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NELSON MANDELA 1918 - 2013: SODELPA joins billions in mourning the passing of a colossus who ended apartheid and gave his people freedom

6/12/2013

8 Comments

 

How Nelson Mandela transcended race barriers to become a symbol of resistance and exemplar of human generosity of spirit

'During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to the struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die' - Nelson Mandela, August 1962

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1961: On way to court in his fight for freedom from oppression
NELSON Mandela was the most famous black man in history. He transcended race barriers to become an exemplar of human generosity of spirit. His towering personality made possible the peaceful transfer of power in South Africa from white minority to black majority rule. If he was less effective as president of his country than he had been as the symbol of resistance to apartheid, he demonstrated statesmanship unmatched in Africa. He inspired love as much as respect, and became regarded by hundreds of millions of people as a secular saint.

More was asked of him, and sometimes claimed for him, than any mortal man could deliver. But the world has been a fractionally better place, because Nelson Mandela lived in it. He was born into African aristocracy, a descendant of kings of the Thembu people, in Transkei in 1918. His father had four wives, among whom his mother ranked third. He was the first of his family to attend school, and it was his teacher who gave him the English name Nelson in place of his given name, Rolihlahla. At 19, he attended Fort Hare University, where he soon became involved in student politics - or rather, in organising a boycott of them. Rejecting a marriage arranged for him by his tribal elders, he became briefly a mine guard, then was articled to a Johannesburg law firm. He began living in the Alexandra black township, and started law studies at Witwatersrand University, where he met fellow students and future political activists Ruth First, Joe Slovo and Harry Schwarz.

The Afrikaner-dominated National Party attained power in South Africa's 1948 election.Thereafter, its government set about transforming the country’s longstanding policy of racial segregation into an ironclad, legally-based system of repression. In the early 1950s, Mandela became deeply involved in radical resistance to apartheid, while he and fellow-activist Oliver Tambo ran a law firm, offering cheap advice to township residents. It is hard for a modern generation to conceive what life was like for black South Africans under apartheid.They were denied not merely votes but the most basic human rights. Park benches, buses, beaches - every public facility - were rigidly segregated, marked by signs: 'Whites Only'. Sexual relations between the races were criminalised. Personal residence and movement were permitted only by licence, the hated 'pass laws'.

The police, institutionally brutal, treated blacks - and especially blacks with political aspirations - with contempt and often sadism. Dissent was savagely suppressed. Events came to a head in March 1961, when police opened fire on a peaceful protest in the Johannesburg township of Sharpeville, killing 69 people. A few brave whites sought to tell the world of the crimes being inflicted daily upon an entire society. Alan Paton wrote a hugely influential novel, Cry The Beloved Country, which became a best-seller.

The priest Trevor Huddleston published a moving account of black life, Naught For Your Comfort, which highlighted the conditions the black community were forced to endure. The wonderful Helen Suzman, a Capetown independent MP, held aloft a lone liberal banner in South Africa’s parliament. But such voices seemed mere pebbles amid the unyielding rock of Afrikaner repression. So, too, did Nelson Mandela and his comrades of what became the African National Congress (ANC). Mandela was initially an admirer of India’s Mahatma Gandhi, committed to non-violent resistance. Yet in 1956, he and 150 others were arrested and charged with treason.

The marathon trial which followed continued until 1961, when all the defendants were acquitted.The experience changed Mandela. He became convinced that the whites would never surrender power by peaceful means. He became leader of the ANC’s armed wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe - 'Spear of the Nation'. In August 1962, after 17 months living on the run from the police, he was arrested following a tip-off by the American CIA.

In the dock at his trial, he conducted himself with a dignity and courage which impressed even his enemies. He concluded his defence with a now-famous statement: 'During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to the struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination.'I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. 'It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.'

On conviction, he and his fellow defendants escaped the gallows, but were sentenced to life imprisonment. He spent the next 27 years behind bars, 18 of them on the notorious Robben Island, near Cape Town. He toiled in a lime quarry, and for years was allowed only one visitor and one letter every six months. Even these small concessions were subjected to malicious delay and censorship by his jailers. Yet, in an extraordinary fashion, in his cell and silenced, Mandela became a global symbol of his people’s plight.

Occasional foreign visitors permitted to visit him emerged to tell of a superbly gracious, humorous, thoughtful figure, who never wavered in his convictions, devoted his life to self-education and planning for a political future. In 1985, apartheid president P.W.Botha offered Mandela freedom, if he would renounce armed struggle. South Africa faced international sanctions and increasing economic difficulties. It was becoming plain that Mandela the captive represented a force in the world as powerful as the whites' edifice of tyranny.

Mandela dismissed Botha’s offer, saying: 'What freedom am I being offered while the organisation of the people remains banned? Only free men can negotiate. A prisoner cannot enter into contracts.' Four years later, his patient defiance was at last rewarded. President FW de Klerk announced the lifting of the ban on the ANC. On February 11, 1990, Mandela walked free into Cape Town, amid scenes of euphoric rejoicing not only among black South Africans, but across the world. In a superb speech, he declared his hope that a negotiated settlement would soon bring to an end the conditions which made armed struggle against apartheid necessary.

So it proved.

Tension and violence mounted in the months and years that followed, as Mandela negotiated with de Klerk for a new political dispensation. But on 17 April 1994, South Africa’s first election was held under universal suffrage. The prisoner of Robben Island became president with an overwhelming mandate. Apartheid, white minority power, became history. The great revelation in the years of Mandela’s rise to power was of the man himself. He had been invisible for almost 30 years. No one knew what manner of leader would emerge from behind the prison wall. Would he prove a raging revolutionary, an embittered demagogue bent on revenge against his white oppressors? Africa’s freedom from colonial rule has been compromised and often rendered a mockery by many black tyrants, indeed monsters.

He set an example of forgiveness and statesmanship which has been an inspiration to mankind, recognised in a host of global honours and accolades of which the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize was foremost. To the end of his life, he remained one of the planet’s most admired inhabitants, commemorated by statues in a hundred countries, most notably in London’s Parliament Square. He accomplished the transition from reluctant revolutionary to statesman with grace, wit and charm.

He showed the world that Africa can produce greatness. If the continent could breed even a handful of other leaders possessed of a fraction of his nobility of spirit, it might gain remission from the sentence of misery to which it seems condemned. Max Hastings, The Dail Mail, London

Nelson Mandela: "I am informed that a warrant for my arrest has been issued, and that the police are looking for me. I will not give myself up to a government I do not recognise. I have had to separate myself from my dear wife and children, from my mother and sisters, to live as an outlaw in my own land. I have had to close my business, to abandon my profession, and live in poverty and misery, as many of my people are doing. I shall fight the government side by side with you, inch by inch, and mile by mile, until victory is won. What are you going to do? Will you come along with us, or are you going to co-operate with the government in its efforts to suppress the claims and aspirations of your own people? Or are you going to remain silent and neutral in a matter of life and death to my people, to our people? For my own part I have made my choice. I will not leave South Africa, nor will I surrender. Only through hardship, sacrifice and militant action can freedom be won. The struggle is my life. I will continue fighting for freedom until the end of my days."

8 Comments
Anti-racist campaigner
6/12/2013 01:19:44 am

What a joke, coming from SODELPA. The party is everything Mandela fought against - tribalism, racism, indigenous superiority - Fiji is still waiting for its own Nelson mandela

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Fijian Villager
6/12/2013 02:18:36 am

Our chiefs will never sacrifice their crook lifestyles and Pajeros - just good at exploiting us to beat up our fellow Indo-Fijian brothers and sisters. Their struggle is never their life. They don't know its meaning - look at us - seventh year of servitude to this regime and all Sodelpa is doing is calling for a LEADER through the newspapers. Shame! Yes, Fiji awaits its own Nelson Mandela

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Non racial bigot
6/12/2013 03:25:37 am

Well said! Sodelpa should make the following declaration of the late Mandela as its guiding manifesto otherwise Fiji will be condemned to coup culture, for like i-taukei before it, RACE and RACISM has been used to win over i-taukei votes. Baba and the crowd are the new racists we need to remove at the next poll:

On racism:

"Racism is a blight on the human conscience. The idea that any people can be inferior to another, to the point where those who consider themselves superior define and treat the rest as sub-human, denies the humanity even of those who elevate themselves to the status of gods." - Address to the UK's Joint Houses of Parliament, July 11, 1996, by Nelson Mandela


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Rajesh
6/12/2013 10:58:07 am

My prayer and condolence to Mandela family.
He was a world icon of freedom,hope and democracy.
A light that will never be darken.Late Mandela have broken the racial line and gave hope and freedom to the people of the world.
May the world leaders follow his path and bring freedom and joy in our daily lives.
May his soul rest in peace.
god bless his families and country.

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Diversity for Unity
7/12/2013 09:30:11 pm

To Anti-racist campaigner, Fijian Villager and Non-racial bigot, please define racism and bigot? You are obviously the propaganda machine for this illegal regime to divide and rule.
No decent person wants racism or bigots who do not like people because of subjective not objective reason. No one in their right mind would promote such policies. Do not confuse your subjective assumptions with Special Measures (SM) or Affirmative Action Policies (AAP) of the SDL Multi Party Cabinet(MPC) led by the deposed elected and legal government of Laisenia Qarase. Indigenous Fijians are way behind in all sectors - education, health, business, etc and to catch up with the other races, the indigenous market, as a group, need a "special hand" up. Therefore by counting race as a market differentiator, it can be statistically measured for significance and therefore to scientifically and professionally end any SM and AAP that will add value and bridge the gap of development between the Indigenous peoples and migrant races. The migrants are in control not only of the economy but now politically as well and the reason for them and you not wanting a legitimate accountable measure.
Otherwise, why are they and you afraid to count a legitimate scientific unit of measure???
So, please define what you mean by racism and bigot in the context of race, because Indigenous Fijian people cannot continue to lag behind because of your ignorance in not knowing the difference between race and racism. We need to address this issue now in adult mature discussion so that our diversity can unite and not disrupt from ignorance.
Diversity for Unity.

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Anti-Racist Campaigner
8/12/2013 04:15:19 am

That is the problem - constantly referring to Indo-Fijians as migrants - they have been in Fiji since 1879 - not far behind the Lauans and your dear racist and deposed Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase, whose Guji friends actually controlled the bulk of the economy and in collusion with Provincial Council Holdings who have access to Fiji Development Bank loans for business ventures. The vast majority of Indo-Fijians are just like your so-called poor Fijians. The point I and others are making is if an Indo-Fijian bloody becomes Prime Minister, you have to accept it - and also if its an Fijian -Chinese, and Mixed person for that matter. That is what Mandela's message was to his countrymen and the world

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Tongan owner of Fiji
8/12/2013 04:29:10 am

The British explorer James Cook reached Vatoa in 1774. By the time of the discovery of the Ono Group in 1820, the Lau archipelago was the most mapped area of Fiji.

Political unity came late to the Lau Islands. Historically, they comprised three territories: the Northern Lau Islands, the Southern Lau Islands, and the Moala Islands. Around 1855, the renegade Tongan prince Enele Ma'afu conquered the region and established a unified administration. Calling himself the Tui Lau, or King of Lau, he promulgated a constitution and encouraged the establishment of Christian missions. The first missionaries had arrived at Lakeba in 1830, but had been expelled. The Tui Nayau, who had been the nominal overlord of the Lau Islands, became subject to Ma'afu.

The Tui Nayau and Tui Lau titles came into personal union in 1969, when Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, who had already been installed as Tui Lau in 1963 by the Yavusa Tonga, was also installed as Tui Nayau following the death of his father Ratu Tevita Uluilakeba III in 1966. The title Tui Lau was left vacant from his uncle, Ratu Sir Lala Sukuna, in 1958 as referenced in Mara, The Pacific Way Paper.

The Northern Lau Islands, which extended as far south as Tuvuca, were under the overlordship of Taveuni and paid tribute to the Tui Cakau (Paramount Chief of Cakaudrove). In 1855, however, Ma'afu gained sovereignty over Northern Lau, establishing Lomaloma, on Vanua Balavu, as his capital.

The Southern Lau Islands extended from Ono-i-Lau, in the far south, to as far north as Cicia. They were the traditional chiefdom of the Tui Nayau, but with Ma'afu's conquest in the 1850s, he became subject to Tongan supremacy.

The Moala Islands had closer affiliation with Bau Island and Lomaiviti than with Lau, but Ma'afu's conquest united them with the Lau Islands. They have remained administratively a part of the Lau Province ever since.
Culture and economy

Since they lie between Melanesian Fiji and Polynesian Tonga, the Lau Islands are a meeting point of the two cultural spheres. Lauan villages remain very traditional, and the islands' inhabitants are renowned for their wood carving and masi paintings. Lakeba especially was a traditional meeting place between Tongans and Fijians. The south-east trade winds allowed sailors to travel from Tonga to Fiji, but much harder to return. The Lau Island culture became more Fijian rather than Polynesian beginning around 500 BC.[1] However, Tongan influence can still be found in names, language, food, and architecture. Unlike the square-shaped ends characterizing most houses elsewhere in Fiji, Lauan houses tend to be rounded, following the Tongan practice.

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LEST WE FORGET
9/12/2013 08:13:18 pm

Mr Bainimarama could have so easily been the Mandela of Fiji if he hadn't been hijacked along the way by a group of self serving bastards like Aiyaz, Nazhaat and aunty Nur. Had he only followed the path he promised before the coup ,I would be worshipping him today but now I resort to swearing at him and his stupid close allies who have filled their pockets and self promoted themselves....Bastards !!!

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