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Alas, Mandela the great man has
passed
E. Ablorh-Odjidja
December 06, 2013
We at Ghanadot are saddened by the death of Nelson
Mandela. But we are also glad that there was somebody like
him who shared the same space and time on this earth with
the rest of us.
Mandela died on December 05, 2013, at age 95. He will be
remembered for his historic achievements and for a long time
to come.
To sum up the full level of Mandela’s legacy, his being
and moral discernment, we cite this portion of President
Obama’s tribute to him.
Obama said Mandela was “a man who took history in his
hands and bent the arc of the moral universe toward
justice…. He no longer belongs to us; he belongs to the
ages.”
There are few Black leaders left in Africa’s past and
present who deserve or can inspire such a tribute.
But why should he be so loftily remembered?
For one, Mandela will be remembered because he made all
humanity proud.
For another, he was a very humane leader - a man of the
people, with a rare character for justice and compassion.
He was also all in
for the fight for uplifting the African personality and
dignity, just like Nkrumah of another era.
Like Nkrumah, Mandela was for Africa unity.
His fight against apartheid was fought with clarity
and spirit as Nkrumah fought colonialism and its successor
neo-colonialism, the practice of those who still want to
keep Africa under domination.
Above all, Mandela will be remembered essentially for
his moral rectitude in the confrontation with the apartheid
regime in South Africa.
The peaceful concept of “reconciliation,” by which
brought the white regime to her knees and still managed to
bring warring parties together in one nation was a lesson
for the rest of the world.
The world must be shuddering now to think of the
consequences had Mandela and his “reconciliation” doctrine
not happened after the apartheid regime went down in South
Africa.
The streets of South Africa would have been streams of
blood.
But the cynical edge is still floating out there.
Yet to be spoken out loud is the gratitude, mostly
from white South Africans and some in the West, for the
expected bloody retribution that did not happen.
Through one man, Mandela, the nation of South Africa gained
a reprieve from the chaos that many thought could have
happened, as a retribution for the cruelties Black South
Africans endured under the prior apartheid regime.
Mandela became president after a peaceful transition.
Under his benevolent administration, former minority
white South African tyrants found themselves free, safe and
prosperous under a majority Black egalitarian rule.
Hence the universal acceptance of Mandela, which must be a
fitting experience after the horrible nightmare of apartheid
rule, must be a joy.
But allow some of us to be skeptical about the feeling - of
the long-term prospect of the Mandela’s legacy. Something
just is missing from “reconciliation” package.
Some sort of reparation should have been extracted
for Black South Africans, instead of the blanket
reconciliation given to all.
Though Mandela had started as a revolutionary, fighting
hard against the Apartheid regime, he pursued a moderate
political path and failed to extract some sort of hard
reparation from the departing white super-structure system.
Mandela’s arrival at the top had its apprehension.
F. W. de Klerk, the
previous president, had an uneasy edge in his voice as he
handed over the office after Mandela’s electoral victory in
1993.
"Mandela will soon assume the highest office in the land
with all the awesome responsibility which it bears. He will
have to exercise this great responsibility in a balanced
manner, which will assure South Africans from all our
communities that he has all their interests at heart. I am
confident that this will be his intention."
This speech, “to exercise this great responsibility in a
balanced manner,” coming from a man who headed the odious
previous administration, such as the apartheid
system, deserves our scorn. But today, thanks to Mandela,
all is forgiven.
Both Mandela and de Klerk were awarded the Nobel Peace
Prize in 1994 for the peaceful transition. Certainly, a
worthy reward for cooperation.
But suffice it to say that it was Mandela’s effort
that provided the excuse for de Klerk’s chances for the
award.
“"Mandela has walked a long road, and now stands at the
top of the hill. A traveller would sit and admire the view.
But the man of destiny knows that beyond this hill lies
another and another. The journey is never complete. As he
contemplates the next hill, I hold out my hand to Mr Mandela
– in friendship and in co-operation,” de Klerk would declare
in his speech welcoming Mandela to the South African
presidency.
De Klerk served as a vice-president of South Africa,
along with Tabo Mbeki who became president after Mandela
left office in 1999.
Mandela served in office for one term only. Some would
attribute the one term departure to troubles within the ANC
organization of which he was the leader. Missing in their
assessment would be the more important demand:
the chance to leave office voluntarily so as to
establish the right precedence.
Like George Washington who served as US president for two
terms only, Mandela was more interested in establishing a
tradition of term limit for the South African presidency.
Elsewhere in Africa, contemporary presidents were
clinging to the offices of their nations as if it were a
birthright.
History would tell if Mandela’s example, as a short-term
president, would be a successful paradigm for South Africa.
But for his own legacy as a world leader of the
desirable type, Mandela has already set the best standard.
As the Telegraph of
UK described Mandela, he was “a principled man of stature
and strength.”
South Africa has lost its greatest son. The world has
lost a moral leader of the 21st century.
It would be sad if
the memory of Mandela were ruined by other unsavory events
in South Africa after his death.
E.
Ablorh-Odjidja, publisher, www.ghanadot.com, Washington, DC,
December 06, 2013
Permission to publish: Please feel free to publish or
reproduce, with credits, unedited. If posted at a website,
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