“He negotiated in good faith and without bitterness. But when the oppressor reneged he returned to mass resistance. He combined negotiation and mass action and illustrated that the end result through either means was effective.”
This is not a quotation about Nelson Mandela. This is a quotation from Nelson Mandela. It is from a speech he delivered at the dedication on the Ghandi memorial in South Africa. Here’s a little more:
Gandhiji influenced the activities of liberation movements, civil rights movements and religious organisations in all five continents of the world. He impacted on men and women who have achieved significant historical changes in their countries not least amongst whom are Martin Luther King. Mahatma Gandhi came to this country 100 years ago, to assist Indians brought to this country as indentured labourers and those who came to set up trading posts. He came here to assist them to retain their right to be on a common voters roll. The Mahatma is an integral part of our history because it is here that he first experimented with truth; here that he demonstrated his characteristic firmness in pursuit of justice; here that he developed Satyagraha as a philosophy and a method of struggle.
“Satyagraha,” for the uninitiated, is Ghandi’s philosophy of non-violence. As Mandela recounts, Ghandi came to believe that non-violence was the only true way for India to pursue justice, to pursue liberation from British colonial rule, without becoming guilty of the same injustices it was trying to end. Ghandi first came to see that he, an Indian of priviledge, was considered no different that any other “colored” in South Africa. He soon came to see that he was not different from any other “colored” or any white person or any black person. Ghandi came to respect the dignity in each person.
And it is dignity that Nelson Mandela carried from Ghandi to the black majority of South Africa. The revolution which Mandela helped lead was not always non-violent, but it succeeded in bringing political power to the majority of South Africans while maintaining the dignity of the oppressed and the oppressor. Maybe the aparthied government did not merit preservation of their dignity, but in so preserving it, Mandela preserved his own dignity as well.
95 years is a good long life. Mandiba deserves rest, just like Ghandiji and so many others. It is not for him that we mourn, but for our loss. Surely his loss is felt first and foremost in South Africa, but it is a loss for our whole world.