The Life and times of “General” Nelson Rolilhalha Mandela
6 min readBy Malith Alier
I am not sure whether he was a General, a Colonel or a Captain. It is up to South Africans to remind us of that. But he formed umkhonto we Sizwe, a military wing of ANC.
He went to Senegal, Zimbabwe, Cuba and Israel looking for arms to fight the apartheid or separateness. Can a civilian be head of a military organisation? This is also not clear.
Gen., Col. or Capt. Mandela must have forgotten his military titles because of long incarceration for good twenty seven years, seventeen of which were on Robben Island in the South Sea.
The military titles are really fanciful. We have generals lining up to rule forever in Uganda and South Sudan. We have field marshals in Sudan. Eritrea and Ethiopia are not different.
Here is a list of titles an ambitious man can choose from; His/her Highness, His/her majesty, His Excellency, Commander in Chief, Supreme Commander of other armed forces, His Lordship, His Worship, His Invincible, His Unforgettable, His Eminent, His Omnipotent and not to forget Cde or Comrade One can even take them all like the old Idi Amin Dada.
We go back to Southern Africa. Robert Gabriel Mugabe seemed to have fallen out with his military titles. He has been a general for many years over thirty years. He was Captain, Major, Brigadier General, General and may be a Field Marshal.
He is now simply referred to as President Robert Mugabe of ZANU-PF. He is a hero. He liberated his people from white minority rule. He defeated Ian smith in the eighties and became a prime minister before proceeding to be a president.
He is still going strong as he continues to wage more liberation wars in a different way for us Africans. He keeps Zimbabwe for himself as Tony Blair keeps UK for himself. He is advised by great Field Marshal, His Excellency Mengistu Hailemariam, the former strongman of Ethiopia.
The uniformed men are to blame for several coups in Africa. They perpetuate wars of liberation and reliberation. This is sometimes done by Captains like in West Africa. You remember Captain Dadi Camara and Captain Sonogo. They are brave men in deed. The problem with them is they did not hold power for long. May be they are like Nelson Madiba.
Nelson Mandela parted with sophisticated and colourful titles before ascending to the Presidency in 1994. He even parted ways with Winnie Mazikidela Mandela to marry Graca Machel.
Don’t blame me if I get those names wrong. They are after all for Southern African users who can spell and pronounce them in their own way.
Nelson Madiba is considered a great personality in the world today not because of what he did but because of what he didn’t do. He was persecuted, imprisoned and humiliated but refused to take revenge. He was overwhelmingly elected for President, served for one term and chose not to continue for second, third, fourth, fifth, ……… and tenth term.
Many people believe in him because he has not exhausted what he is made of. He told his people that he fought against white domination, black domination, women domination, men domination, children domination and even animal domination.
The UN must have copied these values from him and set conventions for rights, human and animal. But there was no black, women, men, children and animal domination in South Africa only white domination.
Many celebrate his remarkable personality, but few are willing to copy him – even his Southern African neighbours, Zimbabwe included. The poor Macky Sal of Senegal is the only person who lately promised not to let power corrupt his mind. Will his thinking be long? Not sure. He might as well be like Museveni or M7 who proclaimed the demise of ‘big man’ era, set the term limit for the president only to change it several years down the line. Reason, until the vision of our ancestors is realised he won’t to quit.
The era of father and son is proving to be a tantalization. It has started in Kenya. It is coming to Ugandan and the East African Community.
I can see why South Sudanese people are unwilling to join E.A.C. The South Sudanese government has sacked the Government Chief Whip for opposing that move. Be careful next time when you are a Chief Whip. You whip everybody to tow the party or State line.
The Europeans and the Americans are mesmerised by the life and times of Nelson Madiba. The USA, the UK and many others fly their flags at half-mast. This is the first time in the history of Africa and the rest of the world.
Nelson has changed certain perceptions about Africa and the black people. He is like Martin Luther King Jr. or Martin loser Coon.
The only difference between them is that Martin Coon’s ancestors were abducted and vanished to the Americas and the Caribbean. The other difference is that Martin Coon was killed by a bullet and Nelson went into sleep naturally.
People are still looking for words to describe Madiba’s legacy. Some people are saying that there are no appropriate words to describe it. He was a fighter, a prisoner, a quitter. No, these words are not good enough to describe the legacy he left for South Africa and even to the rest World.
Fidel Castro is also a great man. However, nobody has got appropriate words to describe his legacy for Cuba. He only broke his limb before abdicating power to his dear brother, Raul Castro.
This is detestful in contrast to Nelson Mandela. He even didn’t want power for himself leave alone for his brother, sister or son or daughter. The man was out of this world. He was short of ambition unlike Alexander the Great and Napoleon Bonaparte.
This does not mean that he doesn’t share something in common with them. They share immortality. They all will be remembered forever along with many other immortals. Immortality is what everybody wants after this life.
‘The world has lost one of its greatest lights’ this is David Cameron of UK. I wonder how many more lights like Mandela are now left in the world. There is none left in Africa may be some of Mandela’s descendants will be future lights but maybe they are still not bright enough to shine through. Who can tell? It is not yet clear. We may experience darkness for a while.
Mr. Barack Obama was not clear on Mandela. He talked of his release from prison. May be he wanted him back in prison. You never know what the Americans are up to. They are unpredictable. They send relief aid through CIA or FBI. Their version of English is different from the UK one. Kilometre is kilometer to them. Centre is the center. Programme is a program. They always want to be different from the rest. They’re seeking perfection.
South Africans must come to terms with their lost. They must watch out against reincarnation of apartheid or separateness. There are many extremist still out there. Two of them were jailed for life recently for planning to kill the very Nelson Mandela not knowing that he would soon be no more.
If the people of South Africa allow any room, they will have to go through another twenty seven years of the liberation struggle for history repeats itself.
Nelson Madiba has given up many titles, but one remains, he is a ‘Supreme Diplomat.’ This title was given to him by Steve Cole of Aljazeera on the 06/12/2013
Long live Nelson Rolilhalha Mandela
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