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“Give me liberty or death”

– Patrick Henry - March 23, 1775.

“Prisoners cannot enter into contracts. Only free men can negotiate.”

– Mandela, while in prison, when coaxed to renounce the struggle and join the privileged class.

Nelson Rolihlahla MANDELA July 18, 1918 –

 A man of Resilience and Clarity

Presented by Dr. Ngure waMwachofi

7-15-2007

At the individual level, human history is replete with struggles between altruism and selfishness. Let us consider these examples:

On July 14, 1789, a large number of French citizens gathered together and stormed the Bastille, a prison in France that the kings and queens often used to lock up the people that did not agree with their decisions. This led to the French Revolution.

Like the French Revolution, the English Revolution of 1640-60 was a great social movement that violently overthrew the state power protecting an old feudal order; power passed into the hands of a new class.

In Russia, the Tsarist troops open fire on a peaceful demonstration of workers in St Petersburg in what is referred to as the Bloody Sunday of January 1905. The wave of workers unrest culminated into the July Revolution of 1918.

The German November Revolution was one of many revolutions which occurred across Europe at the end of World War I in 1918-1919. Workers' councils similar to the Soviets seized power across the country.

During the presidency of James Madison 1809 to 1817, the United States went to war with England. On August 24, 1814, British soldiers sailed up the Potomac River and set fire to the White House.

All these conflicts represent the struggles between altruism and selfishness among the people involved. So we might ask, “How did Madison and his henchmen manage to assert their rights against the British domination and, at the same time be oblivious to the rights of the Indigenous Americans or African Americans?”

For three centuries European rulers engaged in the scramble, plunder, and even the partitioning of Africa in their quest to expand their empires. In their unrelenting appetites for more, they oppressed their citizens, leading to revolutions; and to avoid further disruptions of their power at home, they sought alternative people and places to exploit. These activities flourished on the backs of common people in Europe and abroad. While by the 19^th century, the scramble and partitioning of Africa was fairly complete, the exploitation of the continent for its human and natural resources continued; and it is accurate to link the skyscrapers in the Western cities to the exploitation and impoverishment of the Africans then and today.

In April 1652 a colonial administrator, Jan van Riebeeck arrived in South Africa on a Dutch-East India Trading Company merchant ship. A program of exploitation was being laid out. By 1867, for example, when diamond mining began in South Africa, Africans were given the most dangerous jobs, paid far less than white workers, and housed in fenced, patrolled barracks. And to keep them from organizing for better wages and working conditions, oppressive conditions and constant surveillance were maintained.

The indigenous South African people used many approaches and strategies of resistance and wars in their struggles for their land, labor, and self-determination.

The Anglo-Boer War was fought from 1899 until 1902 between the British Empire and the two independent Boer republics of the Orange Free State and the South African Republic. The English term "concentration camp" was first used to describe camps operated by the British in South Africa during this conflict. Reports have estimated the number of Boers killed as 18,000-28,000 and approx. 107,000 Black Africans who were interned in concentration camps. So, in the same vein, we might ask, “How did The Dutch manage to assert their rights against the British domination and, at the same time be oblivious to the rights of the Indigenous African people?”

In the case of South Africa, by 1912, the efforts to resist exploitation resulted in the founding of the Native National Congress, among other organizations. Its main goal was the maintenance of voting rights for persons of mixed race and black Africans in the Cape Province. It was renamed the African National Congress (ANC) in 1923. By the 1940s, the ANC spearheaded the fight against racial discrimination.

A more accurate story of Mandela and the triumph of his spirit and that of the exploited people of the world, including workers in Western countries, needs to be examined in this broad context.

Mandela

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was born in a mud hut in a village near Umtata in Transkei South Africa on July 18, 1918. His father was the Tribal Chief of Thembuland and after his father 's death, the young Rolihlahla became the Paramount Chief's ward to be groomed to assume high office. However, influenced by the cases that came before the Chief's court, he was determined to become a lawyer. After hearing the elders' stories of his ancestor's valor during the Wars Of Resistance in defense of their fatherland, he dreamed also of making his own contribution to the freedom struggle of his people.

Mandela started to live up to his Xhosa name Rolihlahla, meaning "stirring up trouble." He joined a student boycott which resulted in his suspension from the college. He went to Johannesburg where he completed his BA by correspondence and begun to study for his Law degree.

In 1942, he entered politics and joined the African National Congress. In 1944, he united with others to found the African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL). Mandela rose through the ranks of the organization, elected to the Secretaryship of the Youth League in 1947.

In 1949 ironically, the 1948 victory of the National Party which won all-White elections on the platform of Apartheid spurred Mandela. His Youth League established a Program of Action that advocated the weapons of boycott, strike, civil disobedience and non-co-operation as official ANC policy.

In the 1950’s, Mandela was the victim of various forms of repression; he was banned, arrested and imprisoned. At great cost to his legal practice and his political work, he was forced to live apart from his family. He even had to wear disguises to evade the ubiquitous informers and police spies.

When the ANC launched its Campaign for the Defiance of Unjust Laws in 1952, Mandela was elected the national Volunteer-in-Chief. Consequently he was convicted of contravening the Suppression of communism Act and was given a suspended prison sentence. Shortly thereafter, he was prohibited from attending gatherings and confined to Johannesburg for six months. Despite the restrictions on him, he passed his law exams and was admitted to the bar. He opened a practice in Johannesburg, in partnership with his friend Oliver Tambo; it was the country’s first black law partnership. They had done well but, as Tambo comments:

We had risen to professional status in our community, but every case in court, every visit to the prisons to interview clients, reminded us of the humiliation and suffering burning into our people.

Despite their professional status, they fell foul to the land segregation legislation, and the authorities demanded that they move their practice from the city to the backlands (and you can understand why). As Mandela later put it “miles away from where clients could not reach us during working hours. This was tantamount to asking us to abandon our legal practice, to give up the legal service of our people... No attorney worth his salt would easily agree to do that,” said Mandela and the partnership resolved to defy the law.

On the grounds of his conviction under the Suppression of Communism Act, the Transvaal Law Society petitioned the Supreme Court to strike him off the roll of attorneys. The petition was refused with Mr. Justice Ramsbottom finding that Mandela had been moved by a desire to serve his black fellow citizens and nothing he had done showed him to be unworthy to remain in the ranks of an honorable profession.

In 1955, Mandela popularized the Freedom Charter, and in 1956, he was arrested with 155 other ANC members and charged with treason and promoting communism. The trial was to last 5 years; it was during this trial, which Mandela dominated with his skill as a speaker and breadth of vision, that he emerged as the ANC's most valued leader.

In 1962, Mandela left the country unlawfully and traveled abroad for several months. In Ethiopia he addressed the Conference of the Pan African Freedom Movement of East and Central Africa, and was warmly received by senior political leaders in several countries (Some African countries were gaining independence at this time.).

The infamous Rivonia Trial (1963-1964) involved ten leaders of the African National Congress who were tried for 221 acts of sabotage designed to "ferment violent revolution" to overthrow the government.

At the trial, Mandela explained: "At the beginning of June 1961, after long and anxious assessment of the South African situation, I and some colleagues came to the conclusion that as violence in this country was inevitable, it would be wrong and unrealistic for African leaders to continue preaching peace and non-violence at a time when the government met our peaceful demands with force."

Mandela ended with these words:

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.

Mandela was sentenced to life imprisonment and started his prison years in the notorious Robben Island Prison.

So what do we take from Mandela’s example as members of society?

Culture, or the way we think and act, is a representation of the values that any society creates and nurtures. From the time we are born, our consciousness is formed according to what value systems we are introduced into. These values are like switches that can turn altruism or selfishness on or off. It is my view that all humans are endowed with the capacity to be altruistic or selfish. But, as long as their selfishness switches remain on, people in positions of power will engage in selective interpretation of events and remain oblivious to the rights of all citizens.

I would say that, ideally, the world should be governed by leaders -- people who seek to promote self determination for all. In reality, most parts of the world are governed by rulers, people who seek to control people and resources for their selfish agendas.

For world peace to prevail, we need leaders, not rulers or “deciders.”

But, like Mandela, we have to keep hope alive by learning to avoid selfishness and keeping our altruism switches on at all times. World peace is achievable if we can incorporate into our cultures the Buddhist idea of simplicity shared by many cultures and some people in the West today. For example, with regard to cutting down on our consumption of goods and services, we can practice moderation -- settle for less than our hearts desire.

To see the connection between the impact of our choices on the lives of others is to live fully. It is to see through the facades of statements like “diamonds are forever. Gandhi remained a common man till his death to avoid being “iconized;” we can learn from good humans like him. Mandela‘s selfishness switch was turned off and remained that way throughout his 27 years in jail. As an attorney, he could have chosen to practice his trade and make money without rubbing the Apartheid system the wrong way. But he chose to be involved till the end.

While in prison, the system hoped to buy Mandela, but he wouldn’t budge. He flatly rejected offers made by his jailers for remission of sentence in exchange for accepting the Bantustan policy by recognizing the independence of the Transkei and agreeing to settle there. Again, in the eighties, Mandela rejected an offer of release on condition that he renounce violence. “Prisoners cannot enter into contracts. Only free men can negotiate,” he said.

On 11 February 1990, Nelson Mandela was released from prison not because the dominant people had been “born again,” but because of the critical mass from all people who participated, globally, over the years to put the Apartheid system and its allies in shame.

In 1991, at the first national conference of the ANC held inside South Africa, after being banned for decades, Nelson Mandela was elected President of the ANC while his lifelong friend and colleague, Oliver Tambo, became the organization's National Chairperson.

In 1993, Nelson Mandela accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of all South Africans who suffered and sacrificed so much to bring peace to that land.

In 1994, Mandela and the ANC started their campaign for the first all-race elections that the country ever had. In April, when the elections occurred, the ANC won a majority and Mandela was appointed president, the first black president ever in South Africa!

In 1995, Mandela’s dream was finally achieved: a new South African constitution that banned all discrimination against minorities in the country, including whites, was approved.

In 1999, June. Nelson Mandela retired from public life. He currently resides in his birth place - Qunu, Transkei.

After spending nearly 3 decades of his life behind bars, Mandela personifies struggle. He sacrificed his private life and his youth for his people, and remains South Africa's best known and loved hero. He is one of the great moral and political leaders of our time. He is an international hero and is revered everywhere as a vital force in the fight for human rights and racial equality.

Although history repeats itself, it is upon us individuals or groups to learn to identify the space of fairness and defend that territory.

If we can do that, even if we do not succeed, we can be settled in our hearts that we did not follow blindly.

We need leaders, not rulers or “deciders.” I wish you all the wisdom to know where fairness lies and the courage to keep your altruism switches on, all the time. Thank you.

Ngure waMwachofi, 7-15-2007 Fort Myers, FL, USA.

***\Factoids:

The years in jail reinforced habits that were already entrenched: the disciplined eating regime of an athlete began in the 1940s, as did the early morning exercise. Still today Nelson Mandela is up by 4.30 am, irrespective of how late he has worked the previous evening. By 5am he has begun his exercise routine that lasts at least an hour. Breakfast is by 6.30, when the day’s newspapers are read. The day’s work has begun.

With a standard working day of at least 12 hours, time management is critical and Nelson Mandela is extremely impatient with unpunctuality, regarding it as insulting to those you are dealing with.

Note to References:

The philosophical discussion on domination is entirely mine. It should be pointed out that most of the actual facts were extracted from the internet entitled “The Struggle is my Life.” On the link http://logicalthinker2.tripod.com/mandela.html

For more on the role of mass media on the way “international impressions” were “managed” in South Africa in the 1990 as Apartheid was clearly dying off, see my 1995 journal article: wa Mwachofi, Ngure. Apprehending the Power and Ideological Import of Metaphor in President de Klerk's Rhetoric." Howard Journal of Communications 5 (1995): 331-352.