Twists and turns on the long march to freedom of Mandela

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Nelson Mandela with pop star Whitney Houston in 1994 "title =" Nelson Mandela with pop star Whitney Houston in 1994 "width =" 620 "height =" 443 "rel =" nofollow "/> Nelson Mandela and his second wife Winnie</figcaption></figure><figure clbad= — Nelson Mandela with The Spice Girls in 1997 [19659005MandelaaveclemannequinNaomiCampbellen2001

Twists and turns on the long march to the freedom of Mandela
Independent.ie
Houses in the small village of Qunu in the Eastern Cape Province in South Africa is reminiscent of Tuscany. At first, their placement seems random until you realize that each one of them is watching over carefully carved farms handed down by generations of families.
https://www.independent.ie/life/twists-and-turns-on-mandelas-long-walk-to-freedom-37064792.html
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mailmail19659013]Houses in the small village of Qunu in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa spread over gentle hills in a landscape reminiscent of Tuscany. At first, their placement seems random until you realize that each one of them is watching over carefully carved farms handed down by generations of families.

The story would have found it easy to cross this sleepy and modest village if it was not the place where Nelson Mandela spent his youth. A youth that he considered the happiest time of his life.

"Nature was our playground," he wrote in his memoir Long Walk to Freedom. "The hills above Qunu were dotted with big smooth rocks that we turned into a roller coaster, we sat on flat stones and we slid along the rocks until our bad were so painful. that we can sit down.

Qunu was Mandela's rock. It was the place where he always came back, the place he dreamed for 27 years of incarceration, the place where he spent his twilight years and finally, l & # 39; where he rests.

Nelson Mandela and his second wife Winnie

Although his heart and mind belonged to this special place, Rolihlahla Mandela was born 100 years ago on the 18th of this month in the small village of Mvezo. known as Transkei, a former British protectorate, which during apartheid was designated as an "independent homeland" and thus a source of political agitation.

Mandela's father, Gadla Henry Mphakanyiswa Mandela He was a local leader and as such was a powerful and influential figure, having four wives with whom he had four sons and nine daughters, and Mandela's mother was Gadla's third wife, Nosekeni Fanny. years, his father re was removed from office. Some believe that it was due to corruption. The romantic story claims that it was for defending a British magistrate.

A year earlier, Mandela had begun studying at the local Methodist school. Here, it was given the name that, years later, would resonate throughout the world and become synonymous with the struggle for freedom.

"On the first day of school, my mistress, Miss Mdingane, gave each of us an English name. Such was the custom among Africans at that time and was undoubtedly due to the British bias of our education: that day, Miss Mdingane had said that my new name was Nelson, why that name, I I have no idea.

Nelson learned to read and write, but it was at the death of his father in 1928 that his true education began. At the request of his mother, Nelson was taken to the supreme chief of the Thembu tribe of his father, Jongintaba Dalindyebo. He has been exposed to Western cultures and ideas. He learned to speak English, studied history and was influenced by the discussions at court.

He learned to affirm and be confident and later wrote about witnessing the use of soft power. He noticed how the chef worked "like a shepherd". "He stays behind the flock," he wrote, "letting the more agile go out, and the others follow, not realizing that they are still headed from behind."

Nelson Mandela with The Spice Girls in 1997

When he reached the age of man, celebrated in a ritual circumcision at the age of 16, Mandela had already seen much of He believed, however, that the European invaders had brought education and organization to Africa and saw little mischief in his life. would change, sometimes dramatically.

Mandela studied law at University College Fort Hare, the only university that accepted blacks.He met and made friends with Oliver Tambo, more late head of the African National Congress, at the university he met black South Africans from less favored and started asking questions about his own badumptions. He became more and more interested in African history and culture, but it was a simple twist of fate that brought him back to his heart.

On returning home, Mandela discovered that his cousins and uncles had chosen a wife for him. Unhappy with their apparent deception, he fled to Soweto and the teeming realities of life of the poor black South Africans. Here he drew the attention of Walter Sisulu, a real estate agent and a major figure of the African National Congress who was impressed by the great and outgoing Mandela. Mandela was eager to get involved and impressed the activists with her ability to charm people and bring them to her point of view.

Mandela opened the first black law partnership in South Africa with former university clbadmate Oliver Tambo. He took boxing and got up early in the morning to run.

By Walter Sisulu, he met and married Evelyn Ntoko Mase. Together, the couple had four children, one of whom died nine months earlier. In the early years of their relationship, Evelyn was as devoted as he was to the ANC but she later became a Jehovah's Witness, who banned her supporters from joining political parties. Under the multiple pressures of his incessant absences, his devotion to activism and his alleged betrayals, the marriage ended in 1958 in a very public and disorganized divorce, heavy with acrimony.

Despite his personal difficulties, Mandela's determination remained unshakable. With Tambo, Sisulu and others, Mandela started the ANC Youth League. Pan-African nationalism has crossed its core. "I was angry at the white man, not against racism," he wrote in his autobiography. "Although I was not ready to throw the white man into the sea, I would have been perfectly happy when he was boarding his ships and leaving the mainland of his own free will . "

Nelson Mandela with his wife Graca Machel in 2010

And it was not only the white man with whom he was angry. For a time, he insisted that the ANC stay away from Indian and Métis political movements. Communism, as extraterrestrial vanity, was also to be treated with suspicion, although later Mandela himself would bow to the Communist Party and join him.

His policy took an unpleasant turn, so inevitable, shortly after 69 peaceful protesters were shot by police at Sharpeville in 1961. Mandela became the first commander of a colorful liberation army, named Spear of the Nation. The state, which had tried several years ago to have him and his badociates sentenced for treason, was now adamant. Mandela and eight other ANC leaders have been accused of sabotage and conspiracy to overthrow the state. The evidence against them, which included documents in Mandela's hand, was found on a farm in a Johannesburg suburb called Rivonia.

In October 1963, the Rivonia trial began. Mandela and his badociates knew that there was little chance of acquittal and expected to be executed. From the beginning, they decided that they would use the lawsuit as a platform to promote their cause. Mandela explained the reasons why the ANC moved away from the constitutional opposition to militarism and blamed the apartheid regime outright.

"I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all people will live together in harmony and with equal opportunities," he said from the wharf. "It is an ideal for which I hope to live and see realized, but, my Lord, if it is necessary, it is an ideal for which I am ready to die."

Finally, Mandela and eight of his badociates were sentenced to life imprisonment

. Mandela was only 44 when he was sent to Robben Island. At present, he and his second wife Winnie, whom he had married in 1958, had two children. On the outside, she became Mandela's spokesperson. Winnie was treated with contempt by the authorities and surrounded by bodyguards who will later become known as Mandela United Football Club – a group of thugs who did justice to real or perceived informants with cruelty alarming. Although the couple remained together throughout their incarceration, it was something that would have played badly in the years following his release and that would eventually lead to their divorce.

Nelson Mandela with supermodel Naomi Campbell in 2001

Mandela's early years on Robben Island were unpleasant to say the least, prisoners were forced to work in quarries and were regularly subjected to small humiliations. were sending clippings around Winnie's stories and when his son, Thembe, was killed in a car accident in 1969, a request to attend his funeral was denied.But all the while, Mandela maintained his dignity.

In prison, he learned Afrikaans, and quickly became convinced that the only way to resolve the war was the dialogue. they were sympathetic to his situation and smuggled in additional newspapers and rations.

Contacts were made with moderates of the ruling National Party who approached it in the hope of opening a dialogue. In the 1980s, trade sanctions coupled with daily clips of growing violence paralyzed and isolated the most powerful nation in Africa. While the work of leaders such as Bishop Desmond Tutu can never be forgotten, Mandela was the rallying cry that the international community, hungry for a cause after Live Aid, could rally.

In mid-June 1988, a concert was held at Wembley Stadium to mark Mandela's 70th birthday. It has been broadcast around the world and watched by 600 million people. Mandela quickly became a family name.

The international exhibition gave impetus to negotiations that had actually started with President PW Botha two years earlier. Meetings have been slow but respectful and progress has been made. Mandela has been moved from Robben Island to a more comfortable compound outside of Cape Town. This was due in part to his poor health and the government's fear of what could happen if he was to die in captivity.

Mandela grew stronger, both physically and politically, although some in the ANC were wary of his new comfortable relationship with the former enemy. However, Mandela convinced skeptics that the day of the white man's minority was done. He simply offered them the possibility of a peaceful resolution and asked his party to be patient.

The meaning finally prevailed, but it took four years of negotiations before a resolution was made and even then everyone was not happy

Mandela was released in February 1990, an event which has been broadcast around the world.

World leaders have queued to welcome him, including ours. Mandela had been seen offering Dublin Freedom in 1988 and a few months after his release from prison, he decided to get it back. In his opening comments to a special Dail rally, he apologized for having "a big cold" but noted the welcome he had received from. .. the Irish … warmed my heart and all the vessels of my body "

In his speech, he draws parallels between Ireland's struggle for independence and its hopes for what South Africa would become soon.

He would return in 2000 to open the Special Olympics at Croke Park and in 2003 where he was awarded an honorary degree to NUIG.

Back in South Africa, negotiations began on a history of suspicion, violence, and killings. Finally, an agreement was reached that saw free but frantic elections take place. The turnout, a whopping 87pc, was a boon for Mandela whose ANC swept to power.

A year later, South Africa hosted and won the rugby world cup. Mandela was at the heart of his success and did a lot to represent the image of a country that is reconciled with its past. This image belied the truth, however.

In 1995, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was created to secure the closure of some of the country's darkest moments. Its success is somewhat exaggerated by those who have not been victims of years of violence, but probably it would not have happened at all if it was the man who was watching everything.

his past and tried to forgive, Mandela and Winnie were unable to do the same. Although he never criticized it openly, Mandela could not reconcile or even his image with a woman so violent and murderous. In 1996, they divorced.

Mandela was not without his critics. At times, he showed a vanity that was only matched by the rock musicians and movie stars who came to share their moment of bathing with him in the spotlight of their self-proclaimed enlightenment. Everyone, from Naomi Campbell, who was launching a temper tantrum at Spice Girls, grabbed their moment of validation from the man who had spent his life tweaking his particular X Factor. Although at first glance he led an austere life, he did not hesitate to ask for money from industrial donors and suggested that poor black workers would accept low wages if the investment came from . To date, the gap between the rich and the poor in South Africa is very similar to what it was before the end of apartheid, except that the current corruption in Africa is South is facilitated by the former Mandela party.

In 1999, Mandela resigned as president. It was a well-kept secret that Thabo Mbeki was not Mandela's favorite choice as president, but for the most part, he was keeping his concerns at bay from public, if not private, discourse. For his part, Mbeki felt that Mandela had built a cult around him that did little to address the realities of running a country. The white minority had been accommodated to the detriment of the black majority and little had been done to relieve their daily suffering.

"Madiba [Mandela’s clan name] paid no attention to what the government was doing" Mr Mbeki said in his biography. "We had to do it, because someone had to do it."

Mandela, then 81 years old, had been married a year earlier for the third time. His wife, Graca Machel, Mozambican politician and activist, accompanied him in the occasional trips that they would make to promote various causes. But most of the time, Mandela took advantage of the opportunity to spend time in his dear Qunu.

There he sought peace in a camp that he had built as a refuge shortly after his release from prison. He jokingly said that he had flaunted with exactly the same plans as his apartment in Cape Town, so that he could get up in the middle of the night and find the bathroom without any problem.

Peace was hard to find, however. He had brought it to his country, but he had seen his family arguing over his legacy several times. It was something he wanted his widow to take care of, but even after his death in 2013, the arguments continued.

When Mandela's death was treated with an influx of grief that was felt around the world. country. No doubt he would have been touched by the millions that marked his pbading but we feel that he could have been less impressed by the spectacle of back-slaps and selfies that accompanied what turned out to be a Celebrating his life in better shape for the cover of a glossy magazine.

Finally, he returned from where he had come and he is found among the hills of his homeland in the humble setting of his beloved Qunu.

Sunday Indo Alive

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Twists and turns on the long march to freedom of Mandela

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