allAfrica.com: Nigeria: Mandela - Model, Mascot, Hero (Page 1 of 1)

Like millions of people around the world, I was present at the 90th birthday party of Nelson Mandela, courtesy of satellite television. On CNN, it was a delight to see Mandela, a man who is as revered as he is loved, having a great time in London with activists and musicians from different parts of the world. He had a twinkle in his eye as he sang, waved, danced and spoke to the crowd - and the millions of others who tuned in. Two decades over the Biblical standard of life expectancy, Mandela's limbs are not as supple as they used to be. But the world's "Favourite Father", as African-American actor and musician and actor Will Smith described him, showed that he still loves to have fun.

There were over 50,000 thousand people at the London concert but he was not only the guest of honour, he was also the star of the show. According to the Associated Press, "Will Smith charmed the crowd, Amy Winehouse wowed them just by showing up - but Nelson Mandela proved to be the biggest star of all "

It couldn't have been otherwise. Like all enduring legends, the Mandela mystique is a blend of substance and style - the substance of his great achievements as a revolutionary activist, and his personal inimitable style. This style has several unforgettable components, now universally familiar: the Mandela grin, the Mandela walk, and of course, most iconic of all, the colourful Mandela shirt, an emblem of vibrant hope, if ever there was one.

He has earned the tributes. The Madiba, as he is fondly called in his homeland, endured a lot while fighting for freedom and equality in his country. For daring to believe and act on his conviction that the black man in South Africa is not only equal to the white, but deserving of the respect and benefits which his white rulers enjoyed, he was hunted like an animal. The tale of his incarceration, along with his other comrades, in a bleak penal complex called Robben Island, for 27 hard years is now a modern fable, known to millions of people around the world. The story has become so well known that many of us have forgotten the most awful part of the tale: that for most of those 27 years, Mandela had no hope that he would ever allowed out of Robben Island as a free man. Given the determination of the apartheid regime to crush all opposition to the racist ideology upon which it based its complete domination of all aspects of society in South Africa, Mandela knew that the best he could hope for was to leave the prison in a coffin. Considering the fate of Steve Biko and other victims of the Boer government, the possibility that he would end his life inside the sharks residing in the waters surrounding Robben Island was a very real one. In that sense, the title of the famous book published in 1978 to commemorate his 60th birthday which was celebrated while he was in prison - The Struggle is My Life - was no glib revolutionary slogan. It was very accurate, literally and profoundly. Mandela simply did not see any life beyond the bars of his prison cell. He was ready to die for his beliefs.

It is important to keep these facts of the life and legacy of this very remarkable man in mind as the world celebrates him. Some of us have been very fortunate to witness some of the remarkable events of the later part of his life - his release from prison (after he rejected offers of freedom that did not include the release of his comrades), his inauguration as the first President of a free South Africa and his voluntary decision to leave office after his first term, a very unAfrican thing to do.

In many ways, Mandela has lived up to the high standards of courage and conviction he set in his youth. This is no mean feat. As the ongoing tragic deconstruction of Robert Mugabe, a man who just two decades ago was considered by many Mandela's equal in the ranks of Africa's heroes shows, it is very difficult to remain consistent over a long stretch of life. Falling from a pedestal is easy as falling down the stairs especially when you've been "upstairs" for too long. It is no accident that most enduring heroes died young. Ever rarer, Mandela's impeccable revolutionary credentials have been topped by his high achievements in humanity and decency. By choosing to forgive those who treated him so badly because they did not recognize his humanity, Mandela demonstrated a higher level of humanity.

Criticizing Mandela is like condemning mother's milk - an exercise of dubious value with negligible chances of success. Watching the global bout of frenzied festivity inspired by his 90th birthday, however, I cannot but wonder if the man and what he stands for have not been hijacked by people who prefer a safe and sanitized version of his life and legacy at the expense of grittier, inconvenient truths. Today the media image of Mandela is that of a teddy bear humanist, very lovable, very unthreatening. He is the man who makes the West feel good without the inconvenience of having to remember the terrible things they did to Africa and the even more terrible things they continue to do to us in other more devious ways such as the inequities that characterize world trade. Mandela has become some kind of mascot, dressed up and trotted out by the western media to show that there is at least one superior African in existence.

He is the favourite photo opportunity for every pop singer from Europe or America who pops into Johannesbourg or Cape Town. The man who fought so hard and so long for majority rule in South Africa is being turned into a mere grinning back drop. In the process, the essence of the man and even the facts of his life are being distorted and forgotten. There was a reminder of one of those inconvenient facts recently. This is from a report by the French news agency, AFP dated July 2, 2008:

"In time for the anti-apartheid leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner's 90th birthday on July 18, President George W Bush signed a bill on Tuesday (local time) which effectively ended a system in which Mr Mandela had to get special certification from the US Secretary of State that he is not a terrorist in order to visit the United States."

The report tells two stories which you don't hear often in our brave new, globalized world. The first is that Mandela was, for many years, considered a murderous communist terrorist by the leaders of the "free world" led by late US President Ronald Reagan and former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. They supported the regime in South Africa because the campaign to achieve racial and political equality in South Africa was a greater danger to their interests than apartheid. Uppity blacks like Mandela who were working to overthrow this system of injustice were the enemy.

The second moral from the AFP dispatch is this: even as the west celebrated him and built monuments in his honour such as the humongous stature in front of the British Parliament, they still didn't quite trust him. A former communist could always have a relapse! Is it not an absolute scandal that he is just now being issued a clean bill of health from the terrorist virus which ailed him not so long ago?

It's ok to celebrate, but the 90th birthday of this great man should also be an opportunity to reflect on the times, the events and the issues that animated the struggle that was his life, the struggle that made him great.

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