Remember Madiba
I have been listening to the outpourings in the World Service
on the death of Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela. I’m sure those Africans out on the streets of
the townships singing his name and dancing know full well what his life
meant. His greatness was not simply in nation
building, and being the first black president of South Africa. All that is true, but it is only half the
story.
When I was an active student, Nelson Mandela was still a prisoner
on Robben Island. Those of us who held
him in some regard and helped with campaigns to boycott South Africa and for
his freedom were constantly reminded by our opponents that he was a convict, a
terrorist. I did not then, and I do not now agree with violence and armed
struggle, but I do concur that it is valid, indeed often necessary, to take
action to oppose a legally sanctioned but nevertheless inhuman and manifestly unjust
system. His 27 years incarceration, subsequent
election as president of the country and success in defusing so much of the
bitterness and understandable vengefulness that could have overflowed at the
end of apartheid, should have lessons for us.
I am struck that so many of those lauding Nelson Mandela
today will be those who have also been at the forefront of proclaiming a war on
terror. Without a hint of irony they will
totally ignore that they too would likely have Mandela imprisoned on similar
anti-terrorist legislation had he taken his action today. Will those leaders and governments take any
lesson from that? If they really want to
remember him they would look to their own actions in the light of what his life
has shown us:
Humanity
will always eventually win out over legality;
Coercive
power is futile;
Forgiveness
is the power of the victim.
Finally a quote from the trial in 1964. “During my lifetime
I have dedicated my life to this struggle of the African people. I have fought
against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have
cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons will live
together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal for which I
hope to live for and to see realised. But, My Lord, if it needs be, it is an
ideal for which I am prepared to die.”
No comments:
Post a Comment