TWENTY-THREE OF THE MANY: NELSON MANDELA AND THE SPEAR OF THE NATION
(“South Africa” [“the “Republic of South Africa”] is a country located at the southern tip of the continent
of Africa. It is divided into nine provinces. Its largest city [by population] is Johannesburg. On May 31,
1961, the country became a “republic” following a “referendum” for independence [from Great Britain]
by “white” voters. Despite opposition, from within and from outside the nation, the South African
government “legislated” for a continuation of the racist policies of “apartheid” [of the British
government].
Currently, South Africa’s “ethnic” groups and their percentages of the population are: 79.2% “Black
African”; 8.9% “Coloured”; 8.9% “White”; 2.5 % “Indian/Asian”; and, 0.5% “Other.” Its current
population is approximately 51 million people. It has 11 official languages. And, its motto is “Unity in
diversity.”)
The great Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (1918-present) is dying of a “chronic respiratory infection” in a
hospital located in Pretoria, South Africa. He was born in Mvezo, South Africa of “Xhosa” lineage (See
below.). And, he will be 95 years-old on July, 18, 2013.
(“Pretoria” or “Tshwane” is a city in the northern part of “Gauteng Province”, South Africa. It is one of
the country’s three capital cities along with “Cape Town” and “Bloemfontein.” “Pretoria” serves as
South Africa’s administrative [“executive”] center; “Cape Town” serves as its “legislative” center; and
“Bloemfontein” serves as its “judicial” center.)
But, “NRM” has not always been “great”, especially when his past political activities are assessed more
objectively and less subjectively.
Inspired by “Fidel Castro’s 26th of July Movement” (of the Cuban Revolution: 1953-1959), in 1961, the
“Black Pimpernel” (“NRM” was named [by the “print” press] after the famous literary character [i.e. the
“Scarlet Pimpernel”] in Orczy’s “The Scarlet Pimpernel.”) co-founded the “Spear of the Nation”
(“Umkhonto we Sizwe” or MK), and he eventual became the chairperson of this militant element of the
“African National Congress” (ANC).
(Some notable members of the MK, in addition to the “Black Pimpernel”, were Anton Fransch, Joe Nzingo
Gqabi, Chris Hani, Jack Hodgson, Aboobaker Ismail, Ronnie Kasrils, Mac Maharaj, Tootsie Mamela,
Thabo Mbeki, Govan Mbeki, Robert McBride, Joe Modise, Dipuo Mvelase, Siphiwe Nyanda, Dipak Teps
Patel, Michael Pillay, Solly Shoke, Joe Slovo, Marion Sparg, and Jacob Zuma.)
The MK, on December 16, 1961, initiated 57 bombings as well as additional bombings on December 31,
1961: the numbers of “killings” were not reported accurately and/or reliably by either the MK or the
South African government.
And, these MK bombings were the beginning of the Apartheid Wars [1961-1990] with the rightist South
African government.
(For the period from 1961 to 1990, the complete “killing” list could not be sourced. South African
“Police statistics”, from the period of 1976 through 1986, estimated that 230 people were killed by the
MK.
And, from 1976 to 1982, one South African “source” reported that 150 situations of armed action [by
the MK] were conducted “without regard for human life.” Not surprisingly, the “killing” numbers were
not reported by either side in the conflict.
Finally, one valid generation concerning the reported “casualties” is that the actual number “killed” was
purposefully and politically “underestimated” in order to hide the extreme “torture and executions”
which were being conducted on both sides.)
Subsequently, MK was labeled as a “terrorist organization” by the South African and United States
governments (among others).
In January of 1962, the “Black Pimpernel” left Africa in order to receive the required “military” training,
“political” indoctrination, and commitments to international support for the armed activities for and
under the MK. And, he was re-called a few months later, and he was eventually convicted (for a second
time) in the “Rivonia Trail.”
Nota bene:
The “Black Pimpernel” was already serving a five-year sentence (in which he represented himself ) in the
Johannesburg’s Fort prison for “inciting workers to strike and for leaving the country illegally” before
being convicted of “sabotage and conspiracy to violently overthrow the South African government” in
the “Rivonia Trail.”
(The “Rivonia Trail” was a “show-trail” which was conducted in South Africa during the years 1963 and
1964. It was named after “Rivonia”, a suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa. The “Liliesleaf Farm”
which was privately owned by Arthur Goldreich [1929-2011] and which was located in this part of
Johannesburg was a “hideout” for the ANC/MK. And, the “Black Pimpernel” was a resident of the farm
[among other members] in October of 1961 under the alias of “David ‘the walker’ Motsamayi.”
In essence, the “Rivonia Trail” was a mechanism for “muting” the ANC and its allied organizations: that
is, the attempted “containment” of such organizations as the “South African Communist Party” [SACP],
the “South African Congress of Democrats” [COD], the “Coloured People’s Congress” [CPC], the “South
African Congress of Trade Unions” [SACTU], the “South African Indian Congress [SAIC], and the
“Federation of South African Women” [FSAW].
And, the defendants [in the trail] read like a “whose is who” list of the MK members of the “antiapartheid” movement [in 1963].
Besides Mandela, others included Walter Sisulu, Denis Goldberg, Govan Mbeki, Ahmed Kathrada, Lionel
Bernstein, Raymond Mhlaba, James Kantor, Elias Motsoaledi, and Andrew Mlangeni: Bernstein and
Kantor were “acquitted” while the rest of the defendants were convicted of “four counts of sabotage
and the conspiracy to overthrow the South African government.”)
The “Black Pimpernel” served “twenty five years and eight months” in prison. Eighteen of these years
were spent at “Robben Island” (from 1962 to 1982). Surrealistically, it was like the “GTMO” of South
Africa.
(“Robben Island” [Dutch: “seal island’] is an island in Table Bay, South Africa. The island has been
utilized in a number of ways since the end of the 17th century. Still, its primary purpose [i.e. in the
second half of the 20th century] had been a place of “isolation and torture” of “political” prisoners.
Parenthetically, the enterprising Harry die strandloper or Autshumato [?-1663], was considered to be
one of its first prisoners.
And, happily, “Robben Island” prison was permanently closed [in 1996] at the end of the “Apartheid
Wars.”)
The “Black Pimpernel’s” imprisonment involved inadequate housing in a “damp concrete cell measuring
8 feet by 7 feet with a straw mat” upon which he had to sleep. His time in prison reflected thematic
verbal and physical harassment. For example, he was not allowed to wear “sunglasses” in the glaring
lime quarries in which he was forced to work: that is, his unprotected eyes were permanently damaged
by the intense, emanating light of the stones on which he was cutting. And, another example of his
mistreatment was his frequent and unnecessary “solitary confinements” for minor, rule infractions.
Surprisingly, these experiences (and many others) taught “the Walker” the lessions of patience, humility,
inclusivism, multi-racism, compassion, reconciliation, and most of all, non-violence. That is, his 25 years
and eight months of confinement transformed him from being the “Black Pimpernel” into being “NRM.”
On February 11, 1990, the great “NRM” was released from prison by the equally great President F.
(Frederick) W. (Willem) de Klerk (1989-1994) of South Africa.
(De Klerk [1936-present] was the seventh and last President of South Africa in the “Apartheid-era” [“the
state of being apart”]. He brokered the end of the racist policies of “apartheid.” That is, he supported
the transformation of a “white”, rightist, extremist government into a conservative-progressive, multiracial democracy.
And, the great De Klerk, along with the equally great “NRM”, received the “Nobel Peace Prize” in 1993.)
F. W. Klerk and “NRM” learned, together, that “elitism, racism, extreme economic disparity (in which,
today, this disparity continues between the South African few and the South African many), and rage”,
the roots of the “rightist” white and the “leftist” black extremist “separatism”, were the causes of South
Africa’s destructive political history (along with, of course, the South African and International few and
their “familiars” with their collective, insatiable need for wealth, power, and control of the South African
and International many).
To re-focus, eventually, the MK suspended operations on August 1, 1990. And, in 1994, the MK was
integrated in the “South African National Defense Force” or SANDF.
(The SANDF comprises the armed forces of South Africa. Following South Africa’s first post-apartheid
elections and the adoption of a “new” constitution [1994], it replaced the “South African Defense Force”
[SADF]. The commander of the SANDF is appointed by the “President of South Africa” from one of the
armed services.)
Politically, “NRM” was many things. A Xhosa (a people who speak the “Bantu languages”), an “African
nationalist”, a “communist”, a “socialist”, and a “democratic socialist”: he served as the “President of
the African National Congress” (ANC) from 1991 to 1997; the “President of South Africa” from 1994 to
1999; the “Secretary General of the Non-Aligned” from 1998 to 1999; and, the “father of the nation”
(“Madiba” or “Tata” in the language of his Xhosa clan: “Father”) from 1994 to the present.
In truth, the great “NRM” was “all of these and none of these.” The “crazies” of the extreme right view
him as a “terrorist”, a “communist”, and a “socialist” while the “crazies” of the extreme left view him as
a god, an icon, and an eternal “revolutionary.” But, the global many view him as a person who has
evolved over a lifetime: from a person who was a “half-hearted” revolutionary who admired the
Marxist-Leninist “Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz” (1926-present) to a person who was attempting to imitate
the truly great “Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi” (1869-1948).
Thank you “NRM” for showing the many that social change is necessary in life. And, thank you for
showing the many the absurdity of “oligarchy” in any social system “for now and forever.”
Nota bene:
“NRM” was born to a “Thembu” royal family: that is, his father was a “reigning nobleman from a junior
branch” of the “Madiba” clan of kings.
Imagine: South Africa, Africa, and the world in general if “Tata” remained a “simple minded”, “absurd”,
“uncaring”, “greedy”, “lethal”, and “unchanging” nobleman of a clan of “oligarchic” royalty.
To hell with the “oligarchs” (the South African and the International few; and, the South African
government between 1961 and 1990) and their “familiars” (the SADF, the ANC and its military arm, the
MK, MK’s allied organizations, the “Black Pimpernel” in his forties and in his fifties, the “Yellow
Journalistic”, International “print” press, the “Rivonia Trail” and the like, “Robben Island” and similar
prisons [e.g. Bush43’s senseless and shameful “Gitmo” or more precisely, the US Guantanamo Bay
detention camp in Cuba: 2002-present and the 111th, 112th, and 113th US Congresses who support and
protect it against the will of the American many], Goldreich, and the present SANDF and the like armed
forces who promote the “senseless and shameful” torture and execution of the many by their action
and/or by their inaction),
Fromoneofthemany