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1grO^ CAROLINA TIMES
Vantage Point 5
Mandela and the U
Freedom Struggle
■ By Ron Daniels s- ■’" ^
;NNPA Guest Columnist
; As chairman of Freedom. Inc. in Youngstown. Ohio,
ja community-based. Pan Africanist organization, I was
privileged to be among a small group of activists/organiz-
ers who launched the mobilization to hold the first Afri
can Liberation Day (ALD) inthe U.S. in 1972. The focus
Of ALD was to mobilize political and material support for
the liberation movements fighting to achieve indepen
dence in the last remaining European colonial regimes in
Africa - Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau. Angola. South
west Africa (Namibia). Rhodesia/Southern Rhodesia
(Zimbabwe). Mozambique arid of course South Africa.
Of all of these brutal regimes, the vicious apartheid re
gime in South Africa seemed to be the most impregnable.
An entrenched and determined white minority ruthlessly
controlled more than 85 percent of the land and resourc
es and compelled the vast black majority to live as sub-
humans in wretched conditions under a system of rigid
separation of the races.
Lime and time again, the white supremacist regime
demonstrated its willingness to use the state controlled
mechanisms of force/violence to crush protests, rallies
and demonstrations as evidenced by the Sharpsville mas
sacre in I960, merciless suppression of the Soweto up
rising in 1976 and countless overt efforts by the black
majority and its allies to shatter the shackles of apartheid.
But, the thirst for freedom and will to resist oppression
could not be extinguished in large measure because of the
man who came to encapsulate and symbolize the aspira
tions ol the people. Madiba. Nelson Mandela.
Mandela was the"tallest tree" in a forest that included
many movements and stellar leaders, e.g.. the Pan African
Congress. Black Consciousness Movement. Mass Dem
ocratic Movement. Steve feiko. Bishop Desmond Tutu.
Allan Boesak. Cyril Ramaphosa. Albertina and Walter
Sisulu and Oliver Tambo tfr mentton a few. This is an im
portant note because there is a tendency to cast successful
movements as the result of the acts of a solitary heroic
figure.
Mandela emerged as the face of struggle in South Afri
ca and abroad because ofhis vision, courage and commit
ment as a leader and his w illingness, if necessary to die
lor the cause a€" an expression of courage and commit
ment which he unapologetically slated at his trial before
being sentenced to prison. His willingness to face death
and suffer a long imprisonment while never surrendering
or giving up on the dream of a multiracial, democratic
South Africa is the stuff that made him the symbol and
face of the movement, arr^oia and legend even before the
apartheid regime was forced to release him.
"Free Mandela" became the battle cry of the freedom
struggle in South Africa and the world. This was certainly
the case in the U.S., most notably among the forces with
in the black liberation movement.
An incredible movement was exploding across the
country. Over the objection of the U.S. government stu
dents organized campaigns to demand that colleges/uni-
versities divest or withdraw investments from South Af
rica. City councils around the nation followed suit. There
was an aggressive effort to use economic sanctions/boy-
cotts to force U.S. corporations doing business in South
Africa to divest as well. South African lobster tails. Bud
weiser beer and Coca Cola Company come to mind as
some of the targets. Indeed "Coke Sweetens Apartheid”
was one of the more popular slogans of the time. The
Congressional Black Caucus mounted a vigorous cam
paign to impose economic sanctions on South Africa to
break the back of apartheid.AX ith the mass movement
intensifying. Congress overrode the veto of President
Ronald Reagan to impose sanctions and finally place the
U.S. government on the right side of the heroic freedom
struggle in South Africa.
In the face of fierce and unreleiWn^ resistance inside
the country and internationally, after 27 years. February
11. 1990. the illicit regime in South Africa was compelled
to free Madiba. Nelson Mandela, the courageous leader
and symbol of the movement for freedom, democracy
and economic elevation of the masses of South Africans
At last the slogan/chant "Free Mandela” had been real
ized and w ith it the hopes and dreams of a long suffering
people seemed closer to fruition. Now Mandela and the
ANC were faced with the daunting task of transforming a
resistance movement into a governing party and to navi
gate a risky path of negotiating an agreement with the
National Party that represented the white minority.
Finally. Mandela persuaded the ANC to abandon the
goal of nationalizing the major means of production,
thereby assuring that the same individuals, families and
companies that dominated the economy during the era of
apartheid would be safely in control in the new South Af
rica. This did not mean thg A^C abandoned its pledge to
improve the quality of life lor the black majority, but the
negotiated settlement meant that these promises would
' largely have to be met through policies enacted by the
government, to the means of; production and control of
the economy. Ac /
Now that our beloved Madiba. this giant of a man w ho
inspired generations to engage the struggle for a free,
non-racial. democratic South Africa has joined the ances
tors. it marks the passing of an era.
Ron Daniels is president crf the Institute of the black World
21st Century and Dislingnisijedlfeclaref al York (’oileye ('ilv
l niversity of New York. Io send a message, arrange media
interviews or speaking engagements, he can he reached via
email at info a ihw2l.org A'
Shaking Hands with Raul Castro
By Bill Fletcher, Jr.
NN PA Columnist
I have had difficulty believing the uproar in right-wing circles over President Obama shaking hands w ith Cuba's President Raul C;
I or goodness sakes, it was at the memorial for Nelson Mandela! Should Obama have spat in the face of Castro?
I he h\ pocrisv ol the political Right has been amazing. Comparing shaking Castro's hand to shaking hands with Hitler? Do these '
have no sense ol history ? Senator McCain. who decided to enter the tray, condemned President Obama, but it was McCain who shoo:
hand ol the late president ol Libe a. Qaddali. w ho the USA described as being everything but a child of God. So. why did McCain not i
his rear to Qaddafi'.’
Il is this attitude ol arrogance and bully ing that unsettles most ol the planet. Ilie political Right believes that the U.S. should treat tht
ol the world with contempt unless the world accepts our terms. I he rest of the world has a different view.
II it stopped there it would be bad enough, but it gets worse. This idea ot bullying helps to explain why we are much too close to war
Iran. It is Irom Republican "and many Democratic politicians that we have suggestions that the recent agreement with Iran was too t)
As I have asked, would they rather war? I he answer seems to be "yes.” thev want the total surrender by the Iranians to the terms tht
U.S. dictates. As it is said, that is a non-starter. But it also helps to explain why countries find it difficult to trust the intentions of this cot;
1 his brings us back to Raul C astro. I he U.S. has been working to destrox the Cuban Revolution for more than 50 years. It has orchest
a blockade, carried out terrorist assaults, assassination attempts, as well as overtly and covertly supported Cuban exiles in terror campaj
In the international arena that is known as aggression.
So. rather than asking the question ol whether it w as appropriate for President Obama to be polite and to shake the hand of President)
tro. one can actually ask: Was it not exceptional that President Castro was so polite w hen the leader of the country that has been attenii
to overthrow his administration and has permitted the existence of terrorists on its soil offered his hand?
Just asking.
liill T leicher. Jr, is a Senior Scholar with the Institute for Policy Studies, the immediate past president of TransAfrica Forum, and th
thor of The)' re bankrupting 1 s - And Twenty Other Myths about 1 'nions. hollow him on hacehook and at www.hilllletcherir.com/ 1
The 'Indispensable’ Nelson Mandela
By Lee A. Daniels
NNPA Columnist
" I he cemeteries are full ol indispensable men." Charles De Gaulle, the great, imperious hero of World War II and subsequent preside
I rance, is said to have remarked in the late 1950s to an aide w ho had just declared he was the on ly man who could save the nation.
De Gaulle was by no means the first to use that formulation to describe an eternal truth: We all must die not when it's convenient for.
the w orld but w hen the bell tolls for us.
But if it s true that indispensable people - be they our own loved ones or the world-renow ned - cannot live forever, it's also true that:
eteries cannot imprison their spirit and their impact. ‘
So it w ill be with Nelson Mandela.
Millions ot people around the world joined millions in South Africa these past two weeks in both mourning the death and celebratin
extraordinary life of Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela.
What clairvoy ance his parents had giving him that middle name. In his native Xhosa language it literally means "pulling the brancli
tree;” but its idiomatic translation is "troublemaker."
And Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela for most of his life appropriately and vigorously made plenty of trouble for those Whites within anti
side South Africa who tried to pretend the color of their skin was a mark of superiority, and have Black South Africans accept it.
He. along w ith many other Blacks, colored, and a much smaller but stalwart group of Whites added their hearts, minds and bodies t
country s freedom struggle and continuously challenged the White-supremacist government's vicious regime of apartheid.
(he lull story of the courage and endurance and determination it took to confront apartheid is still too little known in the United S
But one can gel an idea by considering the terse description of apartheid journalist Jacob Heilbrunn used more than a decade ago in briili
recounting the decades ol rhetorical support tor it expressed by American conservatives. Heilbrunn called it "the first cousin of Nazism
Mandela s leadership skills and powerful charisma early on made him a marked man of the White government's scheme to break th
rican National t ongress. the largest organization of the multiracial freedom movement. By the early 1960s. Mandela had gone into hi
But. as we now know, with the help ol America's Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the government found him. arrested him and seve
his movement colleagues, brought them to trial and secured a conviction' for crimes against the state that produced a life sentence.
I he w hite-racist government thought they had destroy ed a leader of the freedom movement. How could thev know they were doing
part to help create an "indispensable man ? Ilie isolation Mandela was to endure at Robben Island, the apartheid government's barren
colony, did not make the world forget him. It made it remember him - as the talk of decolonization and freedom filled the air in black A
and the talk of freedom and equal rights filled the air in the United States, and in South Africa.
Ol course. Mandela over the course ot his 27 y ears imprisonment did the bulk of that w ork, developing and honing the self-restraint;
ol bitterness, and grace that, along w ith his already unbreakable commitment to bringing democracv to South Africa, became the hallmi
the man. I hat enabled him to emerge from nearly three decades in prison, as President Obama said in his eulogy, "as the last great libt
of the 20th century."
Nelson Mandela s existence as a living being w as irreplaceable, vital, urgent, requisite, and all other such sy nony ms for "indispensa
Now. it s essential that we his survivors understand that the qualities that made him indispensable are still available to inspire us.
President Obama’s speech presented a powerful summary of several of them.
He urged his audience to remember that Mandela "learned his place in history through struggle and shrewdness, through persistenc
faith. He tells us w hat is possible not just in the pages of history books, but in our own lives as well."
Mandela show ed us. the president continued, "the power of action, of taking risks on behalf of our ideals,” and disciplining anger an
desire to fight into "organizations, and platforms, and strategies for action.” "testing - beliefs against the hard surface of circumstance
history, and then working to insure the ideas are "chiseled into law books and institutions." even if it entails "compromise for the saki
larger goal.”
"And finally. President Obama said. " I here is a word in South Africa Ubuntu' a word that captures Mandela's greatest gift: His rt
nition that we are all bound together in way s that are invisible to the eye: that there is a oneness to humanity: that we achieve ourselv
sharing ourselves with others, and caring for those around us.”
Z ee f. Daniels is a longtime jffmalist based in ,\eir York ('ilv. Ills latest hook is "I ast ( hanee the Political Threat to Block Ima