Culture 7

Remembering
n Mandela

Tyson Kelsall
Culture Editor
n5 December 2013, the world
lost an extremely resilient
and intelligent man. The ex-South
African president and freedom
fighter, Nelson Mandela, passed
away at the age of 95. Mandela
is credited for being a key figure
in ending the apartheid regime
in South Africa, and is often
remembered through his wise
quotations. He served 27 years as a
political prisoner, and is revered for
still having hope in the potential
for humankind despite that.

In the wake of his death, it seems
many groups and people of certain
ideology who once strongly
opposed Mandela and labeled him
a terrorist, have begun to twist
his history around. It did not take
long for conservatives and liberals
alike to paint Mandela as a non-
violent, peaceful activist who

was wrongly done by. However,
many are arguing that Mandela
should be remembered for who
he truly was. For a time period,
Nelson Mandela served as the

head of the militant wing of the
African National Congress, called
the UmKhonto we Sizwe, also
known as MK. The MK was an
organization that held violent
protests in response to the white
supremacist government of South
Africa. In 1987, the late Margaret
Thatcher proclaimed, “The ANC
[African National Congress] is a
typical terrorist organization ...
Anyone who thinks it is going

to run the government in South
Africa is living in cloud-cuckoo
land.” Ironically, one of the first
political leaders to give a statement
of sorrow on Mandela’s death was
self-identifying steadfast Thatcher
supporter, David Cameron,

the British Prime Minister.
Furthermore, Nelson Mandela
read the works of Karl Marx, and
upon his first face-to-face meeting
with Fidel Castro, swiftly said,
“Before we say anything, you must
tell me when you are coming to
South Africa.” Before that, Nelson
Mandela was a staunch Castro
supporter. In fact, it was a little
ironic that Bill Clinton expressed
grief at the loss of Mandela, but

never took him off the US terrorism
watch list during his presidency or
until he was a 90-year-old, in 2008.
The US continues to boycott Cuba
and shade the Castro regime as a
horrid one, at best. Mandela was
also closely associated with the
South African Communist Party,
which he was a member of before
his imprisonment, and afterwards
he appointed ex-leader Joe Slovo as
the Minister of Housing during his
presidency.

Some critics of Mandela’s post-
death conversation have concluded
that people are remembering
Mandela’s Martin Luther King

Jr. similarities, but forgetting his
radical Malcolm X side. Although
Mandela effectively stood up to
world powers and attempted to end
a racist regime out of the love for
his people and justice, prominent
Slovenian communist philosopher
Slavoj Zizek pointed out that the
socio-economic problems of black
South Africans still remains today,
even without a legal apartheid
state. He points out that Mandela’s
true desire was to end poverty,

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Mandela himself once saying, “Like
slavery and apartheid, [poverty]

is man-made and can be removed
by the actions of human beings,"
and his focus was especially with
the poverty felt most by the

South African black population.
Zizek concluded, “If we want

to remain faithful to Mandela’s
legacy, we should thus forget about
celebratory crocodile tears...We can
safely surmise that, on account of
his doubtless moral and political
greatness, he was at the end of

his life also a bitter, old man...His
universal glory is also a sign that
he really didn’t disturb the global
order of power.”

Nelson Mandela was undoubtedly

a passionate, strong person. After a
long stay in prison, he still believed
in the power of reconciliation. He
loved people. He stood up for his
beliefs, but also took compromises
in hopes of helping his oppressed
brothers and sisters. Perhaps if we
do indeed support him, we should
remember, mourn, and celebrate
the great Mandela for who he really
was.