Paarl Uprising 1962

The Mandela I celebrate

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The former president of South Africa Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela is no longer physically with us but his memory lives on.   South Africa still become abuzz with celebrations to honour the great man on his birth date.   Many people commemorate what is known as Mandela day by spending 67 minutes of doing good on that day.  The campaign is based on the 67 years Mandela spent in the service of his fellow man.  I see that the new Cape Town Mayor Patricia De lille got what led to former Mayor Peter Marais fired right.  She named a street in Cape Town after Nelson Mandela.

The identity and meaning of Nelson Mandela is already starting to be a contested terrain as people pick what they like about the man and make it into all he is.  What seems to have captured the public memorials more than any other is Mandela, the reconciler.  This is what the media runs with.

I would like to deal with aspects of Mandela that some would like to see hidden and hopefully forgotten. Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was a revolutionary.  He spent his adult life fighting to change a system that oppressed people because of the colour of their skin.

He was a freedom fighter who was once regarded by some people as the most vile enemy of this country and what it stood for.

In his quest for liberation Nelson Mandela took up arms.  It is recorded in a number of books that he pushed very strongly for the move towards armed struggle.  That has led to the birth of Umkhonto Wesizwe.  I find the hypocrisy of some around this reality about Mandela nauseating.  It manifests itself in public expressions of love for Nelson Mandela and extreme loathing for those who joined the army Mandela co-founded.  An example is that of a man named Robert Mcbride.  For a long time Mcbride has possibly been the most loathed man in the white community. He has been seen as some kind of a “prime evil”.  All this man did was to be attracted to the ideals of Mandela and his organization and took up arms within its military wing to seek to achieve these.  In the process of war people died and unfortunately for Mcbride some of these were white and that led to him being seen as a renegade and a blood-thirsty individual.  This is done even though Nelson Mandela’s organization and him as its president did not disown Mcbride but made him a member of Parliament.  The people who hate the likes of Mcbride but loves Mandela see nothing wrong with their attitude.  They want Mandela separated from such things.

Nelson Mandela also spent many years in prison and this meant that he did not have a normal family life.  This is not romantic and was never meant to make him into an icon. When we celebrate him we should never forget this.

Madiba was a true non-racialist.  This goes further than being excited about the concept of the rainbow nation whilst not being concerned about continuous racialised patterns of development.    True non-racialism should be bothered by having wealth and poverty acutely linked to race.  It also understands that no matter how dissatisfied we are, it is not helpful to use a language that fuel racial strife.  He believed in non-sexism and I do not understand how we honor him and still condone sexist language and practices. 

He was opposed to self enrichment and the impoverishment of the masses. He spoke against corruption. In a speech he made at the Moral Regeneration summit in 1998 then President Mandela said “Having come into government with the declared intention of eliminating the corruption we knew to be endemic; we have in the past four years found that some individuals who fought for freedom have also proved corrupt. Nor should our apartheid past be used as an excuse for such misdemeanors.”  This was a serious indictment on corruption and those who view everyone who speak against it as being anti-revolution.  These people will want us to forget this side of Mandela. I felt ashamed as I watched the funeral of mama Albertina Sisulu when a section of the mourners booed Bishop Thabo Makgoba as soon as he started preaching against corruption and self –enrichment.  I am left wondering how would they have responded if it was Mandela in Bishop Makgoba’s shoes.

 This is the Nelson Mandela that I choose to honour, one who was not excited by the fuss about him.  He has previously remarked that “I was not a messiah, but an ordinary man who had become a leader because of extraordinary circumstances."   May your soul rest in peace Madiba, servant leader!!