Mandela: Legacy betrayed by hypocrisy
By Bernard Bwoni
First and foremost I would want to express my sincere
condolences to the Mandela family, the people of South Africa for their loss
and may his kind and selfless soul rest in peace. The man was a revolutionary
first and global statesman second no doubt about that. It is quite endearing to
see how the man was loved by so many, a hero to South Africans he helped
liberate, a celebrity to those who once referred to him as a terrorist and
detained indefinitely and a global statesman to those who heard about him. Some
have called him a ‘sell-out’ who pandered to the whims of the racist apartheid
system, some have labelled him a global icon and some Africans have remained
neutral. Mandela brought political independence and peace to South Africa and at
that contentious and crucial time political power was more than enough. Black
South Africa had to learn to crawl before they could walk. The man deserves our
respect as Africans. Let this African hero rest in peace after 27 years of
torture, privation, humiliation and being broken down by a racist and
unforgiving system.
Let us respect and honour what Mandela stood for and not
what he achieved or did not achieve and could not achieve. He was absent for 27
years and to be fair there was not enough time to achieve it all. The man has
left a legacy for politically independent South Africa and for those who he
forgave and indirectly or directly re-empowered. Africa has its heroes and
legends and they are not worldwide political celebrities. The Mandela legacy
was hijacked by the same system that incarcerated and broke him down. I
sympathise with Mandela, a selfless man under siege from his own legacy due to
the hypocrisy of a permanently irreversible racist system that continually manifests
itself in duplicitous and disingenuous forms. One moment Mandela is a terrorist
because of his pro-people policies, the next he is the world’s greatest
statesman because his selflessness safeguarded the interests of white apartheid
South Africa. It is quite insincere how the establishment wants the world to
perceive this great son of Africa. He is portrayed as a man who forgave and
forgot the evils of an unforgiving and relentless system that only serves its
own interests and no one else; an unrepentant system that continues to deceive
and misinform at the expense of the African continent. Mandela was a fiery and
uncompromising young black African revolutionary who challenged a racist and
unjust system. A young man with the African ideology indelibly tattooed on his
spirit. 27 years in penitentiary for that ideological tattoo he paid. That is
the Mandela the western media circus will never celebrate. The Mandela the racist
system broke down we respect for his resilience and humility. The man had a
cause, a just cause for that matter. The worldwide media celebrity that got
separated from the revolutionary we still respect and honour. The establishment
that separated the revolutionary from the man Africa must forever guard
against.
I always wonder why men of principle and uncompromising
commitment to the African ideology such
as Patrice Lumumba, Robert Mugabe, Kwame Nkrumah, Steve Biko, Amilcar Cabral, Thomas Sankara and
Muammar Gadaffi just to name a few have been confined to the back pages of
history books. The common defining feature about these Africans is their
unswerving assiduity to the African cause, to upgrade and economically empower
black African lives. The selfless, humble and broken Mandela had no choice but
to choose peace and political power over economic emancipation. On the other
hand the forgotten and invisible visionary African leaders put emphasis on cascading
real power down to the people, advocating for policies that focused on African
self-sustenance and self-reliance and deconstructing that neo-colonial structure
that continues to render Africans perennially indebted to those who subjugated
and economically raped the African continent for centuries. Who really defines
our heroes as Africans? How come it is African leaders who focused on
ameliorating black African people’s lives who are portrayed as demons and
devils worldwide? Patrice Lumumba was mercilessly slaughtered for his people
orientated policies and his resistance to Belgian neo-colonial advances in the
Katanga region. Thomas Sankara, a morally upright and pragmatic African legend
who at the time of his brutal assassination owned a Renault 5 car, a handful
bikes and received a $450 a month salary has never and most likely will never
feature on the celebrity-crazy establishment media. Robert Mugabe has endured unimaginable western
media onslaught and demonization for his unwavering committal to economically
empower the people of Zimbabwe through his people-focused land reform and
indigenisation policies. Colonel Gadaffi was callously and cowardly murdered
for it. Lumumba suffered the same fate, so did Cabral. The African ideology
will never be allowed to take root because it goes against the 500 year plan to
continually exploit the continent of its abundant natural resources until fully
exhausted. Any ideology that seeks to economically empower black Africa will
forever be suffocated and ridiculed.
It is quite disheartening that our heroes are being
defined by those who have historically relegated Africans to perpetual serfdom and
servitude. Mandela is an African icon, a legend and revolutionary, a young man who
got up one day and said enough is enough of this injustice and racism and the
price he paid for his dedication to the African cause was 27 years in prison.
An Africa which decides and defines its own heroes is a truly liberated Africa.
Let us respect and honour our heroes and never forsake them because the
establishment said so. Let us honour our heroes and respect them for putting
their lives on hold to liberate us all.
Bernard Bwoni (the African ideology will not die)
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