While I’m catching up, I did want to throw in my two cents about the former prisoner who went on to be president of Africa’s wealthiest nation. It seemed to dovetail really well with Mandela’s passing coinciding with the 30th anniversary of the weird phone call I answered from South Africa.
Firstly I would like to congratulate him for showing that not all transitions of power end in disaster as it did for Rhodesia/Zimbabwe (still going down the toilet), Ireland (bloodshed in the Twenties) and the Bush Legacy in Iraq. South Africa is still troubled thanks to his successors being inept douchebags though. Mandela could’ve done more but he was elected president at an advanced age plus the ANC had changed during his 27 year stint in prison.
Secondly, I want to give him a high-five for outliving Reagan and Thatcher, those two conservative dirtbags who were apologists for apartheid. Bad race-based policies are always acceptable whenever they exaggerate Soviet/communist threats. Racism didn’t seem to bother Israel since they teamed up with South Africa to build nuclear weapons; DeKlerk dismantled the South African arsenal before he left office while Israel continues to dodge the question, fueling Iran’s paranoia.
Back to my personal reasons for writing about Mandela.
When there was the possibility of Dad taking a job in South Africa, we did some research on the nation. Never did find a rational answer for apartheid but I did learn more about the people’s shared history. I did learn about the shades of gray over the situation; the White-dominated government committed numerous human rights violations yet the ANC were no saints.
Having a greater interest and more detailed opinion about South Africa created misperceptions regarding my political alignment by the time I went to university. Despite Marquette being a moderate-conservative school, there was a noisy, vocal minority on the superficial bandwagon to end apartheid and/or freeing Nelson Mandela. Because I wasn’t completely onboard with an outright overthrow of the White government, I was automatically an apartheid supporter. Not really, I just thought these sunshine activists weren’t thinking it through and were too gullible for believing whatever Bono the Blowhard told them. I certainly didn’t agree with the Reagan-Thatcher non-strategy neither. I was more in favor of either the world butting out until it got its own internal crap in order or the US should offer to help broker a peaceful arrangement/transition. The latter wasn’t unreasonable. Carter did for Egypt and Israel. Teddy Roosevelt did for Russia and Japan. I also pointed out how some American corporations, namely Coke, ignored the segregation laws within their factories: restrooms, water fountains, etc. Not humongous strides I admit now. It is just a shame how the US missed an opportunity to mediate this.
Mandela’s release in 1990 was a surprise. Initially I figured DeKlerk did it for cynical reasons; how dangerous could a 70-year-old man be? Turned out he was more pragmatic while retaining a the suspected cynicism as he didn’t want another Biko incident.
Was I worried about Mandela becoming another Mugabe or Bolivar? Not after he won the presidency and defended his decision to include DeKlerk in the cabinet. Mandela demonstrated that he was a bigger man than I ever could be by forgiving his captors enough to enlist their help in governing. He then proved his longtime detractors wrong after serving just one term too.
Lastly, Mandela does deserve the bulk of praise he received at the funeral. He began as a semi-divisive figure and finished out a more unifying proponent of peaceful strategies.