numeorus other cleavages, it is almost
impossible to find a person who is generally
accepted by all as a hero and legend. This is
the basis of Mandela’s legacy.
Nelson Mandela
This legacy was built on six broad pillars. First,
he was born into colonial South Africa which
degenerated further into the Apartheid system.
The struggle to decolonise, defeat Apartheid and
allow the people exercise their fundamental
human rights, threw up Mandela. He believed
that : “To deny people their human rights is to
deny their very humanity.” His philosophy was
that: “When a man is denied the right to live the
life he believes in, he has no choice but to
become an outlaw.” So he became an outlaw.
That decision could cost him his life. But it was
a struggle he believed in and was convinced
ultimately of triumph even if he would not be
alive to partake of the victory feast.
The second platform is the collective. He knew
that in truth, nobody can overcome a system as
an individual. He was convinced that: “No single
person can liberate a country. You can only
liberate a country if you act as a collective.” So,
he joined the African National Congress, ANC.
The third base was courage and sacrifice. He
wrote: “I learned that courage was not the
absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The
brave man is not he who does not feel afraid,
but he who conquers that fear.” He argued that
the choices people make should reflect their
hopes, not their fears.
The test of his courage as well as those of his
comrades arrested in 1963 came when they
were charged with sabotage and conspiracy to
violently overthrow the government. Facing
the death sentence, he told Justice Quartus de
Wet: “I have cherished the ideal of a democratic
and free society in which all persons live
together in harmony and with equal
opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live
and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for
which I am prepared to die.”
He and his fellow defendants escaped the
death sentence, but were given life. He was to
say: “Real leaders must be ready to sacrifice all
for the freedom of their people.” He and his
fellow liberation fighters truly made all the
human sacrifice possible. Mandela was in jail for
27 years, losing perhaps the most active part of
his life, practically lost his marriage and almost
lost his family as he was in prison while his
children grew up.
But he was the rejected stone which became his
country’s cornerstone. When South Africa
needed to transit from war to peace, it turned to
Mandela and his courageous comrades. He
knew the burden and understood that if he
carried the spirit of revenge in his heart, a lot
would be lost. He reflected: “As I walked out the
door toward the gate that would lead to my
freedom, I knew if I didn’t leave my bitterness
and hatred behind, I’d still be in prison…For to
be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains,
but to live in a way that respects and enhances
the freedom of others.”
He knew that if South Africans can learn to
hate, they can also be taught to love. So he
taught them that: “Courageous people do not
fear forgiving, for the sake of peace (and) as we
let our own light shine, we unconsciously give
other people permission to do the same.”
But he was emphatic that the past must be
firmly defeated and that the process of freedom
must be irreversible: “Never, never and never
again shall it be that this beautiful land will
again experience the oppression of one by
another.”
It was an optimistic future for South Africa. But
like Amilcar Cabral admonished in 1965 during
the anti-colonial war in Guinea Bissau and Cape
Verde: “Always bear in mind that the people are
not fighting for ideas, for the things in anyone’s
head. They are fighting to win material benefits,
to live better and in peace, to see their lives go
forward, to guarantee the future of their
children.” So did Mandela realise that freedom
and liberation would be meaningless if it does
not translate to food on the table, roof over the
head, clothe on the back, healthcare for the
sick and education, at least for the children.
Mandela who was elected the first democratic
President of South Africa on May 10, 1994 said:
“Poverty is not an accident. Like slavery and
apartheid, it is man-made and can be removed
by the actions of human beings.” He correctly
posited that: “While poverty persists, there is no
true freedom (and) overcoming poverty is not a
gesture of charity, it is an act of justice.”
He did not limit this to South Africa alone. He
links it to insecurity in the world arguing: “As
long as poverty, injustice and gross inequality
persist in our world, none of us can truly rest.”
His basic solution to universal crisis and the
crisis of globalisation is: “Let there be work,
bread, water and salt for all.”
He, however, recognised the negative role of
international capital in denying humanity this
basic solution and in enslaving the world. He
told Africa and the underdeveloped world: “We
need to exert ourselves that much more, and
break out of the vicious cycle of dependence
imposed on us by the financially powerful: those
in command of immense market power and
those who dare to fashion the world in their own
image.”
As part of his challenge to those who hold
humanity in vice grip, he openly befriended
Cuban hero and international revolutionary, Fidel
Castro whose country played a pivotal role in
the military defeat of the Apartheid armed forces
in Angola, making the independence of Namibia,
and subsequently, South Africa, irreversible. He
also solidarized with the Libyan government of
Mouammar Ghadafi by amongst other actions,
breaking the no-fly ban imposed by the West.
He said of Africa: “I dream of the realisation of
the unity of Africa, whereby its leaders combine
in their efforts to solve the problems of this
continent.”
On his legacy, Mandela said: “What counts is
not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what
difference we have made to the lives of others
that will determine the significance of the life we
lead.” Mandela not only lived, but made a
difference in the lives of the human race. That is
his irrefutable legacy.
