On his posthumous birthday on July 18 and in remembrance of the day he experienced a big sleep – December 5, everyone shares memories about Nelson Mandela. Today is neither of such days, but we thought we should do the same.
No, we never met the activist, lawyer, politician, and philanthropist. But we have met him through what we have read, heard, and viewed. We have met him through books like his autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom.
Through movies like Invictus and famous people who knew him personally. We recall three short anecdotes from Bono, Morgan Freeman, and Francois Pienaar.
“He could charm the birds off the trees – and cash right out of wallets. He once told me how Margaret Thatcher donated £20,000 to his foundation. ‘How did you do that?’ I gasped. The Iron Lady, who was famously frugal, kept a tight grip on her purse. ‘I asked,’ he said with a laugh. ‘You’ll never get what you want if you don’t ask.’ Then he lowered conspiratorially and said her donations had nauseated some of his cohorts. ‘Didn’t she try to squash our movement?’ they complained. His response was, ‘Didn’t De Klerk crush our people like flies? And I’m having tea with him next week…He’ll be getting the bill.’”
Bono.
“Nearly 20 years after our first meeting, my company Revelations had the unique pleasure of developing and producing the film Invictus. With me in the role of Mandela. Consistent with his true character, his only comment after we first screened the movie for him was a humble, ‘Now perhaps people will remember me…’”
In Pollsmoor Prison, a warden told me a story. On Monday night, it was his job to show movies to the four prisoners, including Mandela. Once, he complained about not having a fresh cup of coffee. So, the next Monday night, Madiba (Mandela’s Xhosa clan name) walks over to him with a fresh cup and two biscuits. Gives them to him, walks back and watches the movie. The warden was, I would say, very conservative. Yet when he told me his story, he was charged. He was shaking.
Morgan Freeman (Mandela initially suggested that Freeman play him in a film).
What have been your favourite Nelson Mandela stories you’ve read or heard? Don’t rack your brain.
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was born on July 18th 1918, into the royal house of Mvezo. It’s in South Africa’s Eastern Cape province. His middle name translates from Xhosa literally as “pulling a branch of a tree”.
But more colloquially as “troublemaker” seems apt considering the many storms he would later cause and surmount. “Nelson” was given to him by his teacher on his first day of elementary school. She could not pronounce Rolihlahla. We bet you can’t, too.
Nelson Mandela: Protester
In Afrikaans, apartheid means “apartness”. It’s the name of the policy that governed relations between the white minority and the nonwhite majority of South Africa during the 20th century. Though racial segregation had long been in practice in the country, the word “apartheid” was first used in 1948 to describe the racial segregation policies embraced by the white minority government.
Life in the apartheid era
Under apartheid, black South Africans were barred from pursuing a better life. They had to endure the changing relations between capitalist and African pre-capitalist modes of production. Many earned a wage below the cost of reproduction.
It made the supply of African migrant labour-power a function of the existence of the pre-capitalist mode. This cheap labour of black South Africa was sustained by the articulation of capitalism with subsistence economies in rural areas – the most deprived areas in the country. Nelson Mandela risked everything to fight against this injustice.
In 1944, he joined the African National Congress (ANC). And helped set up its Youth League – a gauntlet for the party’s radicals.
Nelson Mandela and his fellow comrades
Mandela, together with comrades like Oliver Tambo, Walter Sisulu, and Ahmed Kathrada, helped organize a series of mass protests. The apartheid regime did not find this funny. They responded with violence; 18 demonstrators were killed in 1950.
This position is rather not surprising because “ethnically exclusive regimes are more likely to counter political demands with violent repression, which increases the cost and decreases the anticipated success of nonviolent relative to violent resistance”.
He paid the price, though. In 1956, Mandela and 29 others were arrested for high treason.
Nelson Mandela: Prisoner
After his sentencing, Mandela was transferred to Robben Island. The jail was harsh for the freedom fighter as the prison guards meted out punishment for even the mildest infractions of regulations. Mandela and other inmates were made to pound rocks with hammers to create gravel and to mine lime at a quarry.
Mandela and fellow Robben Island inmate
Mandela went years without seeing his family because serving a sentence on Robben Island meant almost total isolation from the rest of the world. When his mother and eldest son died, he was denied permission to attend their burials. The rigid routine in prison meant the days were endless, yet identical as “the mind begins to turn in on itself”.
Despite being in jail, Mandela was fast becoming an international icon and was unknowingly “laying down a profound post-racial humanism based on a broader inclusive South African nationalism that transcended the narrow and exclusionist racial apartheid idea of South Africa”.
On February 11, 1990, after 27-and-a-half years in prison, Mandela walked out of the gates of Victor Verster Prison (he was moved there in December 1988). Faced with a crowd of supporters and journalists, the freed freedom fighter raised his right fist in the ANC salute.
“Amandla”, Mandela called out.
“Ngawethu”, they responded.
The Long Walk to Freedom
Nelson Mandela: Peacemaker
Despite all the fury, bitterness, pain and anger, Mandela embraced reconciliation to save his country. He was a devout Christian and must have pondered on the following questions on ‘forgiveness’: What is the role of forgiveness in reconciliation?
Is forgiveness an essential condition for reconciliation among former enemies? Is it enough to bring about real and stable peace between them? To what extent and how does religion affect reconciliation via the forgiveness process?
Mandela personified forgiveness when he was released from prison. He truly brought it to life when he became the president of South Africa in 1994.
Nelson Mandela: From Prison to Presidency
Nelson Mandela University
Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) opened on January 1st 2005. The institution was a merger of the PE Technikon, the University of Port Elizabeth (UPE) and the Port Elizabeth campus of Vista University (Vista PE).
The union of these schools became imperative after the government’s countrywide restructuring of higher education. The policy aims to deliver a more equitable and efficient system to meet the 21st-century needs of students in South Africa, the rest of Africa, and the world at large.
On July 20th, 2017, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University was officially renamed Nelson Mandela University. It’s the only higher education institution in the world to carry the name of the global icon.
In this study, the author highlighted the differences between Apartheid and Segregation and identified and explained by reference to the changing relations of capitalist and African pre-capitalist modes of production.
He found that at a wage below its cost of reproduction, the supply of African migrant labour-power is a function of the existence of the pre-capitalist mode.
The audience for his study is diverse. However, if you are a student of economics interested in the theories behind wealth distribution and inequalities in society, Wolpe’s well-articulated study will speak to your conscience. It spoke to ours, which is why it is relevant to the topic.
Wolpe (January 14, 1926 – January 19, 1996) was a South African lawyer, sociologist, political economist and anti-apartheid activist. He was a senior lecturer in sociology at the University of Ess3x between 1972 and 1991. He moved back to South Africa to direct the education policy unit at the University of the Western Cape in Cape Town.
His conclusion in this work, and which remains his best-known theory, was that cheap labour in South Africa was sustained by the articulation of capitalism with subsistence economies in rural areas.
Wolpe’s work on cheap labour-power is important in understanding Apartheid and the struggles Mandela stood.
Noble, M., & Wright, G., (2012). Using Indicators of Multiple Deprivation to Demonstrate the Spatial Legacy of Apartheid in South Africa. Social Indicators Research Volume 112, pages187–201.
In this paper, the authors present a spatial analysis of multiple deprivations in South Africa and demonstrate that the most deprived areas in the country are in the rural former homeland areas. The analysis used the data zone level, the South African Index of Multiple Deprivation, which was constructed from the 2001 census.
Professor Michael Noble is an Emeritus Fellow of Green Templeton College and an Emeritus Professor of Social Policy at the University of Oxford. He is an executive director of Southern African Social Policy Research Insights (SASPRI), a UK not-for-profit organization.
Gemma Wright is a research director of SASPRI. She is also a Professor Extraordinarius at the Archie Mafeje Research Institute at the University of South Africa and a Research Associate at the Institute of Social and Economic Research at Rhodes University.
Their analysis of the municipality level shows that this spatial pattern of multiple deprivations continued to persist in 2007, demonstrating the ongoing spatial legacy of apartheid.
We observed that an analysis like this explains the anger of Mandela and his fellow members of the ANC. One will have a better understanding of their agitations after reading the works of Noble and Wright.
In this study, the author focused on civil resistance campaigns and argued that the probability that large-scale, organized movements will take violent over nonviolent forms increases with the share of a country’s population that is excluded from political power based on ethnic affiliation.
This position is rather not surprising because ethnically exclusive regimes are more likely to counter political demands with violent repression, which increases the cost and decreases the anticipated success of nonviolent relative to violent resistance. South Africa, in the time of apartheid, comes to mind.
Lasse Lykke Rorbaek is a senior consultant at Ramboll Management Consulting, leading engineering, architecture, and consultancy company founded in Denmark in 1945. His interests are in political power, religion, democracy, ethnic exclusion, and civil resistance campaigns.
Casualties of apartheid
In this study, the author tests this proposition in a global sample of countries for the period 1950–2006 and finds that high levels of ethnic exclusion make civil resistance campaigns more likely to occur violently than nonviolently.
Simpson, T., (2009). Toyi-Toyi-ing to Freedom:
The Endgame in the ANC’s Armed Struggle, 1989–1990. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057070902920015. Journal of Southern African Studies, Volume 35, 2009 – Issue 2: Liberation Struggles, Exile and International Solidarity. 507-521
Simpson’s work looks at the twelve months between August 1989 and August 1990, which proved to be the final year of the ANC armed struggle against the South African government. This period aroused curiosity because it amplified the contradiction between ANC’s material weakness and its immense symbolic strength.
Thula Simpson is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of History at the University of Pretoria. His works focus on the ANC’s armed struggle and the party’s relationship with popular protest movements in South Africa.
Simpson’s work showed how the two sides jostled over this question in the period leading to the ANC’s unilateral suspension of its armed struggle in August 1990.
Landau, P.S., (2012). The ANC, MK, and ‘The Turn to Violence’ (1960–1962). https://doi.org/10.1080/02582473.2012.660785. 538-563
In this study, Landau tried to answer the following questions: Why did the ANC appear to embrace violence in 1961? Can one say it did so? Was the Communist Party responsible behind the scenes? What did the ‘turn to violence’ mean?
However, with additional sources emerging, the author was able to find answers. He concluded that Communists did not determine the timing of the ANC’s embrace of MK (which in Umkhonto means we-Sizwe, ‘Spear of the Nation’).
According to him, the ANC was a large member-based organization that could not easily shift in any direction. But during the state’s repressive and punitive measures in 1960–1962, a group of Communist African men from within the ANC hierarchy made use of the unsettled nature of political life to commit the ANC to an alternative path.
Their aim was a revolution, and the preeminent among them was our protagonist – Nelson Mandela.
Winnie Mandela maintains the heat on the government in the absence of her husband
Professor Paul Landau is a historian of Africans in colonial Africa. He has been a Fellow in Historical Studies at the University of Johannesburg since 2011.
His book, Popular Politics in the History of South Africa, 1400 to 1948, profoundly studies South Africa’s politics. The book traced Africans’ 20th-century hybrid mobilization back to pre-colonial forms of alliance and ranking.
Mpofu & Ndlovu-Gatsheni’s study in 2018 of Nelson Mandela’s changing idea of South Africa is a critical reflection on Mandela’s changing idea of his country as articulated in his autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom.
The authors seek to understand how the icon worked towards laying down a profound post-racial humanism based on a broader inclusive South African nationalism that surpasses the narrow and exclusionist racial apartheid idea of the country.
Mandela’s life of struggle embodied the complex and ever-changing idea of South Africa. Unsurprisingly, his political actions are blamed as the source of the present crisis engulfing the country. Grey areas like this, which are quite contentious, are thoroughly explained in this study to better understand what Mandela embodies.
Busani Mpofu is a senior researcher at the College of Graduate Studies, University of South Africa and a research associate in the Human Economy program, University of Pretoria. His main research interests are in African economic history.
Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni is a professor and Acting Executive Director of the Change Management Unit of the University of South Africa. He is a decolonial theorist who has published extensively on African history, African politics, and development.
Ndlovu-Gatsheni, S.J., (2014). From a ‘terrorist’ to a global icon: a critical decolonial ethical tribute to Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela of South Africa https://doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2014.907703. 905-921
The study examines Mandela’s political life and legacy from the perspective of critical decolonial liberation ethics, which privileges a paradigm of peace, humanism and racial concord, which opposes the imperial/colonial/apartheid paradigm of war, racial hatred and separation of races.
In this study, the author noted a distinct feature between Mandela and other freedom fighters to be his commitment to the cause of human rights. As early as the 1960s, long before it attained its status as a constitutive part of the global normative order, Mandela practised it.
Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni is a professor and Acting Executive Director of the Change Management Unit of the University of South Africa. He is a decolonial theorist who has published extensively on African history, African politics, and development.
Auerbach’s book, Forgiveness and Reconciliation:
The Religious Dimension, focuses on ‘forgiveness’ as one of the obvious expressions of the growing role of religion in conflict transformation and ponders on the following questions: What is the role of forgiveness in reconciliation?
Is forgiveness a necessary condition for reconciliation between former enemies? Is it enough to bring about real and stable peace between them? To what extent and how does religion affect reconciliation via the forgiveness process?
Police brutality
Yehudith Auerbach is a senior lecturer at the Department of Political Science and School of Communication and a Senior Fellow at the Center for International Communication, Bar Ilan University. Her main research interest is conflict resolution and reconciliation between enemies in protracted identity-based conflicts.
The arguments put forward in this paper need to be put to the test in historical and actual cases of identity conflicts. However, Mandela personified forgiveness when he was released from prison. He truly brought it to life when he became the president of South Africa in 1994.
Nelson Mandela: Facts
Here are some facts about one of the greatest Africans who ever lived.
Nelson Mandela ran the only Black Law Firm
In 1953, Mandela and Oliver Tambo established the country’s first Black law firm, Mandela & Tambo. The company defended people affected by apartheid laws. The firm died a natural death after politics and the anti-Apartheid struggle took most of the time of its founders.
Oliver Tambo and Nelson Mandela
Nelson Mandela’s Prison Number
His prison number on Robben Island was 46664. He was the 466th prisoner in 1964.
He trained as an amateur heavyweight and sparred with professional fighters, including Jerry Moloi, who had 61 pro boxing bouts. Mandela also excelled at long-distance running in his youth.
Nelson Mandela trained as a guerrilla fighter
In 1962, Mandela received military training in Ethiopia. There, he learned how to use automatic rifles, pistols, mortars, bombs, and mines. That same year, he travelled to Algeria to receive guerrilla training.
Nelson Mandela remained on the US terrorist watch list until 2008
The US government placed the ANC on the list in the 1980s, the period the organisation was strongly committed to armed resistance to apartheid. In 2008, after he won the Nobel Peace Prize, the US removed the party’s members from the terrorist list. In addition to the Nobel Peace Prize, he won over 250 other awards.
Nelson Mandela Statue is the only Black man in Parliament Square
The 9ft Bronze statue is the first statue of a Black person to be housed in Parliament Square. English sculptor Ian Walters created it at the cost of £400,000. It was unveiled on August 29th, 2007.
Nelson Mandela International Day
In 2009, the United Nations proclaimed July 18th to be Nelson Mandela International Day. The day, which is his birthday, asks people to spend 67 minutes doing something good for others. The time represents the 67 years Nelson Mandela spent working toward change.
Nelson Mandela: Quotes
Here are some of his best quotes.
“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”
“Real leaders must be ready to sacrifice all for the freedom of their people.”
“Resentment is like drinking poison and then hoping it will kill your enemies.”
“I learned that courage was not the absence of fear but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.”
“Everyone can rise above their circumstances and achieve success if they are dedicated to and passionate about what they do.”
“It always seems impossible until it’s done.”
“Many people in this country have paid the price before me, and many will pay the price after me.”
“Do not judge me by my successes. Judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again.”
“Money won’t create success, the freedom to make it will.”
“The oppressed and the oppressor…”
“The oppressed and the oppressor alike are robbed of their humanity.”
“It is in the character of growth that we should learn from both pleasant and unpleasant experiences.”
“It is not our diversity which divides us; it is not our ethnicity, or religion, or culture that divides us. Since we have achieved our freedom, there can only be one division amongst us: between those who cherish democracy and those who do not.”
“For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.”
Nelson Mandela in Pop Culture
The former president of South Africa has been depicted in the pop culture and entertainment world in several ways, from movies about his life to the fictional “Cosby Show” grandchildren being named after him.
Here’s a look at how his presence influenced the world of the arts.
Nelson Mandela in the movies
Idris Elba as Nelson Mandela
Many movies have represented his life and times, with notable actors playing Nelson Mandela. In 2013, Idris Elba gave a critically acclaimed performance in the biopic Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom. One of the tracks in the film Ordinary Love by U2 and Danger Mouse won Best Original Song during the 71st Golden Globe Awards.
In the 2009 film Invictus, Morgan Freeman plays Nelson Mandela, with Matt Damon as the captain of the South African rugby team, the Springboks. Both actors were nominated for Oscars for their roles.
Nelson Mandela as Morgan Freeman. Oops…the other way around, please
In the 1997’s TV movie Mandela and de Klerk, Sidney Poitier was nominated for an Emmy for his role as Nelson Mandela. Danny Glover played him in the 1987 HBO movie Mandela.
In 2002, the multiple-Emmy-winning reality show, The Amazing Race took its contestants to South Africa. While there, they visited Robben Island, and the contenders were tasked with finding Nelson Mandela’s own cell to receive their next clue.
‘Cosby’ twins
When Sondra, Cliff and Clair Huxtable’s oldest daughter, gave birth to twins, the Cosby Show continued its tradition of honouring African history and tradition. It named Sondra’s children Nelson and Winnie, after Mandela and his then-wife.
Sing out for freedom
Nelson Mandela has been honoured with songs, especially the song “Nelson Mandela”. It was first performed by The Specials in the mid-80s. Elvis Costello and Simple Minds are among the musicians who’ve performed the song, which reached No. 9 on the U.K. charts.
In 1985, Stevie Wonder won an Oscar for the hit song I Just Called to Say I Love You from the movie The Woman in Red. And he said in his speech, “I would like to accept this award in the name of Nelson Mandela.”
The dedication didn’t sit well with the South African government. They banned his music from the South African Broadcasting Corporation’s radio airwaves. The ban ended only when Mandela became president in 1994.
In Nigeria, revolutionaries like Majek Fashek, Sonny Okosun, Onyeka Onwenu and Kollington Ayinla are some of the musicians who lent their voices to the struggle through the release of now-classic freedom songs.
Desmond Tutu was a close ally of Nelson Mandela in the struggle against apartheid in South Africa. In the post-apartheid era, the Anglican cleric served as the chairperson of the country’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
He was widely regarded as the country’s conscience. And his role as a “moral compass” and “his remarkable warmth and humour” was recognised by world leaders.
Both Mandela and Tutu were founder members of The Elders. It’s an international group of inspirational leaders who have worked to promote human rights all over the world.
Before Mandela won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993, Tutu got the award nine years earlier for his nonviolent struggle against apartheid.
In Mandela’s first public speech after his release from prison, Tutu brought him onto a balcony at Cape Town City Hall to deliver the address.
Nelson Mandela’s political life and legacy from the perspective of critical decolonial liberation ethics, which privileges a paradigm of peace, humanism and racial harmony and opposes the imperial/colonial/apartheid paradigm of war, racial hatred and separation of races. He was committed to the cause of human rights.
As early as the 1960s, long before human rights attained its status as a constitutive part of the global normative order, Mandela practised it.
