Mandela: Prophet, Liberator or Both (Part I)

As the child grew older, he played the games young boys his age played, acting out male roles with toys he made from the natural materials available to him, including tree branches and clay.NINETY-five years ago, in a small village in South Africa, a country located at the southernmost tip of the continent of Africa and spanning the coastline of the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans, a male child was born. They named him him Rolihlahla. 

Later in life, he was to gravitate to academia, choosing for himself the path of advocacy. In retrospect, he might have well been predestined to that calling without even being aware of it; they call it ‘providence’ in the ecclesiastical community. For, when exposed to the injustices that existed in his society, and the oppressive and discriminatory tactics of the ‘ruling class’ — a system later referred to as ‘Apartheid’ — it was he, together with his other countrymen, who led the struggle for equality and justice; a struggle that imprisoned him; redefined him; made him prophet to those around him who looked to his counsel; and finally rewarded him, as he was to become the voice of reason, advocate, ultimate liberator, and that beacon, until his death, for which the bowels of South Africa yearned.

Growing up
Nelson Mandela was born Rolihlahla Mandela on July 18, 1918, in the tiny village of Mvezo, on the banks of the Mbashe River in Transkei, South Africa.
The word “Rolihlahla”, in the Xhosa tongue, literally means “pulling the branch of a tree,” but the more common translation is “troublemaker”. His father, who was destined to be a chief, served as a counselor to tribal chiefs for several years, but lost both title and fortune in a dispute with the local colonial magistrate.
Mandela was only an infant at the time, and his father’s loss of status forced his mother to move the family to Qunu, an even smaller village north of Mvezo.
Nestled as it was in a narrow, grassy valley, there were no roads; only footpaths that linked the pastures where livestock grazed. Those who lived there lived in huts, and ate a local harvest of maize, sorghum, pumpkin and beans, which was all they could afford. Water came from springs and streams, and cooking was done outdoors.
Rolihlahla would be the first in his family to attend school; and as was the custom at the time, probably due to the bias of the Colonial educational system in South Africa, his teacher told him that his new Christian name would be Nelson.
Then, at the age of nine, he lost his father to lung disease, which wrought a dramatic change in his young life, which, in hindsight, was a fortuitous development.
He was adopted by Chief Jongintaba Dalindyebo, the acting regent of the Thembu people, a gesture done as a favour to Mandela’s father, who, years earlier, had recommended Jongintaba be made chief.
Leaving behind the carefree life he knew in Qunu, his heart heavy at the thought of never seeing his beloved village again, he travelled by car to Mqhekezweni, the provincial capital of Thembuland, to the Chief’s royal residence.

Life of privilege
Though he had not entirely forgotten Qunu, he quickly adapted to the new, more sophisticated surroundings of Mqhekezweni. And rightly so, as he was accorded the same status and responsibilities as the Regent’s two other children — his son and oldest child, Justice, and daughter Nomafu.
Mandela took classes at a one-room school next to the Palace, studying English, Xhosa, History and Geography. It was during this period that he developed an interest in African History from elder chiefs who came to the Great Palace on official business.
He learned how the African people had lived in relative harmony until the coming of the Whites. According to the elders, the children of South Africa had previously lived as brothers, but the White man made it his duty to sow disunity. The were taught too that while the Blacks were inclined to share, whether it was land, water or else, the Whites were not so disposed, preferring to take whatever they wanted, by force, if necessary.
When Mandela turned 16, it was time for him to partake in the traditional African circumcision ritual to mark his entrance into manhood. The ceremony of circumcision was not just a surgical procedure, but an elaborate ritual in preparation for manhood. In African tradition, an uncircumcised man cannot inherit his father’s wealth, marry, or officiate at tribal rituals.
Mandela participated in the ceremony with 25 other boys. He welcomed the opportunity to partake in his people’s customs, and felt ready to make the transition from boyhood to manhood. His mood shifted during the proceedings, however, when Chief Meligqili, the main speaker at the ceremony, spoke sadly of the plight of the young men, explaining that they were being enslaved in their own country.
Because their land was controlled by the Whites, they would never have the power to govern themselves, the chief said. He went on to lament that the promise of the young men would be squandered as they struggled to make a living and perform mindless chores for the White man. Those were to be the words, though not fully understood then, that would eventually formulate Mandela’s resolve for an independent South Africa.

Grooming for high office
From the time Mandela came under the guardianship of Regent Jongintaba, he was groomed to assume high office, not as a chief, but a counselor to one. As Thembu royalty, Mandela attended a Wesleyan mission school, the Clarkebury Boarding Institute, and Wesleyan College, where he would later state that he achieved academic success through “plain hard work.” He also excelled at track and filed, and boxing.

In 1939, Mandela enrolled at the University College of Fort Hare, the only residential centre of higher learning for Blacks in South Africa at the time. Fort Hare was considered Africa’s equivalent to Oxford or Harvard’s, drawing scholars from all parts of sub-Sahara Africa.

In his first year at university, Mandela took the required courses, but focused more on Roman Dutch Law so as to prepare himself for a career in the Civil Service as either an interpreter or clerk, both of wehich posts were regarded back then as the best professions a Black man could obtain at the time.
In his second year at Fort Hare, Mandela was elected to the Student Representative Council. For some time, students had been dissatisfied with the food and lack of power held by the SRC. During this election, a majority of students voted to boycott unless their demands were met.
Aligning himself with the student majority, Mandela resigned from his position. Seeing this as an act of insubordination, the university’s Dr. Kerr expelled Mandela for the rest of the year, and gave him an ultimatum: He could return to school if he agreed to serve on the SRC. When Mandela returned home, the Regent (his adopted father) was furious, telling him unequivocally that he would have to recant his decision and go back to school in the fall. And that was not all to confront the returning Nelson; a few weeks after he returned home, Regent Jongintaba announced that he had arranged a marriage for him.
Shocked by the news, feeling trapped, and believing that he had no other option than to follow this recent order, Mandela ran away from home. He settled in Johannesburg, where he worked at a variety of jobs, including as a guard and a clerk, while completing his First Degree via correspondence courses. He then enrolled at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg to study law.
The indomitable spirit in the man, however, soon made him realise that while he can run away from subjugation of his choice in his private life, he could not run away from himself; the circumstances of apartheid (An official policy of racial segregation involving political, legal, and economic discrimination) in South Africa; his people, and the call to public service that beckoned. Mandela soon became actively involved in the anti-apartheid movement, joining the African National Congress in 1942. Within the ANC, a small group of young Africans banded together, calling themselves the African National Congress Youth League. Their goal was to transform the ANC into a mass grassroots movement, deriving strength from millions of rural peasants and working people who had no voice under the current regime. Specifically, the group believed that the ANC’s old tactics of polite petitioning were ineffective. In 1949, the ANC officially adopted the Youth League’s methods of boycott, strike, civil disobedience and non-cooperation, with policy goals of – full citizenship, redistribution of land, trade union rights, and free and compulsory education for all children.
For 20 years, Mandela directed peaceful, nonviolent acts of defiance against the South African government and its racist policies, including the 1952 Defiance Campaign and the 1955 Congress of the People. He founded the law firm Mandela and Tambo, partnering with Oliver Tambo, a brilliant student he’d met while attending Fort Hare. The law firm provided free and low-cost legal counsel to unrepresented blacks. But, in 1956, Mandela and 150 others were arrested and charged with treason for their political advocacy (they were eventually acquitted).
The struggle, nevertheless, continued as the scourge of Apartheid ravaged the oppressed. Thus, in March 1960, the Sharpeville Massacre brought the struggle against apartheid into the international spotlight. A massive number of black protestors led a demonstration at a police station in the township of Sharpeville. Police reacted violently against the protest, killing over 69 people. The massacre became a flashpoint for the fight against apartheid. This resulted in, Mandela, who was formerly committed to nonviolent protest, embracing the belief that armed struggle was the only way to achieve change. He subsequently co-founded Umkhonto we Sizwe or “spear of the nation”, an armed offshoot of the ANC dedicated to sabotage and guerilla war tactics to end apartheid. (To be continued next week)
Written By Horace Cummings

 

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