RIP Nelson Mandela
Nelson Mandela has died at the age of 95, and the inevitable articles have appeared summarizing his life and accomplishments. Some laud him as a saint, or at the very least, saintly. Others use the occasion to make political points of various kinds.
Mandela was a complex figure whose long life encompassed many changes and some contradictions and flaws. For example, he was an advocate of violence in his youth, and if not a Communist certainly a Communist sympathizer (a buddy of Castro) and a socialist. He was pro-Palestinian and pro-Arafat.
But he was a great man and turned out to be a surprising one, given his earlier history. When Mandela emerged from prison into a changed world and South African leadership, he decided to go a different way than the rest of the new black leaders of Africa:
In the half century since white colonial rule ended in Africa, leaders in country after country have promised freedom and democracy only to become corrupt dictators, often unleashing killing fields of violence. Uganda’s Idi Amin. Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe. The list is long.
Mandela had more reason than most to follow this very human path of vanity and racial revenge: he spent 27 years in white-run prisons, many in solitary confinement, many doing hard labor. But Mandela responded by doing the opposite, the unexpected. He became the anti-dictator. He became, in his own lifetime, a history-changing figure with powerful moral authority like India’s Mahatma Gandhi or Burma’s Aung San Suu-Kyi…
…[W]hen he was finally freed [from prison] in 1990, he worked with white President F.W. de Klerk to keep whites from fleeing, to prevent a wave of racial violence…[W]hen Mandela won the first democratic elections in 1994, he appointed de Klerk his deputy and kept many whites in the government, the exact opposite of the cruel, kick-them-out revenge others wanted…[H]e established Truth and Reconciliation Commissions, offering amnesty for the truth…[H]e used sports to promote reconciliation, encouraging blacks to support the once-hated Springboks, South Africa’s white rugby team…[A]fter just one term as president, he stepped down.
That last sentence is especially telling: he did not consolidate and extend his personal power in the way of so many dictators. Perhaps something about his 27 years of prison acted as a crucible to allow him to emerge a better and wiser person than when he went in. But there was nothing inevitable about that result, and it speaks to Mandela’s own strength of character that it happened that way.
What will happen to South Africa now? It may go down the dreadful path of some of its neighbors. But if it does not, it will be no small thanks to Nelson Mandela.
RIP.
Socially and economically, South Africa has in fact been declining for some time, and that will inexorably continue, thanks to tribalism, cronyism and corruption. And never leave out Leftism; as Mandela was infected, so were and still are many, many more, all full of self-pity and envy, seeking ‘social justice’. See the recent miners’ strikes; in response, some mines have simply been permanently shut down.
RIP, Mandela. A Huge Figure without doubt. His stepping away from the presidency after just one term was transpiring.
I have been posting on some bords my ideas on what made American exceptionalism: basically a mature culture that results in the rule of law. I think his behaviour is an example of that.
I know he was a leftist and perhaps communist. Still, whatever his beliefs, his actions in the 90s suggest a mature behaviour, the type required to make things work out well. Alas I doubt those who follow him will ever behave this well.
I appreciate the USA Today excerpt, neo, and your focus on the choices Mandela made when given the opportunity to grab much more power or to exact vengeance. Reminds me of our first and perhaps greatest president.
Always a big mistake to use Forward as a source for anything. Its attacks on Jews/Judaism and Israel tend to be even more despicable than those of the non-Jewish left. Maybe it’s because people there can always use the “Jewish” card to divert some of the fair criticism they face.
Mandela was much worse than that. He still supported “violent struggle” against Israel (a “terrorist state”) and his history with diamonds, terrorism and David Rockfeller shed some light on his real personality
Putin also stepped down from power when it came time, is he considered a saint too?
Ymarsakar:
Mandela could have run again and stepped down voluntarily.
As for Putin:
There’s no difference. Just Mandela decided to do it earlier and transfer power back to his tribal and family connections.
Putin was stretching things for as long as it took, but he made a power transfer, just a more obvious one.
None of it make much difference. Yet people think it did.
No doubt apartheid, as a statist institution, had to be destroyed; but I wonder if that automatically makes Mandela a good guy. I’m not saying he wasn’t, but I’m automatically suspicious of whoever the Hive wants to canonize.