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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 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. 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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