Reflections on the Life and Legacy of Nelson Mandela
The natural death of Nelson Mandela is the end of not only a monumental life but also
an historic era.
Like any spectacular cultural icon, Mandela was many things to all of us.
Yet if we are to be true to his complex life and precious legacy, we must pierce through
the superficial surfaces and market-driven fanfares.
Mandela was a child of his age and a man who transcended and transformed his times.
He was a revolutionary South African nationalist who embraced communists even as he embodied
his Christian faith and enacted his democratic temperament.
He was a congenial statesman whose prudential style and message of reconciliation saved
South Africa from an ugly and bloody civil war.
Mandela the man was rooted in a rich African tradition of soulcraft that put a premium
on personal piety, cultural manners and social justice.
Ancestor appreciation, gentle embrace of others and fair treatment of all was shot through
the "soul-making" of the young Nelson Mandela.
The fusion of his royal family background, high Victorian and Edwardian education and
anti-imperialist formation yielded a person of immense self-respect, moral integrity and
political courage.
These life-enhancing qualities pit Mandela against the life-denying realities of the
dark underside of European imperialism—realities of pervasive terror, chronic trauma and vicious
stigma.
Yet though deeply wounded and perennially scarred by these realities, Mandela emerged
from such nightmarish circumstances with sterling character—a militant tenderness, subversive
sweetness and radical gentleness even acknowledged by his foes.
To put it bluntly, Mandela the man chose to live a life of wise remembrance, moral reverence
and political resistance rather than a life of raw ambition, blind avarice and personal
subservience.
More pointedly, Mandela refused to be intimidated by the Goliath-like powers of an authoritarian
regime.
Mandela the revolutionary movement leader was blessed with a rich South African progressive
tradition unmatched anywhere on the globe.
Where else can we find so many spiritual giants and political exemplars of courage—from
Desmond Tutu, Walter Sisulu, Beyers Naudé, Joe Slovo, Ruth First, Albertina Sisulu, Robert
Sobukwe, Steve Biko, Billy Nair, Allen Boesak, Ronnie Kasrils, Rusty Bernstein, Oliver Tambo
and so many others.
Mandela the man was deeply shaped by the South African freedom movement.
He began as a narrow black nationalist, shifted quickly to a United Front strategy, supported
the armed struggle and called off the counter-violent stance only when the government renounced
violence.
Mandela was designated a dangerous enemy of the South African government—a terrorist,
communist, traitor and hater—because he led a movement that saw South African laws
as themselves criminal.
He was imprisoned for over 27 years, permitted one visit and one letter every six months,
forbidden to attend the funerals of his mother and oldest son, often relegated to solitary
confinement, and sometimes permitted to read only his Bible because his courageous witness
as part of the freedom movement constituted the major threat to the South African government.
As international support for Mandela and the movement escalated (including many African
leaders, the Soviet Union, and millions of people of all colors around the world) and
international support for the South African regime was exposed (including America's Reagan
and Britain's Thatcher), old-style apartheid began to crumble.
The writing on the wall was clear as the Berlin Wall fell.
Mandela the statesman tried to hold together a fragile emerging multiracial democracy and
heal a traumatized society against the backdrop of a possible civil war.
This incredible balancing act highlighted the spiritual qualities and moral sentiments
of Mandela the man—and made him the democratic saint of our time.
Yet this gallant effort also downplayed Mandela the revolutionary movement leader who highlighted
targeting wealth inequality, corporate power and sheer corruption and cronyism in high
places.
Mandela is the undisputed father of South African democracy because the freedom movement
he led broke the back of old-style apartheid.
Yet his neoliberal policies—much to the delight of corporate elites and new black
middle-class beneficiaries—failed to address in a serious manner the massive unemployment,
inadequate housing, poor medical facilities and decrepit education.
The masses of precious poor people—disproportionately black—have been overlooked by the full-fledge
integration of the South African economy into the global capitalist world.
I asked the great Nelson Mandela about this grave situation after I gave the Nelson Mandela
lecture in Pretoria a few years ago.
I lambasted the Santa-Clausification of Nelson Mandela that turned Mandela the man and the
revolutionary leader into an unthreatening, huggable old man with a smile with bags full
of toys—especially for cheering oligarchs like the Oppenheimers or newly rich elites
like Cyril Ramaphosa.
Even global neoliberal figures like Bill Clinton and Richard Stengel of Time Magazine become
major caretakers of Mandela's legacy as his revolutionary comrades fade into the dustbin
of history.
As I approached him, he greeted me with a genuine smile of deep love and respect, expressed
in the most elevating and encouraging language his appreciation of my righteous indignation
in my speech and told me to be steadfast in my witness.
The most valuable lesson we can draw from the life and legacy of Nelson Mandela is to
be neither afraid nor intimidated by the neoliberal powers that be.
We must create our own deep democratic forms of soulcraft, social movements and statecraft—forms
that resist the dominant forces of privatizing, financializing and militarizing that overlook
poor and working people.
Nelson Mandela met the most pressing challenges of his day with great dignity, decency and
integrity.
Let us confront the free-market fundamentalism, escalating militarism and insidious xenophobia
in our day with his spirit of love, courage and humor.
-- Dr. Cornel West