A Tribute to Mandela

I was forced to write an essay in such a troubled time. And if I had to write something on Mandela, I would find it extremely hard to write as he was a black person. That’s pretty much. I have had never seen him personally and I certainly know nothing about him even though he made a visit in Bangladesh once when I was too young to understand the basics of Politics. I think I was a good man before I aspired to become a politician and I admit it because I was way too hungry most of the times.

After I searched the internet, I came across the Wikipedia Page where everything was written on Nelson Mandela. Many of my colleagues came across the autobiography titled ‘A Long Walk to Freedom’ explicitly found at Nilkhet and some of them even bought but never read and eventually, it was read by their children. I and my friends-foes were too busy climbing up the ladders of our respective political parties and we had to put so much of our lives that we had little to give to the Heroic International People.

Before I clicked the Wikipedia Page, I could clearly recall an Old Man, clean shaved and with curly white hair sitting on an arm chair and smiling with generosity with the eyes of a Chinese. The Wikipedia Page loaded and displayed a similar picture I had seen in the Bangladeshi Television Channels the day he died. I began reading the page.

I was astounded and alienated at the same time. The Wikipedia page read ‘Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (18 July 1918- 5 December 2013) was a South African anti-apartheid revolutionary, politician, and philanthropist who served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. He was South Africa's first black chief executive, and the first elected in a fully representative democratic election. His government focused on dismantling the legacy of apartheid through tackling institutionalized racism, poverty and inequality, and fostering racial reconciliation. Politically an African nationalist and democratic socialist, he served as President of the African National Congress (ANC) from 1991 to 1997. Internationally, Mandela was Secretary General of the Non-Aligned Movement from 1998 to 1999.’

I had to stumble upon the word ‘Apartheid’. I thought what it could mean. I clicked on the bluish highlighted ‘anti-Apartheid revolutionary’ text and another page loaded. I began reading.

What I understood was that the National Party Governments in South Africa managed a system to separate the Afrikaners socially, economically and politically from all possible ways. It sounded so stupid to me.

I kept on reading. Nelson Mandela’s early Childhood and youth interested me to some extent. The page said Mandela had a title ‘Rolihlahla’ added to his name which basically mean troublemaker. I proceeded further. What I found was the name ‘Nelson’ was not his actual name. It was given to him by his teacher during the early days of his school. It seemed funny.

We all wanted to grow up and become something. Mandela did the same. My father wanted me to be an Engineer but I was interested in student politics and I did become a politician. A small one.

Mandela began his Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Forthare in English, Anthropology and Politics. Later, he was involved in student politics which eventually pushed him to leave the University without a degree.

Mandela later visited Johannesburg and got admitted to the University of South Africa to continue his Bachelor Degrees and he did finish the degree. Later, he decided to become a Lawyer instead of being a Privy Councilor.

He got enrolled in the University of Witwatersrand to begin his Law Studies and joined the African National Congress (ANC). In 1943, he met Anton Lambede who shared views that Africans should be independent in their struggle for Political Self-determination. Mandela was among the delegation which asked the ANC President Alfred Binti Xuma to form ANCYL (African National Congress Youth League) on an Easter Sunday where Lambede was the President and Mandela as a member of the executive committee.

Sometime later, Mandela succeeded to become the President of ANCYL President as Lambede died.

A General election was held in 1948 where the Afrikaner Dominated  Herenigde Party took power and later they formed the National Party. They were openly racialist and strengthened Racial segregation by enacting a new Apartheid Legislation. Mandela and his cadres had been advocating direct action against Apartheid by enforcing strikes, boycotts which was mainly influenced by the Indian Community in South Africa. Due to his devotion to politics, Mandela failed his final year at Witwatersrand for three times and ultimately it lead to a denial to his degree.

I think this is the point where he came to understand that somethink radical had to be done. As I antcipated, Mandela  took Xuma's place to become the ANC President on March 1950. The same month, an Anti-Apartheid  strike was called  by the Defend Free Speech Convention  where African, Indian and Communist activists  took part.

Mandela , being influenced by Mahatma Gandhi ,he began a joint Defiance nonviolent Campaign against apartheid with Indian and communist groups by founding a National Voluntary Board to recruit volunteers. On 22 June, Mandela adressed a crowd of 10000 which intitated the campaign protests and for this, he was arrested. As the ANC grew popular, its membership grew from 20000 to 100000. The Govermnent in reply answered with mass arrests and initiated martial law. ANC’s Transvaal President J. B Marks later gave up his Presisency and it was succeced by Mandela. Later,  Mandela was elected regional president in October. On 30 July 1952, Mandela was arrested under the Suppression of Communism Act. A ban was imposed on him from attending meetings. As a result,  his Transvaal ANC presidency became impractical. A speech titled ‘No Easy Walk to Freedom’ was read out by Audrey Kuene  in September 1953 at a Transvaal ANC meeting where the title of the speech was taken from the quote by Indian Independence Leader Jawaharlal Nehru. A plan was laid out in the speech which was called the M Plan.

 So this is what I thought. He was finding it more troublesome to move around as various bans were imposed on him. He went incgnito by moving around as chauffer and meanwhile, the police issued an Arrest Warrant. And he needed something more than a Defiance Movement. This led him to form the ‘Spear of the Nation’ , shortly known as the ‘MK’ being influenced by Mao and Che Guevara. MK was the armed wing of ANC which excelled in guerilla warfare.The MK’s primary goal was to exert maximum pressure on the government with minimum casualties by bombing military installations, power plants, telephone lines and transport links at night, when civilians were not present.

The drama unfolded slowly  as I read the Wikipedia page : On 5 December 1956, Mandela was arrested alongside most of the ANC Executive for "high treason" against the state. Held in Johannesburg Prison amid mass protests, they underwent a preparatory examination in Drill Hall on 19 December, before being granted bail.  As I read further, I found out that the trial continued for six years and eventually, Mandela and his ANC executives were found not guilty on the 29^th of March, 1961 which embarassed the government.

On 5 August 1962, Mandela was finally captured by the police at Howrick.

The events that followed as I read : On 11 July 1963, police raided Liliesleaf Farm, arresting those they found there and uncovering paperwork documenting MK's activities, some of which mentioned Mandela. The Rivonia Trial began at Pretoria Supreme Court on 9 October, with Mandela and his comrades charged with four counts of sabotage and conspiracy violently to overthrow the government. Their chief prosecutor was Percy Yutar, who called for them to receive the death penalty. Judge Quartus de Wet soon threw out the prosecution's case for insufficient evidence, but Yutar reformulated the charges, presenting his new case from December until February 1964, calling 173 witnesses and bringing thousands of documents and photographs to the trial.

With the exception of James Kantor, who was innocent of all charges, Mandela and the accused admitted sabotage but denied that they had ever agreed to initiate guerilla war against the government. They used the trial to highlight their political cause. At the opening of the defence's proceedings Mandela gave a three-hour speech. That speech – which was inspired by Castro's "History Will Absolve Me" speech – was widely reported in the press despite official censorship, and has been hailed as one of his greatest speeches.The trial gained international attention, with global calls for the release of the accused from such institutions as the United Nations and World Peace Council. The University of London Union voted Mandela to its presidency, and nightly vigils for him were held in St. Paul's Cathedral, London. Deeming them to be violent communist agitators, South Africa's government ignored all calls for clemency, and on 12 June 1964 de Wet found Mandela and two of his co-accused guilty on all four charges, sentencing them to life imprisonment rather than death.

 I was disheartened.

Politicians and Prisons, both the words start with a ‘P’ and they are meant for each other. To me, Prison is nothing but a place to sleep even more safely than your own home, except the fact that you have to deal with bad food and torture.

Mandela had to stay in Prison for 27 years. It started with Robben Island(1964-1982), Pollsmoor Prison(1982-1988) and finally ending with Victor Verster Prison(1988-1990). He left Victor Verster on the 11^th of February 1990 as F. W. de Klerk had proceeded with his cabinet members to legalize ANC and to free Mandela.

A Man serving almost three decades in prison came out with a happy mind and declared peace and harmony with his own Jailers. That is where I couldn’t find a reason to reason with.

Mandela opined that he is committed to be at peace with the white Minority and also said that ANC’s armed struggle would continue as a pure defensive action against the violence of apartheid. He also asked the Government that the black majority should be given the right to vote in national and local elections.

He had to rebuild the nation. An exerpt from the wikipedia page read: In May 1990, Mandela led a multiracial ANC delegation into preliminary negotiations with a government delegation of 11 Afrikaner men. Mandela impressed them with his discussions of Afrikaner history, and the negotiations led to the Groot Schuur Minute, in which the government lifted the state of emergency. In August Mandela – recognising the ANC's severe military disadvantage – offered a ceasefire, the Pretoria Minute, for which he was widely criticised by MK activists. He spent much time trying to unify and build the ANC, appearing at a Johannesburg conference in December attended by 1600 delegates, many of whom found him more moderate than expected. At the ANC's July 1991 national conference in Durban, Mandela admitted the party's faults and announced his aim to build a "strong and well-oiled task force" for securing majority rule. At the conference, he was elected ANC President, replacing the ailing Tambo, and a 50-strong multiracial, mixed gendered national executive was elected.

Later, he was successful in being the first Black President as the South African General Elections took place on the 27^th of April, 1994. The wikipedia page read: The newly elected National Assembly's first act was to formally elect Mandela as South Africa's first black chief executive. His inauguration took place in Pretoria on 10 May 1994, televised to a billion viewers globally. The event was attended by 4000 guests, including world leaders from disparate backgrounds. Mandela headed a Government of National Unity dominated by the ANC – which alone had no experience of governance – but containing representatives from the National Party and Inkatha. Under the Interim Constitution, Inkatha and the NP were entitled to seats in the government by virtue of winning at least 20 seats. In keeping with earlier agreements, de Klerk became first Deputy President, and Thabo Mbeki was selected as second. Moving into the presidential office at Tuynhuys in Cape Town, Mandela allowed de Klerk to retain the presidential residence in the Groote Schuur estate, instead settling into the nearby Westbrooke manor, which he renamed "Genadendal", meaning "Valley of Mercy" in Afrikaans. Retaining his Houghton home, he also had a house built in his home village of Qunu, which he visited regularly, walking around the area, meeting with locals, and judging tribal disputes.