I was 4 years old when Nelson Mandela was released on 11th February 1990 and 28 years old when he died on 5th December 2013. In the intervening 24 years, I dealt with explicit episodes of racist behaviour punctuated with the word “Paki”, and insidious questions about why I didn't conform to stereotype and to whom my cricket allegiances belonged.
All these are small things compared to life for black South Africans prior to 1990, many hardships attedant upon their status as second-class citizens under apartheid – no votes, racial segregation and the infamous Pass Laws, restricting their free movement. A non-exhaustive list of abuse, all happening because of race.
Much was said about Mandela the peacemaker. Some have called him a terrorist – this notion is disabused in detail within this post from the blog “Africa is a country” and I don't seek to rehash what Tony Karon says under the first myth, save to say that amongst all the obituaries, this included, his post is worthwhile companion reading.
Beginning with his birth in 1918 and a childhood in Mvezo, Transkei, his time at Fort Hare University would set the tone of much of his adult life. It was here he met Oliver Tambo, future leader of the African National Congress, the party that he joined in 1943 and would eventually lead as president in 1994.
Much was made about the violence wrought by him in the bombings when he led the “Umkhonto we Sizwe” (Spear of the Nation), in pursuit of branding him a terrorist. His actions as a guerilla were a response to the disproportionately violent repression meted out upon non-violent protestors, his actions only targeting symbols of the ruling Afrikaner powers, never civilians. When non-violent protest failed, he felt he had little choice but to respond with armed struggle.
Charges of sabotage brought against him in 1964 would eventually see him spend a life sentence in Robben Island, 26 years of which he would spend carrying out hard labour whilst the world around him saw the success of the US Civil Rights Movement, the blood spilt in the Vietnam War, and the fall of the Berlin Wall.
During those 26 years, people woke up to the evil perpetrated by the apartheid upon black South Africans and surely, though certainly not without its impediments, progress was forthcoming. The world’s attention was focused on their suffering and demands pushed on the regime to repudiate the repression wrought on them. The UN passed arms embargoes and pressured the other nations of the world to pass economic sanctions. Some would try to gloss over these wrongs, like Barclays’ R90 million sponsorship of the South African army during the currency of the regime, the Thatcher government’s resistance to imposition of sanctions, and the 1980s Young Conservatives “Hang Mandela” posters, amongst many.
Mandela pushed through in those 26 years, never losing his dignity, though his relationship with his family was strained. He emerged into a world different from the one he was taken away from, but never lost his focus and, despite turbulent events in the process, helped to negotiate the end of apartheid. This led to the first multi-racial elections in South Africa and his election as President in 1994, whilst heading the ANC party. His establishment of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was part of his ethos of national reconciliation, helping the country move on in the face of latent post-apartheid strife between white and black South Africans, even boiling down to encouraging the nation to back their national rugby team, the Springboks. Later years would see him help in the Northern Ireland peace process and take part in bringing resolution to the Lockerbie bombing.
During his years in Robben Island, Mandela would recite Theodore Roosevelt’s “Man in the Arena” to other prisoners, and provided an extract of the speech to Francois Pienaar, the Springbok captain who led the team to victory in the 1995 Rugby World Cup.
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
Mandela was such a man, his face marred, but never faltering. He knew victory when he helped defeat apartheid and became President in 1994. His example will continue to shine and inspire the ever-continuing struggle against injustice and prejudice.
