Thandika Mkandawire, Africa is a Country
It is difficult to write about Nelson Mandela without
sounding sycophantic or as if engaged in uncritical hero worship. Mandela’s
stature and personality left little room for other sentiments other than those
of profound admiration and gratitude. The post-World War II era produced some
memorable African leaders who grace the pantheon of champions of the African
liberation struggle. There is little doubt that Nelson “Madiba” Mandela ranked
among the best of these.
In this brief note, I will simply point to the influences
the man had on my generation (politically speaking). For much of the last
century during which I grew up, Africa was involved in ridding itself of
colonialism and racist rule. From the 1960s onwards, the walls of colonial
domination crumbled one after another as the colonialists granted independence
or simply ran away as did the Belgians while ensuring that King Leopold’s ghost
would continue to haunt the heart of Africa that Congo is. And so for my generation,
the death of Mandela marks the triumphant end of Africa’s liberation struggle.
The name Mandela became first inscribed in the annals of
African liberation as nothing particularly unusual at the time. The late
fifties was an era of trials and detentions in the colonies. The Treason Trial,
which took place from 1956 to 1961, was closely followed by those of my
generation, largely through Drum Magazine. Mandela was one of 156 people
arrested and tried for high treason. During this period leaders such as Jomo
Kenyatta, Dr Hastings Banda, Kenneth Kaunda, Robert Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo
were in and out of courts, detentions centres or prison. Some, like Patrice
Lumumba, were assassinated. Personally, I did a prison stint in 1961 and
emerged as a “Prison Graduate” after three months of incarceration on
trumped-up charges of inciting violence. We took it for granted then that being
jailed for nationalist activities came with the territory.
The rapid pace of decolonisation was brought to a halt on the shores of the Zambezi River by the
recalcitrant racist regimes of South Africa and Rhodesia and the decrepit,
fascist Portuguese regime of Salazar who continued to insist on maintaining its
colonies.
We anxiously followed the fate of Mandela when he went underground
as the “Black Pimpernel”. His arrest in 1962 and his conviction for life in
1964 together with the assassination of Lumumba and the Unilateral Declaration
of Independence (UDI) in Zimbabwe in 1965 were major reversals to the
liberation of the continent. These were only countered by the emancipation of
the “Protectorates” of southern Africa a few years after Mandela’s sentencing.
It did appear then that not only would the wave of liberation be derailed on
the banks of the Zambezi river but that it would be reversed by neocolonial
machinations that included the assassinations of African leaders and coup
d’états. South Africa took the war outside its border, hunting down exiled
leaders.
If the life imprisonment of Mandela seemed like a major
reversal for African nationalism and a victory for the remaining racist and
fascist regimes, the Nelson Mandela statement at the dock of the court on 20
April 1964 was one the most inspiring statements for my generation.
“This is the struggle of the African people, inspired by
their own suffering and experience. It is a struggle for the right to live. I
have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society, in which all persons
live together in harmony and with equal opportunity. It is an ideal which I
hope to live for and achieve. But, if needs be, my Lord, it is an ideal for
which I am prepared to die.”
We read it as a call for the final push in southern Africa
through armed struggle. We also understood it as meaning that the usual path of
“protest-detention-talk-statehouse” that had been taken by many nationalist
leaders was closed for the remaining colonial regimes of the region. It was
clear now that the struggle for liberation in southern Africa had taken a
dramatically different turn – that of armed struggle and indeed the liberation
movements of Lusophone Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe took this position and we
were to witness an acceleration of armed struggles in the region. Three decades
later came the end of apartheid, a remarkable achievement in Africa’s tormented
history.
Mandela’s release on 11 February 1990 marked the beginning
of the final chapter in the struggle for the liberation of the continent from
colonial domination but it was also a spur to the struggle for the “Second
Independence” – the struggle for the end of authoritarian rule and democracy –
that was being wedged throughout the continent. It emphatically underscored the
fact that the incarceration of a person for political reasons had no moral
basis. Political prisoners in every African country became “our Mandelas”
calling for release. In Malawi one political prisoner released in 1994 had
spent as much time in jail as Mandela.
There were so many features in the amazing life of this
outstanding man. Highlights will differ from one commentator to another. One of
the most highlighted areas has been the spirit of reconciliation exuded by a
man who had been incarcerated for close to three decades. Important though this
aspect was in light of the racial animosity and fears that apartheid had generated,
it was not unique to Mandela.
From its original articulation by Jomo Kenyatta,
“reconciliation” became the slogan of all the leading nationalist movements in
white settler-dominated countries. It is often forgotten that even Mugabe was
feted in the capitals of Europe for precisely conveying that message.
The focus of the West on reconciliatory overtures occluded
other aspects of the leadership of these men – the avaricious accumulation of
wealth in case of Kenyatta and the brutal repression of fellow citizens on the
part of Mugabe. In all these cases, reconciliation skirted the issue of
justice. And within South Africa the terms of reconciliation are still a hotly
debated issue. So there must obviously be something more to Mandela than the
“spirit of reconciliation”.
Four things struck me as to why the man is the most admired
among Africans. One was Mandela’s deep commitment to the liberation of the
African people, a commitment baldly stated in court and underscored by his
years on Robben Island.
The second was Mandela’s deep sense of duty and a warm sense
of respect for the people he led and the movement to which he had been of
selfless service. Contrast that to the arrogance of some of the triumphant
nationalist leaders who rewrote history for their own purposes and reduced the
movements that had brought them into power into massive voices of sycophancy
and intolerance.
The third feature was Mandela’s eminently sane relationship
to power. It never got into his head. And for all his regal bearing putatively
born of his royal upbringing one felt he was a humble and loyal servant of a
movement to which he has given so much. Mandela contributed by example in his
exercise of power. One unfortunate outcome of the heroic struggles for
liberation and the enormous personal sacrifices incurred by individual leaders
was the production of “heroes” who in turn produced, wittingly or unwittingly,
hero worship. A number of leaders conducted themselves with a sense of
entitlement to the throne on the basis of their contribution and sacrifices.
Mandela emerged from all this with a remarkable sense of duty and recognition
of the many others that had contributed to the struggle. He graciously retired
from office after only one term of leadership, a remarkable gesture, given
Africa’s experience with national heroes turned “life presidents” and his
enormous popularity. Mandela’s gesture cast the searchlight on the “Life
Presidents” on the continent and exposed much of the pomp and grand standing
for what it was – waste and arrogance.
The fourth was his commitment to democracy and rule of law.
In a sense Mandela normalised the idea of democracy in Africa. No leader could
proudly proclaim himself (it was always a he) a dictator by claiming that
African culture sanctioned it without looking extremely foolish.
Mandela was the one individual of and to whom it can be said
the African continent was unanimously proud and infinitely grateful.
Hamba Kahle, Madiba.
