RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - FW: Mandela Is Not My Hero

I have seen a drastic change in the attitudes of Black South Africans to
Nelson Mandela.

In 2001, 100% of interviewees gave a highly favorable rating of the icon.
99% also had a favorable rating of Winnie.
By 2014/5 I noticed a change.

I mentioned on this list that the number of
letters of condolence that I saw on the hospital gate in 2013 was paltry- at least
at the time of my July visit. This changed a bit later in the yea but I was not aware of a poor
funeral attendance until I read pougala.org. The western media gave the opposite
impression and I took full attendance for granted. I have to look into this issue.

I noticed a higher rating for Winnie than Nelson in 2014 & 2015.
Most people interviewed, felt that Winnie was betrayed and ill - treated, and
quite a few expressed doubts over Nelson Mandela. This was not the case in 2001.
Then, there were no sceptics in the pool of interviewees- albeit a pool of randomly,
informally- chosen folks. Within the ANC, the PAC and CODESA there was clearly a
pool of dissenters - even from 1990 but interviewees were unanimously appreciative of
Nelson Mandela.

This changed. An interviewee in Pretoria told me frankly that it would take generations for
Black South Africans to catch -up with the whites, if ever, and blamed this somewhat
on Nelson Mandela. One in the Cape wondered about the huge amount of money
amassed by Nelson Mandela given his short time in office and felt
that he got a payoff from the West. Another made the accusation that Nelson cheated with Graca long
before his formal marriage to her. I was taken aback by this and considered it
baseless gossip. The point, though , is that unlike the 2001 responses - when Mandela was considered
a blameless icon, the tables seemed to be turning by 2015.

Constant in all this were the responses from Soweto where Winnie Mandela scored high
in 2001, 2014 and 2015.She was seen as a person you could count on to solve
your problem, unlike the other politicians, and a person who sacrificed a lot for the
cause. The word 'sacrifice' showed up often.

I am going to surely look at the documentary. I am glad to know about it - although
I concluded long ago that there have been two Mandelas: the revolutionary activist
of the 40s, 50s and 60s in particular- and the compromising politician of the 90s and after,
who overturned RDP (people - centered social policy) for GEAR (neo-liberal policy) in 1996,
for whatever reason.

The one thing though that no one can deny is that he did not stay in office beyond
a single term - and did not cling to power.

Whether his tolerance bordered on cowardice, and his magnanimity, a ploy to
placate the west, protective of their kith and kin, is an issue that would be debated by
many in the future. Did he take the easy way out by refusing to redistribute land and resources
equitably? Was he smitten by the Stockholm syndrome? Did he seek to avert a
bloody race war and felt that this was the best available option? Was he a sell-out?
Lots of unanswered questions remain to the point where we could justifiably launch a
Mandela Studies unit for scholarly research into the man and his times.






Professor Gloria Emeagwali
History Department
CCSU. New Britain. CT 06050
africahistory.net
vimeo.com/user5946750/videos
Gloria Emeagwali's Documentaries on
Africa and the African Diaspora

________________________________
From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com [usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Samuel Zalanga [szalanga@bethel.edu]
Sent: Monday, August 31, 2015 1:06 PM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - FW: Mandela Is Not My Hero

I saw the documentary. I encouraged my daughter to do a project for her history class on Mandela which she did and got recognition for that. I ordered many documentary films on Mandela just because I wanted to appreciate the complexity of life as Nietzsche would say. You make meaning of it as it comes or unfold. Mandela never started with the desire of becoming an African icon. History catches up with him. This is a very complex story but Mandela himself said publicly that he is not an angel and he did not want people to elevate him to that pedestal. He does not in normal situation see himself as larger than life.

I am a Christian but I am not looking for a human Messiah that is perfect and so in that respect, I do not read the work of a scholar or study his or her life for the sake of learning his or her perfection. Rather i want to be inspired but what great things he or she said or did, and learn lessons from his or her short comings or mistakes.

When I think of the South African struggle I always remember Denis Goulet's book titled "The Cruel Choice." Think of Martin Luther King Jr. As Cornel West once said in Atlanta, appreciate the man and honor him but do not sanitize him. Whatever mistake or shortcoming one can identify with Martin Luther king Jr. or Mandela, we all know that they could have lived a very good life by easily becoming stooges of the system. I ordered Martin Luther King's Junior's Letter From Birmingham Jail on CD and listened to it for six weeks daily in my car. Whatever you think about his shortcomings, I will like to teach a course on is life and struggles as part of a major social movement in an African University. There are lessons their for all of us and not just African Americans.

When one reads about Mandela's trial and the original words he wrote in defiance to the judge before he was sentenced, you just feel like he was willing to give everything at that moment. When Martin Luther King Jr. gave the speech where he said he had seen the promised land but he might not be there with the people, you just feel this guy was consumed by the struggle and he knew ultimately he was not going to live long. Whether it is Plato or Aristotle, Nyerere or Nkrumah, if our goal of reading them is to elevate them to perfect human beings, we will not learn much but will be disappointed. Human decisions and choices are not made in social or historical vacuum. indeed because I know all the icons are humans, I can decide to read them with specific focus on mistakes they made and learned lessons from how the mistakes came about because I am a human being too and not better in that respect.

To appreciate the complexity of the South African situation both locally and globally, I will encourage anyone interested to watch the six part series "HAVE YOU HEARD FROM JOHANNESBURG?" it is hard to study Mandela carefully and not be inspired by him whatever mistakes he made and in the documentaries he admitted making mistakes.

Samuel

On Mon, Aug 31, 2015 at 6:58 AM, 'Patrick Effiboley' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com<mailto:usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>> wrote:
I have the feeling that this documentary aims at harming the reputation of our christic Icon from Africa. it is clear that at a certain point a leader needs to decide on criticial choices like taking a new direction. We couldn't then blame him for making the choice he made.
What is important at this moment when the leader has died is to improve the life of South African through policies that really impact the life of the people, promoting equal opportunities to the all.
Patrick Effiboley

________________________________
De : 'Chambi Chachage' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com<mailto:usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>>
À : "usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com<mailto:usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>" <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com<mailto:usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>>
Envoyé le : Lundi 31 août 2015 13h19
Objet : Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - FW: Mandela Is Not My Hero

He "explained his decision" in his 'Long Walk to Freedom':

"I chose to tell no one what I was about to do. Not my colleagues upstairs nor those in Lusaka. The ANC is a collective, but the government had made collectivity in this case impossible. I did not have the security or the time to discuss these issues with my organization. I knew that my colleagues upstairs would condemn my proposal, and that would kill my initiative even before it was born. There are times when a leader must move out ahead of the flock, go off in a new direction, confident that he is leading his people the right way. Finally, my isolation furnished my organization with an excuse in case matters went awry; the old man was alone and completely cut off, and his actions were taken by him as an individual, not a representative of the ANC" - Nelson Mandela (1994), Long Walk to Freedom, page 627,



________________________________
From: "Anunoby, Ogugua" <AnunobyO@lincolnu.edu<mailto:AnunobyO@lincolnu.edu>>
To: "usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com<mailto:usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> (USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com<mailto:USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com>)" <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com<mailto:usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>>
Sent: Monday, August 31, 2015 1:10 AM
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - FW: Mandela Is Not My Hero


The following was forwarded to me. Please read if you may.



"According to this documentary, the story goes back a few months before the release of Nelson Mandela. He is abruptly transferred from his prison, separated from his companions 26 years in prison, to a luxurious private residence with garden and pool. Now, this is where you should live, this is the standard that corresponds to your rank, he was told. No sooner said than done, Mandela was comfortably installed at home. His wife Winnie is conducted to this villa by the South African secret services. This was the big day for Mandela to consume his first intimate night with his wife after waiting 26 years. But Winnie refused. On that day, their marriage was over. Winnie visited all the rooms of the residence quietly, going to the pool, looking at the manicured trees. And returned to tell Nelson, she did not feel comfortable and she wanted to go. Winnie understood that her husband had been bought.

"What surprised members of the ANC who were still imprisoned is that Mandela decided to negotiate with his murderers for the future 80% of the South African population without consulting anyone in the party who for 27 years had carried his torch lest he be forgotten, so that he would not be killed in prison. Nobody knows what really happened. He never explained his decision."


http://pougala.org/no-mandela-is-not-my-hero/

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Department of Anthropology, Sociology & Reconciliation Studies
Bethel University, 3900 Bethel Drive #24
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Office Phone: 651-638-6023

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