Mandela and the spirit of South Africa

Mandela and the spirit of South Africa

by Chris Brazier

Mandela is probably the only person ever to unite the world in this way – maybe no-one else ever will. (Mercy Ships under a Creative Commons Licence)

It’s emotional to watch and listen to the stories about Nelson Mandela’s amazing life. All the emotion and respect around the world is real. He is probably the only person ever to unite the world in this way – maybe no-one else ever will.

But I remember the time, in the 1970s and 1980s, when governments and corporations that now praise Mandela did nothing at all to end apartheid. They did not follow the sanctions and put the leaders of the African National Congress (ANC) (including Nelson Mandela) on their terrorist watchlists.

In 1986, two years after joining New Internationalist, I had a great opportunity. At that time, it was very unusual to hear the opinions of black South Africans. But the New Internationalist decided to have a whole issue about their views about the past, present and future of their country. I spent my first two weeks in Johannesburg and Cape Town listening to a lot of activists, poets and journalists. And I spent the next two weeks telling people to write articles on time while I looked for the best black photographers and illustrators.

There were a lot more protests against apartheid then in South Africa. People were talking louder than before. There were some township areas that the police and military could not enter. Local councils took control. Revolution was in the air. I was a leftwing campaigner and journalist from a country where Margaret Thatcher was in power (and using her power to stop anti-apartheid plans). So I loved it. I sometimes felt like John Reed in the 1980s, who watched the revolution in Russia in 1917.

I worked with two black co-editors. They helped to select all the material. We had two because there were two different groups in the resistance movement. The United Democratic Front, the internal part of the banned ANC, was the biggest. But many campaigners felt part of a ‘Black Consciousness’ movement. They followed the example of another great resistance leader, Steve Biko, rather than Mandela.

I felt it was an honour to be a journalist. I could meet all different types of people. They all really wanted to communicate the real situation to a world that had not been listening. I went out for dinner one evening with two men who had been in prison on Robben Island. They told me about their experiences there and their conversations with ‘Nelson’.

It was amazing – and I didn’t know how amazing until I returned a year later on another project. This time we were making a film for TV called Girls Apart. It showed the lives of two 16-year-old schoolgirls – one black, from Soweto, and the other a white Afrikaner from a Johannesburg suburb. In the time between my two trips, the apartheid government had become very strict and started a State of Emergency. We had to film in secret. We knew that we would not get official permission. We changed hotels every two or three days so we would be difficult to find. I went to Soweto every day to work with Sylvia and her family, and there were roadblocks and checkpoints, so I had to find different roads.

It was all very different from the year before – we filmed Sylvia at the funeral of a friend who had been killed by rightwing groups. She was wild with sadness. When the coffin went down into the earth, she talked to her dead friend directly. She promised to fight. ‘You were a soldier,’ she half-sang, ‘you’ve made me a soldier.’ She was only a schoolgirl, but she had been arrested because she was a student representative. They tortured her with electric shocks, like every other teenager I met who had been arrested during the township unrest.

When I spoke to Sylvia again, in 1989, she was happily still safe, and feeling positive about being in the film, (although it had been risky). She thought that even the South African government could now see that it was finished, and that freedom was now certain, but she still said: ‘The change won’t come soon. Not even in five years.’

She was wrong – in a few months, Nelson Mandela was released from prison, and less than five years later he was President. He set an example by forgiving of the people who put him in prison. And he was determined to bring people together – which people have talked about today. He rose above politics with his moral example and his humanity. Compared to him, the shy, selfish, mean career politicians in our countries look very small. If one person can represent One World, Nelson Mandela is that man.

I never met him. But in 2002 I nearly did. I was in New York working for UNICEF at the World Summit for Children and went to a special event in a theatre. I was amazed to see that Nelson Mandela and Graça Machel were sitting in the row in front of me. It was difficult for me to concentrate on the stage. I did not want to push forward and shake his hand – there were too many others doing that and what could I have said? But I felt honoured to be so close to such a wonderful person.

As this article has been simplified, the words, text structure and quotes may have been changed. For the original, please see: http://newint.org/blog/2013/12/06/nelson-mandela-south-africa/