The-then Republic of South Africa President Nelson Mandela with Republic of Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe at the World Economic Forum in 1997. The two Southern African nation have a profound history of shared struggle., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.
Madiba: The Zim connection
December 12, 2013 Opinion & Analysis
Sifelani Tsiko Senior Writer
Zimbabwe Herald
WITH the death of Nelson Mandela, Zimbabwe and Africa have lost a great elder statesman who was an iconic, larger than life personality whose influence on the world political stage cannot be overstated. Most Zimbabweans will remember Mandela as a statesman of great conscience and conviction and as someone who dedicated his life to the liberation of the country he loved — South Africa.
Additionally, many Zimbabweans saw Mandela as the universal standard bearer of Africa in its struggle for liberation, human rights and dignity.
As glowing and illuminating tributes pour in from around the world, Zimbabwe, too, is in grief for the man who was an unwavering standard bearer of Africa and a hero of the continent’s struggle against colonialism.
Strongest memories of Mandela and Zimbabwe when put into focus can be divided into the early formative years of the nationalist movement, peak period — banning and consolidative years of liberation movements, collaborative years of armed movements and the post-independent Zimbabwe “free South Africa” campaign as well as the stage in which Zimbabwe offered political, material and moral support to the protracted negotiations leading to the democratisation of South Africa.
When put into a historic perspective, the Mandela-Zimbabwe connection can be traced back to the time when President Mugabe and other prominent Zimbabwe nationalist figures attended Fort Hare University in South Africa almost at the same time with Mandela, Oliver Tambo and other ANC cadres in the 1940s.
Zimbabwe’s nationalist figures share so much in common with Mandela in this period as they all got in some way influenced by Marxism and pan-African ideals at Fort Hare.
Zimbabwe’s nationalist movement was to a greater part influenced by Kwame Nkrumah and the independence of Ghana in 1957 as well as to a measured extent by the events around the African National Congress in the 1950s and early 1960s.
Mandela just like Mugabe, Joshua Nkomo and other nationalist heroes, were past victims of oppressive minority regimes and had to face lengthy prison terms for their activism. Mugabe was jailed for 11 years by the minority Ian Smith regime while Mandela had to endure almost a third of his life — 27 years — in prison.
Both Mugabe and Mandela and their fellow comrades who also fall in the gallery of great African heroes are credited with playing key roles in bringing political independence to their countries and Africa in general.
At the peak of the independence war in the 1970s, Zimbabwe’s foremost armed liberation movements, Zanla and Zipra, also shared the same trenches with cadres from ANC’s Umkhonto weSizwe as well as the PAC’s armed wing.
During this period, liberation movements mobilised support from similar bodies and countries — the OAU, the UN, Cuba, China, Russia and other friendly nations across the world. They spoke the same language — freedom and liberation.
Burrowing through some archival material, Mandela on April 4, 1991, when he had been released from jail, said the Patriotic Front forged between Zanu and Zapu in 1976 was a huge lesson for him and South Africa to be drawn from.
“As in your struggle, we are confident that this unity will be forged and that it will make our victory certain,” he said.
Mandela praised Zimbabwe’s role in pressing since independence for unity of anti-apartheid forces in and outside South Africa.
Mandela said this when he came to Zimbabwe for talks with PAC leader Clarence Makwetu and his delegation.
And when Zimbabwe gained its independence in 1980, President Mugabe and other Sadc leaders were at the forefront of an aggressive and sustained campaign to “Free Mandela” who was the conscience and beacon for a free South Africa.
On June 7, 1986, the University of Zimbabwe conferred Nelson Mandela and Mwalimu Julius Nyerere with an honourary Doctor of Laws (honoris causa). Mandela’s daughter Zenani received the award on behalf of her father.
Prof Walter Kamba, who was UZ Vice Chancellor at the time, said: “His more than 23 years in South African jails, coupled with his stubborn and unambiguous refusal to accept conditional release designed to compromise him and his party, have made Mandela a living legend.
“In the minds of many he is a great man, a hero and the intractable incarnation of the protracted struggle for freedom and liberty in South Africa and everywhere, a towering personality.
“This is Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela’s chair. But it stands empty because the wicked and inhuman hand of apartheid and its concomitant evil structure have cruelly denied us the physical presence of this illustrious son of Africa on this momentous occasion.”
This captured the “anti-apartheid” mood in Zimbabwe at the time and politicians, artistes, student activists and people in general were all mobilised and active in the “Free Nelson Mandela” campaign.
Mandela gained space and moral strength from Zimbabwe’s political experience at a time when a dark cloud hung over South Africa’s road to democracy. This is certainly something that cannot be taken away from Zimbabwe.
“The only compromise one could think of is something like what happened in Zimbabwe, where we are able to say we guarantee that so many seats will be held by whites,” Mandela said back then while considering guaranteeing white seats in parliament to allay white fears over majority rule.
Prior to the holding all-party talks in South Africa that paved way for the all-race elections in 1994, Zimbabwe was Mandela’s spring board and base where he made rigorous and extensive consultation with President Mugabe on the future of South Africa.
Zimbabwe which had gone through a similar and much rigorous experience opened doors for Mandela, something that gave him the confidence and resoluteness to confront the turmoil in his country.
In May 1991, Zimbabwe hosted a two-day meeting of the leadership of the ANC of “South Africa” and the PAC of “Azania” setting the stage for a conference that was expected to lead to the formation of a united front of all political factions fighting to overthrow the evil apartheid regime in South Africa.
A month earlier, leaders of the ANC and the PAC called on President Mugabe at State House to present him with the report of the two organisations two day national executive committee meeting.
Before 1994, Mandela shuttled between Harare and Johannesburg to make consultation and whenever he travelled to other countries in Africa and abroad, he would regularly make brief stop-overs to brief President Mugabe.
Mandela and Zimbabwe enjoyed cordial relations. President Mugabe was a silent engine and close compatriot to Mandela at the most critical time in the build up to the all-race elections in 1994.
On July 18, 1991 President Mugabe congratulated Nelson Mandela on his election to the post of ANC president wishing him a successful tenure of office.
President Mugabe said it was with great satisfaction that Zanu-PF acknowledged the bonds of friendship, solidarity and co-operation between the two parties.
“These have been forged in the crucible of our common struggle in order to bring about the liberation and development of our continent and the promotion of freedom, justice and peace in our region,” he said.
Madiba and Mugabe were the first democratically elected leaders of their respective countries and are both on record as having stepped into office with messages of unity, forgiveness, reconciliation and democracy.
Mandela’s first State visit to Zimbabwe was May 19 to 21, 1997 at the invitation of President Mugabe. Talks centred on bilateral issues since Zimbabwe was South Africa’s biggest trading partner in Africa.
Strongest memories of the first State visit to Zimbabwe was the sense of excitement in the large crowds who lined up to meet him.
Photos of Mandela adorned trees and light-posts. Zimbabweans sat intently around TV hanging to every word of Mandela he made upon his arrival, when addressed the Parliament of Zimbabwe and when a street was re-named in honour of Mandela.
Mandela visited the Great Zimbabwe Monument and Kwekwe where he was bestowed with the Freedom of the City honour, originally accepted on his behalf by the late veteran ANC stalwart Oliver Tambo.
Mandela’s visits and interaction with the people here did not change the history of Zimbabwe, it enriched it.
Mandela had the unique opportunity — a man who was turned into statues in his own lifetime given the more than 695 awards and recognition he got world wide.
Many people elevated him to “superman” and Zimbabweans too, were all caught in the admiration of this man who endured perhaps more than his share of suffering and reversal.
For many Pan African heroes, the mystique around them accumulated posthumously and yet Mandela possessed it when he was still alive.
Mandela endless photo opportunities with various celebrities and squares, stadiums and theatres were named after him. But now that Mandela – affectionately known by his clan name, is gone, he has rarity value, bringing fond memories of his towering figure.
The anti-apartheid movement was much bigger than one man and there is no doubt that Mandela became its personification.
One renowned writer said: “A history of suffering and struggle has crystallised on his shoulders.”
Mandela was bold and broke the brotherhood – “see no evil, hear no evil nor smell any evil’ – interference in the internal affairs of another country when he went to Nigeria to discuss the fate of Moshood Abiola with Nigeria’s military ruler Sani Abacha. He broke the traditional
African practice of non-interference in each other’s affairs by pointing out governance problems in Africa.
Mandela won praise from supporters and most rivals alike for his statesmanship, although some complain that he has erred on the side of appeasing the minority whites in order to protect a fragile economic recovery. Many of the black majority also voice frustration that the arrival of a black leader has not resulted in a rapid improvement in living standards.
The sheer scale of inequality, the massive poverty that continues to blight the poor in shacks and the unresolved land question which Mandela left hanging fearing the power of capital, will bruise the pride of his legacy and open dark episodes of his leadership.
President Mugabe criticised Mandela for being too soft on whites, in a documentary produced by People of the South’s Dali Tambo which gave a rare and intimate insight into his family life.
“Mandela has gone a bit too far in doing good to the non-black communities, really in some cases at the expense of (blacks),” President Mugabe said of Mandela.
“Britain will praise you only if you are doing things that please them,” Presodent Mugabe added.
Despite political sparring and differences with Zimbabwe on some issues, Mandela will be deeply missed by those he met and those who were fortunate enough to experience his goodwill in Zimbabwe.
He will be noted for his crusade against hunger and poverty, the fight against Aids throughout his post-political life both at home and internationally.
A shy and private man, albeit one of considerable personal charm, Mandela has left a great impression of himself and of South Africa on the consciousness of Zimbabwe and the international community.
Mandela’s rich legacy and life’s work are proof that he was indeed one of the great statesmen of the 20th century, an extraordinary person who showed the world extraordinary deeds.
Mandela, will be remembered as a peerless giant full of humility with a Ghandian streak and committed to peace and reconciliation.
“One doesn’t want present himself artificially,’ he once remarked in an interview on his biography. “I am an ordinary human being, with frailties, with weaknesses. Especially because of the way I have been treated by the mass media, being elevated to the position of a messiah, it was necessary for me to tell the public who I am, that I’m an ordinary person, I have made serious mistakes, I have serious weaknesses.”
Few right wing whites would admit it, but a sense of shame undoubtedly exists that by locking him up for nearly three decades they took away the best years of his life. His behavior towards them since his release is humbling and little wonder then that Mandela’s exploits will be told from one generation to another with the deepest pride.
No comments:
Post a Comment