Nelson Mandela (1918-2013), who more than anyone overthrew apartheid in South Africa, is dead at 95. Easily one of the greatest men of my lifetime.
R.I.P.
Thu Dec 5th 2013 by abagond
Nelson Mandela (1918-2013), who more than anyone overthrew apartheid in South Africa, is dead at 95. Easily one of the greatest men of my lifetime.
R.I.P.
Posted in stuff | 76 Comments
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Amen….. Rest my friend.
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Goodnight, Mr Mandela. 😥
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/apr/23/nelsonmandela
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Rest In Peace, Madiba.
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Job well done.
Rest in Peace Mr. Mandela
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I’m glad he’s no longer suffering, but I’m saddened by his passing. Rest in peace, Bro. Mandela.
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He was so loved. He worked tirelessly for humanity. Thank you President Mandela.
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A statesman of rare ambition and will.
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He fought a good fight, time for this brave warrior to rest now. May his soul rest in peace.
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[…] Nelson Mandela (1918-2013), who more than anyone overthrew apartheid in South Africa, is dead at 95. Easily one of the greatest men of my lifetime. R.I.P. […]
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Rest in Peace.
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Life is not forever, so you should put a strong mark on how you stand and live. Thank you for pushing and not giving in to the tremendous pressure to give up. Thank you for that presence.
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We need more men like him in the world today.
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Reblogged this on Andrew Joseph Pegoda, A.B.D..
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The 27 years in prison for his terrorism did him a lot of good. He had time to reflect and get his life turned around. That’s a good thing.
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Reblogged this on Consult your Life.
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RIP Nelson Mandela
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Invictus was a great film, it showed the grace and courage of Mr. Mandela. He will be sorely missed.
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I knew that the day would come when he would pass away, but still in shock. Thank you for gracing us with your presence on this earth Mr. Mandela. RIP.
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What a great man. Well done. His life and legacy, well done.
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Rest well, Mr. Mandela.
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idk what to say. it seems all the amazing ppl that have left a huge impact on the world are no longer with us. I wish peace to his family and his soul he is no longer suffering from the physical pains of this life. r.i.p
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The yahoo comments on his passing are atrocious. White people revere pedophile slave owners, but come down on us because we put one of our own on a pedestal. They need to take care of the plank in their own eye before pointing out the splinter in ours! R.I.P. Mr. Mandela.
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He could have made things much harder on Whites when he became president. That he didn’t is a credit to his humanity.
Sleep well, Mr, Mandela.
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Rip. A true legend.
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Reblogged this on revealingartisticthoughts and commented:
R.I.P Mr. Mandela thank you for leaving a legacy that future generations can follow.
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” No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.”—–Nelson Mandela
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Nelson Mandela: “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 which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.”
RIP well
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@ Da Jokah,
Normally I ignore your attempts to bait here but, in this instance, you are being particularly disgraceful. You well know the reality is that the ANC practiced non-violent resistance for decades before they added armed struggle to their campaign against the racist white terrorists who were running the country and violently oppressing the majority black population.
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Da Jokah,
You’ve got to be kidding me. I mean really?? What on earth is wrong with you??
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This may be a good day to decline to engage with trolls and just keep the thread clear of noise. Just saying.
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A short and sweet acknowledgement of the life of Nelson Mandela here:
http://macklyons.blogspot.com/2013/12/nelson-mandela.html
Let’s not allow the likes of the joker to dominate the discussion with his antics.
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[…] Nelson Mandela (1918-2013), who more than anyone overthrew apartheid in South Africa, is dead at 95. Easily one of the greatest men of my lifetime. R.I.P. […]
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My own take. It is intended as tribute, but some may not appreciate the tone. No offence intended, but I speak my mind.
http://www.buddhuu.com/mandela/
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@ Mack Lyons @ Buddhuu
Thanks!
@ All
If you have a tribute post, please feel free to link to it from the comments here.
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By the end of every week, I do a “Notable Links” thread where I post links to the articles that catches my attention. This week, I posted four links to articles about the life of Nelson Mandela:
https://brothawolf.wordpress.com/2013/12/06/notable-links-special-edition-nelson-mandela/
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I plan to do a tribute post over the weekend. I didn’t do it immediately because I needed some time to take it in.
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@ All
1. Comments that talk ill of Mandela on this thread will be deleted on sight.
2. Da Jokah is banned from this thread.
3. Like Brothawolf, I will do a post on Mandela over the weekend. Those who want to talk ill of him can do so there, not here.
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as our prayers go out to Nelson Mandela family during this time of mourning, I can only hope that each one of us takes something from his legacy and make our live and communities better.
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And thank you for the feedback, Legion.
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Some insights into how Mandela saw his “terrorism.”
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0005/16/lkl.00.html
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RIP Mr. Mandela……
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Thank you Abagond, for not allowing this serious and important post to
de-evolve into a an all about Jokah free for all. Mandela was a great man and the world is experiencing a great loss. There is no time for foolishness. A great light has been extinguished. Let’s remain focused on that sad fact.
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What a great man. God bless him; that’s a life that will echo out into the landscape of the universe until the end of time. May he rest in peace.
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We’ve truly lost one of the few Great men of our times, a man born into Royalty and was destined to lead.
RIP Rolihlahla Mandela, Royal son and descendant of the House of Thembu
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No doubt he was a great man, but he did not overthrow Apartheid. That role belongs to the heroic youth of Soweto and elsewhere, who were shot down on a daily basis. The white minority saw the writing on the wall and changed tact. Mr. Mandela was willing to oblige them, so the political part was dismantled while the economic base on which it rested was maintained with cosmetic changes such as black empowerment. Sad but true.
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I thought about stating “mission accomplished” in my farewell comment to Mr. Mandela, as it is my feeling that he might very well have been born to be the major / primary catalyst in the dismantling of apartheid. If it indeed was his life’s purpose, this might also serve as an explanation for why an imprisonment of 27 years did not break him.
Or perhaps Mr. Mandela received “assistance” the whole time, in keeping himself on the “strait and narrow” (another phrase which came to my mind, strangely enough).
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“I don’t comprehend how a person can serve close to three decades in jail and not break, I don’t know how that gets done. ”
idk never did that much but friends dont borrow money and a good cellie comes to mind
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Great posts @Gro Jo & Legion
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@v8driver he was in solitary.
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May God rest his soul. Amen.
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Among his many qualities, defiance and inflexibility always remained part of Nelson Mandela’s character. His loathing of injustice, like his self-confidence, was never compromised.
I wonder though, if Nelson Mandela had been born in Chicago instead of Mthatha in the Eastern Cape, whether he would have lived past 21, being the man he was? If Nelson Mandela had been a charming and gifted contemporary of Fred Hampton (Black Panther), he might not have been permitted to lived out his lifespan, let alone achieved what he had.
Fred Hampton was all but 21 years old when he was assassinated on 4th December 1969, 5 years after Nelson Mandela had been imprisoned for life.
Both men were considered threatening and dangerous revolutionary inciters. Both men believed in multi-racial political collaboration.
Yet the image of Nelson Mandela has been “rehabilitated”, whilst that of Fred Hampton, has not.
From the looks of it, it’s like the white media shall always forget that Nelson Mandela, at one time, was a also demonized. There was a time when he was another FBM, aka a Frightening Black Man who was prepared to die for his convictions, who did not rule out violence to see those convictions through.
That particular truth has been expunged and whitewashed.
What is left is the overwhelming anti-septic image of the saint-like grandfather, wise and harmless under his white-hair of a halo, rather than as a complex and pragmatic politician…so much easier to swallow and so much easier for white racism to co-opt and deal with.
He might end up — DEPRESSINGLY — being remember as The African MLK.
Not so for the other black men and women, the “non-white” or “insurgent” white South Africans bombed or beaten to death during Nelson Mandela’s lifetime.
Not so for Steve Biko:
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5gofoJ7O04)
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Good ridance terrorist
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I thought so too Legion.
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A lovely and very emotional tribute to Mandela from Patrick Dodson, the leader of the Aboriginal reconciliation movement: http://mpegmedia.abc.net.au/local/kimberley/201312/r1212276_15801898.mp3
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If Mandela did live this long it’s because of a conjunction of factors. The first one is really an irony of fate: he lived because he was in jail, and thus was no more considered a direct threat to the system. If he had not been imprisoned, I have no doubt he would have ended up like Steve Biko and the looong list of freedom fighters murdered by the regime.
The second factor was his symbol status, not only in the Black South African population, the African continent and the Third World, but even in the public opinion of countries which supported the Apartheid regime (i.e. the USA in the name of its paranoid fight against communism). For an already isolated South Africa, killing Nelson Mandela would have had more inconvenients than advantages, especially if we consider they already had him locked in jail.
Gro Jo makes it sound like his liberation was a unilateral, political trick by the apartheid system and implies that he was just a pawn. I strongly disagree with this analysis.
The liberation of Nelson Mandela was the conclusion of a long process initiated by the struggle of the South African people and its leaders (including Mandela), accentuated by international pressures and made ineluctable by the sense of History (ie: after the fall of the Eastern bloc, the West had no pretext anymore to support Pretoria).
By the end of the eighties, the South African regime was at bay, cornered and isolated. Mandela understood this. And that man, which during his decades of imprisonment had been approached several times by the Apartheid government and always refused to compromise himself, decided it was time for a negotiated solution. It was the decision of a strategist and an act of leadership. The way I see it, he deserves every credit he gets for overcoming Apartheid.
But there is more. In the waning days of the white rule, the government of Pretoria did not control much anymore. And when Nelson Mandela became president a few years later, he inherited a country on the brink of a civil war (the press of the time actually used the term “civil war” to describe the ambient chaos).
I’m old enough to remember how every self-proclaimed “expert/specialist of Africa” predicted for South Africa a fate similar to what was going on in Angola. Yet, at the end of Mandela’s term the country was still holding together. I may have my own reservation regarding this whole “rainbow nation” business, but I still think the normalization of such an explosive situation in such a short laps of time is nothing short of miraculous.
Then, after preparing his succession, Nelson Mandela quietly retired at the end of his term. This is anecdotal for observers in the West, but on our continent it was interpreted as a strong message to his peers who have a bad habit to cling to their presidential seat till death do them part.
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I remember back in the day the artist against apartheid “Not Going to Play Sun City” I realized how serious the situation in South Africa was then.
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Dahoman X says: “Gro Jo makes it sound like his liberation was a unilateral, political trick by the apartheid system and implies that he was just a pawn. I strongly disagree with this analysis.” I did not depict him as a pawn. He and the whole ANC, SAP and democratic movement of South Africa made a conscious decision to jettison The ANC’s Program which called for the nationalization of the mineral resources of that nation, and the betterment of the lot of the people. What happened to the Oppenheimer family’s billions, made on the sweat and blood of the African miners? It all went to London, were Mandela and the ANC leadership unaware of that fact? No, they opted for a policy of immiseration for the majority, while lining their pockets . It has become fashionable for former allies in this nasty business to turn on one another, read Ronnie Kasrils’s book to see what I mean. Now that everyone can see the results, people like Kasrils try to shift the blame on to someone else.Your disagreement is with reality, not me.
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I always loved the Free Nelson Mandela song by AKA’s.
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@ bulanik
“From the looks of it, it’s like the white media shall always forget that Nelson Mandela, at one time, was a also demonized. There was a time when he was another FBM, aka a Frightening Black Man who was prepared to die for his convictions, who did not rule out violence to see those convictions through.
That particular truth has been expunged and whitewashed.
What is left is the overwhelming anti-septic image of the saint-like grandfather, wise and harmless under his white-hair of a halo, rather than as a complex and pragmatic politician…so much easier to swallow and so much easier for white racism to co-opt and deal with.”
amen, they will do him the same way they did mlk ,quote the positive talking about harmony and forgiveness. smh. it is funny to me that the same ppl that are like oh we love him would’ve been the same ones attacking him if he remained the way he was before he was arrested. I didn’t find out until a couple days ago that mandela was on the us terror watch list until 2008. mlk was on their list now they love to quote and talk about him as if they’ve always loved and respected him. they will do the exact same with mandela.
“do u realize that some of history’s greatest leaders never were recognized until they were safely in the ground!” -Malcolm x
and i’ll add some of them weren’t recognized until they were subdued.
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@mstoogood4yyall: We always get the sanitized versions of the figure heads like MLK and now Nelson Mandela. We forget there are other dimensions to these men. I think that’s what made the white media uncomfortable with Malcolm X. The radical black man is quite scary to the white segment of America.
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@ mstoogood4yall, That is why I like Malcolm he had great observations. I wonder what the world would have been like if Malcolm, MLK, and Nelson Mandela were still around.
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@ mary and king of trouble
yeah Malcolm x even though he did change his thinking he never lost sight of the goal and he wanted to achieve that goal by any means necessary. I too wonder what would’ve happened if they were all still around, I know mlk and Malcolm would’ve probably worked together but I wonder what amazing things they’d have been able to achieve together.
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yeah mary they are scared of the black person that wants change without waiting. I’m just like make up ur mind do u want black ppl to be independent and doing for self and not as they put it begging for handouts and being dependent, but when some have tried to they were demonized. now I’m thinking what they mean is they want us to be separate but not independent and doing for self. They want us to be self sufficient in some areas ( having a job and not being on government assistance) but crippled in others (owning businesses, spending our trillion dollars with other blacks)
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ugh moderation. I wonder what word is moderated.
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Here’s my article:
http://brothawolf.wordpress.com/2013/12/09/mandela/
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[…] am reposting this song in honour of Nelson Mandela's death. In 1984 this song went to #9 in its native Britain and #1 in New Zealand. It was "immensely […]
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*Mandela Will Never Die!*
* – Fr. Cedric Prakash sj*
Nelson Mandela is no more! And hopefully, Mandela will never die!
The Mandela era finally came to an end last night (Dec. 5th 2013)-and its
time for all of us to reflect on what this one man has contributed towards
making our world a more human and harmonious place.
When one looks back at the struggles he faced as a child, as a youth and
later on as an elder statesman, one is simply amazed by the sheer grit and
determination which characterised one of the contemporary world’s greatest
figures. A large part of Mandela’s life was spent in isolation during his
life sentence in the infamous Robben Island Jail. The torture he was
subjected to would make any mortal give up, but with his’ never-say-die’
spirit, Mandela finally came out to freedom and to new world in 1990; and
a few years later he became the first democratically elected President of
South Africa.
His extraordinary life teaches us three key lessons:
· if the spirit is strong- it will ultimately triumph, despite the
powers and vested interests doing everything to subjugate one.
· the belief that a non-violent struggle is the only and sure way
to achieve results – something he learnt from Mahatma Gandhi.
· divisiveness of any kind ( particularly racism) definitely has no
place in a world which is becoming more and more a globalised village.
Mandela believed that every human being is created in the image and
likeness of God and though we are different in several ways, we are all
equal.
At this moment much is being written and debated about Mandela’s legacy to
the 20th & 21st century. The hard fact however remains that despite being
an icon and an inspiration for millions across the world several parts
continue to be ravaged with violence, hatred and divisiveness.
Let us take Gujarat in India, for example, which gave to the world Mahatma
Gandhi – one of the greatest apostles of non-violence. If one is a Muslim
in Gujarat today, one is confined to specific ghettos or areas across the
State. This is sadly evident in the commercial capital Ahmedabad, where a
Muslim finds it impossible to buy or rent a house or a commercial
establishment in the Western up-market part of the city. The tragedy is
that the institutionalisation of this practice is very easily accepted by
the majority community. In a State which projects itself as ‘vibrant’ this
is a blatant form of apartheid indeed!
Mandela fought against the segregation of the blacks in his native South
Africa. He had to endure much because of this but then as history shows us,
truth ultimately triumphed over falsehood. He is someone to be emulated.
His unflagging spirit gave him the courage to *speak truth to power*; he
did not care about the consequences that followed. What mattered most for
him was that all men and women – whether black or white, rich or poor,
should be able to live together, walk hand-in-hand and work side-by-side,
accepting always the dignity of the other. The great thing about Mandela
was his ability not to harbour any rancour or revenge for his white
oppressors. He forgave unconditionally and that is why he was able to usher
in a new South Africa with a hope of a better future.
The world has truly lost one of its greatest sons! As we join in the
mourning -the best way to pay tribute to ‘Madiba’ is to “celebrate” the
fact that he gave SO MUCH to this world-It is therefore important that
each one of us wherever we are, try to do our best to realise his vision,to
continue the legacy he has left us- in the simple, small ordinary events of
our daily life.
And if we sincerely do so-* Mandela will never die! *
6th December 2013
Fr. Cedric Prakash sj
Director
*”PRASHANT” (A Centre for Human Rights, Justice and Peace)Hill Nagar,
Near Kamdhenu Hall, Drive-in Road, Ahmedabad – 380052,Gujarat, INDIA Tel
:+91 (0)79-27455913/66522333*
*Cell : 9824034536*
*Fax:+91 (0)79-27489018*
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Abagond, I just wanted to add that when you do your post on Nelson Mandela,
can you please stress the point that besides being racially segregated by Apartheid, the Indigenous/native Africans were put onto Reservations like the Native Americans of North America and Aboriginals of Australia.
The white Dutch/European invaded and occupied land they had no ancestral claim to and used Apartheid to try to completely REMOVE, not just segregate, the original occupants whose ancestors were there for thousands of years by “granting Africans land” within the country of South Africa.
and these Reservations/Homelands caused a lot of friction and trouble for Mandela and the unification of South Africa, once Apartheid was dismantled.
“The ideologues of apartheid created 10 tribal homelands, planning to groom them to autonomy and then full independence, leaving behind a prosperous, white South Africa.
By gerrymandering and forced removals, 17 million blacks were moved onto these reservations. Four homelands were persuaded to accept independence, a status unrecognized by any country except South Africa. Platinum and Sun City
Homeland leaders insist that South Africa has no authority to take back the independence it gave in 1977.”
some of the “independent” Homelands African “leaders” were not happy to give up their kingdoms (dictatorships) and Mandela had to deal with these opponents to bring them back to reality that those Homelands were not real countries but Reservations to hold the people, like cattle.
Mandela had to deal with and fight many fronts…he should be celebrated for holding it all together because South Africa was on the brink of civil war.
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@ Linda
I am not going to promise anything, but thank you for pointing that out.
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@ abagond
“Linda, I am not going to promise anything, but thank you for pointing that out.”
Yes, Abagond, I think you will have much to research.
There are many interesting details in the recent South African history – and, in fact, in Southern Africa* history – that merit a renewed look.
Mandela was arguably the best African politician in the last century.
But like Isaac Newton who retorted to his admirers “If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants”, he (Mandela) too, worked on the shoulders of other great African politicians like Samora Machel, Julius Nyerere and Kenneth Kaunda, to name only three, besides his comrades inside South Africa.
Regarding the Bantustans, they were the epitome of the White racists strategy of divide and rule vis-a-vis the Black population. In insisting in the creation of ethnic states they hoped not only to strip Blacks of their South African citizenship but also to make the White population appear as a majority in a state where other remaining groups were smaller: Coloreds and the Asians (Indians).
This Grand Apartheid dream collapsed basically because the South African economy always rested on the mines and the agriculture which depended heavily on Black labor (watch the last White President of South Africa speaking about this and other issues (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuLeNEsyj1s) minutes [07:50] and later).
Mandela had his moment of great statesmanship just when he formed the first democratic government of South Africa: former President FW de Klerk was called to be the country’s Vice-President and the leader of Inkatha, Mangosuthu Buthelezi (one of the fiercest foe of the ANC at that time) too, as its Minister of Interior.
In embracing potential foes, he disarmed them without firing a single shot. And in doing so he set the course of reconciliation for his bitter divided country.
To us, who lived in any of the countries of the Southern African region, the last quarter of the 20th century was a momentous epoch full of events of great significance. It was the time when Black people there decided, almost in unison, that the time of their liberation from the yoke of racism and colonialism had come. And the racist regimes fell one after another like in a domino chain. First in Mozambique and Angola (the larger Portuguese colonies in Africa) – after more than a decade of armed struggle the Portuguese gave up and new African nations were born, both with a highly combative leadership. Mozambique helped – almost at the beginning of its existence as a state – the freedom fighters of Rhodesia (Zimbabwe). And a few years later the racist regime there, led by Ian Smith, gave up the minority rule and accepted the transition to a newly elected majority government. Curiously enough Margaret Thatcher – the Iron Lady and Prime Minister of Rhodesia’s colonial power, Great Britain – played a role in that process of transition. In the meantime and in the Atlantic side, the Angolan government decided to help Namibia freedom fighters at cost of suffering for many years retaliatory attacks by the South African regime which clearly understood that after the fall of Namibia it would be a matter of time that the question of its own legitimacy to govern South Africa would be on the table. Pieter Botha, South Africa’s President at that time, proclaimed a “total strategy” to counter what he felt was a “total onslaught” against White minority rule in Southern Africa (see (http://newhistory.co.za/part-4-chapter-14-a-total-onslaught/)).
But after suffering heavy losses in Angolan soil the South African regime conceded to give Independence to Namibia.
At the end, the pressure inside South Africa increased and at the beginning of the 90’s the White regime was forced to free its political prisoners and negotiate a “new political dispensation**” for South Africa, that led the country to democratic elections in 1994.
The rest is history, as the saying,… and then came Mandela, the Great Madiba, for the Grand Finale!
All these historic events happened before our eyes, “in the time of our lives”.
With awe we saw unfolding a long epic journey of Black people from racist yoke to liberation, in a large region encompassing, at that time, more than 100 million people.
I hope that one day such journey will be recognized for its historic significance for Black people worldwide, as similar to the liberation of Haiti in the 19th century and the American Civil Rights Movement in the second half of the 20th century.
*By Southern Africa, I mean here the bloc of African countries southern of DR Congo. Roughly (with some additions) this means the same as SADCC countries. See SADCC (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SADCC).
**”New political dispensation”, expression used by FW Klerk in the early 90’s, indicating his willingness to negotiate a new political settlement for South Africa.
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this just came in this morning, it’s a bit long-winded, but…
“Exporting Apartheid to Sub-Saharan Africa. The Legacy of Nelson Mandela”
http://www.globalresearch.ca/exporting-apartheid-to-sub-saharan-africa-the-legacy-of-nelson-mandela/5361386
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He was a commie responsible for his own peoples genocide. No, we don’t need more like him, Barry is like him enough as it is.
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^ I am no expert on Mandela, but I think I can say the following without doing too much violence to the actual record.
The ANC was resisting one of the great lasting relics of white European evil in the modern world: Apartheid. I could not fully comprehend the S.A. regime when I saw my first smatterings of news items about it. What a sickening embarrassment––and that is saying the least––the Apartheid regime was. The American government supported the Apartheid status quo. A resistance group is going to need to get support from somewhere, if a good measure of support came from the Soviet Union, so what? The Soviet Union (for all it’s ills and injustices, which of course were many) was the other major power in the world and also the other major counter force to American power and influence running too far afield.
Mandela a communist? Too much of an oversimplification, I’d say.
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@ Legion, I think you’re right about with “commie” being an oversimplification.
And Mr Mandela also a “terrorist”, too?
“…Perhaps this was why Mr Mandela’s affiliation and participation within the SACP (South Africa Communist Party) had to be concealed. When he was on trial for Treason in the early 1960s, the world then was defined by Cold War tensions.
The Apartheid [Mr Mandela] wanted to dismantle didn’t care whether [his] affiliations had more to do with making effective political alliances, rather than ideology.
….The ANC also had Irish links, too … with the IRA were for military training and the making of bombs, because the IRA were the then experts at guerilla warfare against colonial powers. This link was provided through Abdul Kader Asmal, an Indian South African who took exile in Ireland for some years and was part of the anti-Apartheid movement here. No surprise that the leader of Sinn Fein was an honoured guest at Mr Mandela’s funeral, and Sinn Fein is the IRA’s political arm.
As I remember it, the Free Nelson Mandela campaign in Western Europe was centred on Mr Mandela as being a figurehead for Compromise most of all.
He wasn’t on the right, he wasn’t on the left, because his focus was perceived as a moral than political.” (That’s how he’s remembered in Ireland, at least)
http://www.icosirl.ie/eng/irish_aid_fellowships/kader_asmal_fellowship
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@Legion
“Apartheid. I could not fully comprehend the S.A. regime when I saw my first smatterings of news items about it. What a sickening embarrassment––and that is saying the least––the Apartheid regime was.”
Let me play the role of “devil’s advocate”.
The main reason for erecting the Apartheid system lays in demographics: during the 80’s the White population in South Africa was below 15% of the total population; the rest was mainly Blacks (natives), Coloreds and Asians (mainly Indians).
From the political point of view, in a unitary state with everybody enjoying equal rights, Whites would have a hard time trying to impose their will to the rest of the population and in particular to Blacks.
From the economic and social point of view is a similar story: with that demographic ratio between the different racial categories, even assuming that the Blacks there, were less intelligent in general than Whites (IQ-postulate of the “race realist” crowd) you would have, anyway, a high percentage of Blacks in the Universities (assume an IQ of 100 as a precondition to enter a University and try to calculate how many people in both “racial” groups would have the required ability, etc) and, consequently, in high positions in society and…
…from the “biological” point of view: with many high-status Blacks going shoulder by shoulder with their White counter-parts, in the social milieu at large, you could expect a relatively high level of race-mixing and, therefore, a gradual dilution of the White phenotype generation after generation.
Such thoughts were surely in the minds of the architects of Apartheid, who saw in horror “the winds of change” crossing the African continent during the 50’s and early 60’s.
The Apartheid was conceived as a system to assure the “survival” of White people in South Africa. For a similar argument, watch former South African President, F W de Klerk:
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuLeNEsyj1s)
OK, I know the reasoning above is not faulty-proof, but is, more or less, what you could find in the core of the Apartheid system. Food for thought…
Comparing the motives of the White population in South Africa to erect such a system and the racial situation in the USA, I find that Whites in America have less motives to practice racism because they have a solid majority there.
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Manu,
I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about. It takes 5 seconds to find out (if one does not already know) that the official State sanctioned system of Apartheid in S.A. dates back to at least 1948. So, according to you, in 1948 time traveling Afrikaaners were terrified of a demographic crisis they faced in a possible 1980’s time line?
Manu, save the theoretical flights of fancy for something else, quantum physics maybe. The roots of Apartheid lay in Colonialism, not neuroses about fading phenotypes.
Also, America had a State sanctioned system of Apartheid too; kind of a hard thing to miss. smh.
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