This is a brilliant essay by Tiyambe Zeleza, but I disagree with his juxtaposition of Nkrumah and Mandela in which he suggests that the latter was/is more influential than the former.
Mandela's lasting legacy is that he was instrumental in freeing South Africa from the enclosure of apartheid and was able to sustain a multi-racial society where whiteness is still advantaged. Nkrumah freed Africa from the cage of colonialism and used his pan-African congresses to conscientize and empower Africans and the oppressed worldwide. At a point in time, Mandela's enemies, call them opponents within and without, buckled and stopped their efforts to demonize or dehumanize him. Even his Western detractors made a bold u-turn and caravan-ed on anti-apartheid roads to rescue him from the weakened bolts of the apartheid vehicle. Today, as Zeleza rightly points out, the agenda-setters, in fact, those who called Mandela a terrorist and Communist are cradling him as a democrat, unifier, and statesman. In the case of Nkrumah, the West persisted in their aberrant hegemonic politics of demonizing and eliminating him, and indeed, removed him from power via coup-makers, better still terrorists, assisted by his delirious Western foes, championed by the American CIA. In fact, I may come up with a longer response.
Kwabena
________________________________________
From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com [usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com] on behalf of Toyin Falola [toyinfalola@austin.utexas.edu]
Sent: Monday, December 09, 2013 3:49 PM
To: dialogue
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Mandela's Long Walk with African History
>
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the "USA-Africa Dialogue Series" moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin.
For current archives, visit http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
For previous archives, visit http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue-
unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the "USA-Africa Dialogue Series" moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin.
For current archives, visit http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
For previous archives, visit http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue-
unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment