Sikufisela inhlanhla elangeni lakho lokuzalwa!
He has been silenced in a country where he is revered. Or he has chosen to silence himself. It's not clear which. Nelson Mandela, one of my heroes, is 88 today. And I miss his voice.
The voice of the revolutionary:
Our fight is against real, and not imaginary, hardships or, to use the language of the State Prosecutor, 'so-called hardships'. Basically, we fight against two features which are the hallmarks of African life in South Africa and which are entrenched by legislation which we seek to have repealed. These features are poverty and lack of human dignity, and we do not need communists or so-called 'agitators' to teach us about these things.
And the voice of the peaceful struggler:
We understand their call, that we devote what remains of our lives to the use of our country's unique and painful experience to demonstrate, in practice, that the normal condition for human existence is democracy, justice, peace, non-racism, non-sexism, prosperity for everybody, a healthy environment and equality and solidarity among the peoples.
Moved by that appeal and inspired by the eminence you have thrust upon us, we undertake that we too will do what we can to contribute to the renewal of our world so that none should, in future, be described as the wretched of the earth.
Let it never be said by future generations that indifference, cynicism or selfishness made us fail to live up to the ideals of humanism which the Nobel Peace Prize encapsulates.
Let the strivings of us all, prove Martin Luther King Jr to have been correct, when he said that humanity can no longer be tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war.
Let the efforts of us all, prove that he was not a mere dreamer when he spoke of the beauty of genuine brotherhood and peace being more precious than diamonds or silver or gold.
Let a new age dawn!
He has been silenced in a country where he is revered. Or he has chosen to silence himself. It's not clear which. Nelson Mandela, one of my heroes, is 88 today. And I miss his voice.
The voice of the revolutionary:
Our fight is against real, and not imaginary, hardships or, to use the language of the State Prosecutor, 'so-called hardships'. Basically, we fight against two features which are the hallmarks of African life in South Africa and which are entrenched by legislation which we seek to have repealed. These features are poverty and lack of human dignity, and we do not need communists or so-called 'agitators' to teach us about these things.
And the voice of the peaceful struggler:
We understand their call, that we devote what remains of our lives to the use of our country's unique and painful experience to demonstrate, in practice, that the normal condition for human existence is democracy, justice, peace, non-racism, non-sexism, prosperity for everybody, a healthy environment and equality and solidarity among the peoples.
Moved by that appeal and inspired by the eminence you have thrust upon us, we undertake that we too will do what we can to contribute to the renewal of our world so that none should, in future, be described as the wretched of the earth.
Let it never be said by future generations that indifference, cynicism or selfishness made us fail to live up to the ideals of humanism which the Nobel Peace Prize encapsulates.
Let the strivings of us all, prove Martin Luther King Jr to have been correct, when he said that humanity can no longer be tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war.
Let the efforts of us all, prove that he was not a mere dreamer when he spoke of the beauty of genuine brotherhood and peace being more precious than diamonds or silver or gold.
Let a new age dawn!
I was born in 1963. Nelson Mandela was in jail. I graduated from high school in 1980. Nelson Mandela was in jail. I graduated from college in 1987. Nelson Mandela was in jail. I got married in 1989. Nelson Mandela was in jail.
The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall. Nelson Mandela
I grew up in a family where the struggle for Civil Rights was conversation at the dinner table. I knew about Martin Luther King, Jr. My father spoke passionately about Mohandas K. Gandhi, his personal hero, who had come to the town where my father was born to convince the English factory workers that it would not harm them to allow the Indian people their freedom.
There is no easy walk to freedom anywhere, and many of us will have to pass through the valley of the shadow of death again and again before we reach the mountaintop of our desires. Nelson Mandela
I do not remember the first time I heard the name "Mandela." But he haunted my thoughts in high school and college. I read his ex-wife, Winnie's biography, Part of My Soul Went With Him. I marched in front of the South African consulate in Seattle. There was so much to feel helpless about when I was in college. Ronald Reagan was the president, and I thought that I could not bear those eight years. That the world had gone mad, and the death squads in Central America, South African apartheid, the destruction of the social safety net, the threat to women's rights, the dismantling of education, all of it, would be too much to bear.
And still, Nelson Mandela sat in jail. I tried to imagine his life. My mind could not go there. I thought that such a life would make me insane, that I could never hold up under the conditions that he experienced.
Only free men can negotiate; prisoners cannot enter into contracts. Your freedom and mine cannot be separated. Nelson Mandela
In the past 26 years, I have felt my passion ebb and flow, my belief that things will change alter with time and tide. There have been times of such utter rage and sorrow that I have been rendered helpless. And there have been times when I have been able to keep myself focused by doing the "next right thing."
We must use time wisely and forever realize that the time is always ripe to do right.Nelson Mandela
How, I wonder, did Nelson Mandela maintain his sanity in those years? I have not been able to maintain my focus and I have been given relative freedom. No one has locked me away in a jail cell, separated from my loved ones, alone save for my thoughts.
On February 11, 1990, Mandela was released from jail. I remember the day clearly. I remember standing in my living room in my apartment in Seattle and hearing the news. I remember that the first thing I did was that I wept. And then I played Peter Gabriel's "Biko" and wept some more.
Finally, I put on Tracy Chapman's song, "Freedom Now" and I played it over and over again. As I listened, my tears began to dry. My feet began to move. And I danced. I danced because it felt, at that moment, like a small bit of sanity had been returned to the world. A tiny flicker of hope rattled in my chest like a hummingbird.
I have not felt that flicker for a while now. And I wait, how I wait, for the thrum within me that tells me that all will be well.
FREEDOM NOW
Tracy ChapmanThey throwed him in jail
And they kept him there
Hoping soon he'd die
That his body and spirit would waste away
And soon after that his mindBut every day is born a fool
One who thinks that he can rule
One who says tomorrow's mine
One who wakes one day to find
The prison doors open the shackles broken
And chaos in the streetEverybody sing we're free free free free
Everybody sing we're free free free free
Everybody sing we're free free free freeThey throwed him in jail
And they kept him there
Hoping his memory'd die
That the people forget how he once led
And fought for justice in their livesBut every day is born a man
Who hates what he can't understand
Who thinks the answer is to kill
Who thinks his actions are god's willAnd he thinks he's free free free free
Yes he thinks he's free free free free
He thinks he's free free free freeSoon must come the day
When the righteous have their way
Unjustly tried are free
And people live in peace I say
Give the man release
Go on and set your conscience free
Right the wrongs you made
Even a fool can have his dayLet us all be free free free free
Let us all be free free free free
Let us all be free free free freeFree our bodies free our minds
Free our hearts
Freedom for everyone
And freedom nowFreedom now
Freedom now
Freedom nowLet us all be free free free free
Let us all be free free free free
Let us all be free free free free
Bookmark/Search this post with:
| 
| 
| 
| 
| 
Activism | Civil Rights | Human Rights | Peace | Racism | Nelson Mandela | South Africa
