What Mandela has done for us

This is because of what I consider the unhealthy convention of not speaking ill of the dead even if you merely want to draw attention to some of their weaknesses as a lesson for the living. When for instance a big and sophisticated thief dies, especially in Africa, you are required to talk about his […]

This is because of what I consider the unhealthy convention of not speaking ill of the dead even if you merely want to draw attention to some of their weaknesses as a lesson for the living. When for instance a big and sophisticated thief dies, especially in Africa, you are required to talk about his generosity while completely ignoring his thieving part which is the polluted source of that acknowledged ‘’open-handedness’’.
To the best of my recollection, in a career that would hit 30 years in April next year, I have never written an obituary on anybody whether black, white or Asiatic. And this is in protest against that aforementioned tradition. I told myself that if I cannot be allowed to speak some unpalatable truth about a dead, then I cannot commit myself to speak flatteries or insincere sentiments about him either. A good commentator is supposed to be truthful and balanced.

When therefore a death occurs and many men and women are busy falling over themselves to speak good of him, I maintain some humble but magisterial aloofness or indifference until the event is passed and society returns to its routine. I am breaking with that self-imposed code today, all because of Nelson Mandela who was truly a great man with very few faults.
But I will not dwell on his well advertised noble qualities because doing so will be a mere rehash of what many have highlighted about him since he died exactly a week ago today. Rather, what I want to say about him is what the nobility of his character has done for the image of the Black man, especially the Black African man living in Africa.
Since Mandela died, I have watched with some measure of pleasant disbelief the saturation coverage given to his passing away by the major world media. This is the first time since I became a man that I have seen an African living in Africa celebrated in the way Mandela has been celebrated by the world. Everyone seems to agree that someone or something good can come from Africa. I have been immensely encouraged by the character and carriage of Mandela which have helped to launder the image of the Black man a bit. The message I have got is that we too can have great men. There is nothing in our gene and in our environment that says that we can only have midgets and mediocres.
For long, some of us have charged that the world does not seem to see anything good from Africa.
But as if in one resounding response to that charge, the world has shown us that if we produce someone or something good or world -class, the world will share in our achievement and celebrate with us to high heavens.

As a passionate Africanist, I am always filled with trepidation any time I watch some powerful world mediums such as CNN, Aljazeera, BBC, etc and they introduce a news item about something that has happened in Africa. I instinctively know that the pictures that will inevitably follow will give nothing but lurid account of misery, misrule, misconduct, wickedness or the fury of nature against the continent and its people. You will see the faces of women in great pains squatting in refugee camps as a result of what the West dismissively calls ‘’Africa’s wars’’. You will see starving children with distended stomachs sometimes sucking their mothers’ flabby breasts because there is no milk in them.
Some of the pictures that assault your senses are those of dead bodies, sometimes covered by the clothes they died in. You see nothing uplifting; nothing ennobling. The stories about us are those of horrifying deaths, crippling debts, devastating diseases, deep desolation, impending dangers and dreaded dictators.
Mandela has shown me that the rest of the world is ready to be fair to us if we learn to get our acts together and join the world in living a civilised life. Take the leaders we have been producing.
Some of them behave like medieval era tyrants. They break the law with impunity. They victimise those who disagree with them and manipulate the system the way they want in order to achieve their vindictive ends. The strangest thing about us in Africa is that even those who are supposed to be enlightened maintain what Wole Soyinka calls ‘’mute passivity’’ when our big small men are broadcasting their oppression and sowing seeds of injustice. We have lots of strong men in Africa with very small and vindictive hearts. Mandela on the other hand was a big man with a very large and soft heart. Where he was supposed to hate and wreck vengeance, he forgave and tolerated. Our little strong men in Africa are so adept in the adoption of strong arm tactics you would think they learnt it in a special school meant for the breeding of African leaders. Why can’t they learn from Mandela?
Whereas most of our leaders want to be served, Mandela sacrificed the best part of his life in the service of his people; in the service of restoring the dignity of the black colour. Why should I not break with my tradition to join in celebrating this type of soul? He carried himself with dignity and did not feel he was inferior to anyone. When he was released from prison in 1990 and he embarked on a tour to thank those who had contributed to the fight against racial discrimination, there was tremendous pressure on him from some quarters not to visit Libya under Gaddafi but the man resisted by saying that no one had a right to dictate to him who his friends should be. That is a man of quality if you ask me.
Let my African brothers and sisters reflect with some measure of shame that for the 4thyears, the Mo Ibrahim Foundation for African leadership has not been able to award its generous prize to an African leader who has been able to meet its simple criteria: govern well and at the end of your tenure, handover power peacefully to a successor! This is too much to expect of African leaders and it is a crying shame.

Perhaps, the way the world is celebrating Mandela today will compel some of our sitting presidents to resolve to dedicate their lives to the genuine service of their people and towards restoring the image of the Black race. We have given the world too little to celebrate. The time has come for us to realise that there is nothing wrong with our genetic make-up. We can be like others if we resolve to cherish the values that have catapulted other races to the level they are far above us today. Some of those values are discipline, honesty, hard work, and respect for law, fairness, justice and tolerance.
Thank you, Nelson Mandela for showing that Blackness does not equate evil or wickedness. time in five.