Nelson Mandela: 1918-2013

I can’t recall when I first heard the name “Mandela”. My parents were both teachers whose specialization was English Language and Literature. There were always books and newspapers around and I read all I laid my hands on. My earliest specific recollections of reading newspapers were around 1970 and some names stuck from those editions of Daily Times, Spear, Drum and Nigerian Tribune-Golda Meir; Yasser Arafat; Yakubu Gowon; Benjamin Adekunle; Richard Nixon; Julius Nyerere; Kenneth Kaunda etc, and at some point, Nelson Mandela. I must have been at Igbobi College in the mid-1970s however before I began to fully grasp the scale of the atrocity going on in Southern Africa and I soon realized that political freedom and equality was not a universal condition. Yes I had read about African countries securing independence from British and French colonialism, but awareness of the evil concept of apartheid was initially beyond comprehension of my young mind. First I got hints from literature books particularly Alan Paton’s “Cry the Beloved Country”, but it was the foreign policy dynamism of the regime of Generals Murtala Muhammed and Olusegun Obasanjo especially in relation to the independence of Angola, Mozambique, Namibia and Zimbabwe (Rhodesia) and the end of apartheid in South Africa that raised my consciousness about how wrong and abominable what was going on was. And then we learnt about massacres in Soweto (the Sharpeville Massacre in particular), about the death of Steve Biko; the extent of the segregationist policies of the Afrikaner regime in South Africa; the matchbox houses; the jailing of Nelson Mandela; and the persecution of his wife Winnie Mandela and I must say that for a while, the political representation of evil, wickedness and the devil in my growing spirit were the South African white apartheid regime, their National Party and its then leader, P. W Botha. The music and performances of Miriam Makeba and “Ipi Tombi” also helped communicate the conditions under which blacks lived under apartheid. I began to wonder at a point whether white people (not just those in South Africa) had a conscience, especially as important US and UK leaders-Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan in particular, protected and condoned the evil system and against the background of slavery and colonialism. The sheer affront and wickedness of coming into another man’s land, taking over his land and wealth and then banishing him to the arid parts of the land while treating him as sub-human fundamentally questioned my faith in white civilization and humanity. In the event, the racist regime chose to redeem itself and with the help, encouragement and coaxing of Nelson Mandela, and after decades of incredible black suffering, pain and blood, Nelson Mandela was released from prison in 1990, the ANC unbanned, and majority rule was achieved in South Africa in 1994. It remains to be seen whether the White South African change of heart was the result of genuine repentance or merely a strategic change as the unsustainability of minority rule became glaring and the global political environment became unconducive to apartheid. Whatever the motives of the Afrikaner regime, Mandela came out of prison without anger or bitterness; preaching love, forgiveness and reconciliation; showing incredible generosity of spirit, graciousness and optimism about humanity; and working across racial barriers to build a rainbow nation of multiple races. A grateful world, shocked at his nobility of character and goodness of heart submitted to his moral leadership and his example. When after a single term in office in 1999, Mandela chose to step down (disdaining the African stereotype of nationalist leaders who having secured political freedom for their nations, concluded that occupying its presidency for life was the least of their just rewards), his reputation as a “saint” and exceptional, transformational, once-in-an-era leader was cemented. When I saw the breaking news on CNN of Mandela’s death on Thursday December 5, 2013, I knew that without doubt, the greatest African and most influential black person that ever lived had just departed. There will be two challenges to Mandela’s legacy however-continuing black poverty and deprivation and widening inequality will lead some to wonder whether apartheid simply shed the liability of political control, while strengthening economic domination; and many blacks will wonder whether his successors in the ANC have lived up to his standards and vision. Mandela recognized that true transformational leadership did not consist of the privileges of power and wealth it could secure, or the sanctions and force it could exercise, but the influence it wielded and example it offered. Mandela’s life is evidence to me, that when we seek a higher quality of leadership in Nigeria, we are neither naïve nor academic. Several years ago, I wondered in a conversation with a professor of ethics, why every Nigerian politician touts the names of the likes of Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jnr and Chief Obafemi Awolowo when they make absolutely no effort to emulate these great people? Don’t they say imitation is the best form of flattery? If you truly admire these people, why don’t you make some effort, even a little, to be like them? Mandela’s names defined his life-born “Rolihlahla” (literal “pulling the branch of a tree” but colloquially meaning “troublemaker”), he was also “Khulu” (great, grand, paramount), “Madiba” (his Xhosa clan chieftaincy name), and “Tata” (father). He was born on July 18, 1918 into a Thembu royal family in Mzevo, near Qunu in the hinterlands of Umtata, capital city of Transkei in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa and joined the African National Congress (ANC) in 1943. He formed the ANC Youth League along with Oliver Tambo and Walter Sisulu in 1944 and its military wing “Umkhonto we Sizwe” (Spear of the Nation) in December 16, 1961. Mandela also made his mark in the law profession, founding South Africa’s first black law practice, “Mandela and Thambo” in 1952. He married Nomzano Zaniewe Winifred “Winnie” Mandela in 1958 having divorced his first wife, Evelyn a few years earlier. He was to later marry Graca Machel, widow of Mozambique’s Samora Machel after his divorce from Winnie. When he was jailed in the notorious Rivonia Trial in 1964 ushering in his 27 years in Robben Island and other locations as prisoner 466/64, Mandela uttered the now immortal words, “During my lifetime, I have dedicated myself to the 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 live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal for which I hope to live and achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die”. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993 along with Frederick W De Klerk. Mandela’s life confirms to us that living for principles and the common good is neither foolish nor futile. On the contrary, that is the only legacy that endures. Opportunistic, self-serving and tactical politics can bring much temporary advantage, but it is only sacrificial, principle-centred leadership that transforms society and edifies people.