Mandela’s little-big things for building a nation

From 1948 to 1994 des-cendants of Huguenots who fled religious persecution in Holland brought to South Africa the virus of Europe’s 1618 to 1648 wars of tribal separatism. They used permanent violence of robbing lands; subjecting host victims to slave labour on farms. British colonial miners of gold and diamond also used forced labour. Africans […]

From 1948 to 1994 des-cendants of Huguenots who fled religious persecution in Holland brought to South Africa the virus of Europe’s 1618 to 1648 wars of tribal separatism. They used permanent violence of robbing lands; subjecting host victims to slave labour on farms. British colonial miners of gold and diamond also used forced labour. Africans were restricted to the least fertile lands. Mine workers packed in filthy dormitories; lived without families.  Police vans seized blacks for white farmers to hold as farm-prisoners.
The intellectual brilliance and intensive brutalities invested in running apar-theid, however, yielded fuel for struggles led mainly by the African National Congress. Collective anger; cries for freedom, dignity and progress, ran deep among black people.
Mandela’s dress in tradi-tional Xhosa attire at his 1964 trial and choice of black violence to counter white violence built his warrior image;  his rejection of attempts to bribe him with freedom for himself if he would betray the road to collective freedom; and his contribution, from inside prison, to strategies for the struggle sustained people’s hope.
Mandela ruled from 1994 to 1999. He must have wished for a healthier global moral environment for the new democracy in South Africa to survive considering the collapse of former socialist allies in the former Soviet Union and Yugoslavia. A triumphant NATO which invaded Iraq with impunity and mocked a United Nations led by Kofi Annan, a distinguished African diplomat, was a dangerous hawk in Africa’s skies. It must be slowed by moral authority embodied by his latest extra-force of rebel African human spirit and will. Triumphant African people-based democ-racy against European apartheid’s barbarism must have global presence.
Madiba forthrightly rebuked American officials for demanding that Fidel Castro be excluded from his inauguration; reminding them of Cuba’s support for liberation struggles in Angola, Mozambique, Namibia and South Africa while NATO supported  racist regimes there.
Emeka Anyaoku recalls his surprise when Mandela asked him, as Secretary General of the Commonwealth, to invite mainly heads of Britain’s big businesses and investors for his first dinner in London. The ANC was insistent of nationalising all private enterprises, and here was Madiba asking to drink wine with devils of capitalism. Mandela was on a typical pragmatic road ‘’to fight for a society that is more just’’; a follow up to hard negotiations between the ANC and leaders of Afrikaner capitalism.
As master of symbolism, Mandela used little gestures to achieve big effects. He drove into the bush to greet P.M. Botha’s widow. She prided herself as a rabid racist. The shock effect hit intransigent Afrikaner nationalists hard.  In 1995 an Afrikaner rugby team was shocked by Mandela suddenly appearing on the field wearing captain’s number 6 shirt, and wished them victory. He returned to hand them the victory cup. A politician’s thunderbolt had hit the all-white stadium-packed spectators; shredding invisible ropes holding up racism. In 1996, he wore the uniform of Bafana Bafana the team of black football, and they too won.  Mandela suddenly walked from trees to tell Ernie Ells he was rooting for him to win the golf tournament for South Africa. A startled Ells asked Mandela to sign his cap. Mandela signed it and took off his own and asked the golfer to sign it.
Mandela visited all-white schools; and chatted with pupils. Those contacts with their black president would be carried back by excited kids into white homes; and kick off vital debates. Elsewhere, he shook hands of white kids and asked what they wanted to be when they grew up. ‘’A doctor’’; ‘’a teacher”, little voices rang out. Parents’ hearts lost beats. African politicians must borrow that imaginative and humane Mandela touch.
Mandela danced. He danced with young people; with women groups; at political rallies. It is as if he wished to light up life in a people who have suffered for 400 years. He danced to wave the flag of freedom in his soul and legs. South Africans danced in struggle; danced with songs for him. Only Nyerere also earned crowds weeping their farewell.
He shouted at President Thabo Mbeki for arriving late to a party meeting; to teach party member to demand respect from leaders; and end what Ali Mazrui calls ‘’monarchical tendencies’’ in African politicians.
Kifle recalls that, in Addis Ababa, Mandela always broke protocol to come and shake hands with him, an OAU protocol officer. President Shehu Shagari detested dicta-torship over his life in public by protocol and security officials. Mandela wanted put primacy to honouring the humanity in everyone.
That raises the matter Madiba’s other lessons for Africa. He invested in recon-ciling Hutus and Tutsis in Burundi. A recent CNN report showed a shared project there for jointly training Hutu and Tutsi children. Rwanda, Liberia and Sierra Leone had their pogroms before Mandela was president. Gadaffi fell when Madiba’s physical strength was at dusk. Africa has, however, not faced the challenge of dredging out 65 years of putrid sedimentation of apartheid’s culture among all races. As an example, apartheid vigorously wrec-ked black families; killed or humiliated black men in front of their wives and children. Bulldozers demolished hou-ses; police squads kidnapped boys and men; buried them alive or burnt their battered bodies.
Africa must invest in repairs. The current high cases of rapes of women in South Africa are a call for help. African governments, community funds and wealthy capitalists should build schools, houses and loan-funds for poor South Africans. Africa must end apartheid’s blocking of knowledge of Africa to blacks. Whites bred on violence need help with humanist anchors for self-worth and cooperative inter-racial relations. That would honour Nelson Mandela.