Sharing South Africa's hero with the world - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
Sharing South Africa's hero with the world
Updated December 06, 2013 17:42:50
Nelson Mandela became the face of the political freedom fighter. (AFP)
I was 10 years old when I stood amongst my classmates - black and white - and celebrated Nelson Mandela becoming the first black president of a democratic South Africa, writes Mosibudi Pheeha.I killed a man Nelson. Is that what you want?Did I kill him? I was there. I wanted to kill him. I saw his eyes; I hated him so much.I wanted to kill him. But then I saw his eyes. See what they have done to me Nelson. They have filled me up with hate, but not enough. I have to be so full of hate that there is no room for anything else. Make me numb Nelson. Make me numb.- The opening lines to a prison scene in the internationally acclaimed South African film Sarafina released in 1992.In 1992, my 8-year-old mind had been sheltered from the turbulent politics of our country by my parents. Whilst the reality of the state our country was in was evident in my mother's protective nature, my siblings and I were growing up behind high walls of an all-white neighbourhood, in a house we moved into in 1990, the very year Nelson Mandela was released from prison.I watched on screen as the young character of Sarafina was manoeuvring through the days of the Soweto uprising (1976). I was introduced to the effect that Mandela had on us as a nation, as opposed to the picture I still held in mind of his release two years prior: fist up in the air in solidarity with thousands of people around the world.Two things happened to me that fateful afternoon when I watched that film. Firstly, I knew I wanted to become a filmmaker. I wanted to master this tool of storytelling so my people could know our truth.Secondly, I understood. I understood whom Tata (father), as we have affectionately came to know him as, was. He was our Madiba.Sarafina represented the collective thought of black people in the monologues she had directed at Madiba. They all dreamed and talked to him, they could not believe how long he had been away. They were desperate for answers and change. They were dying. They were crying for him and they did not know he could hear them.The South Africa I knew in my backyard meant jumping over the wall to visit my childhood friend Suney. Her parents had no idea that when they were gone the maid would let their daughter play with the new blacks next door. (Soon they found out and moved).The South Africa in my front yard, however, was one in which my parents feared all day for our safety and hurried home to wipe the runny eggs that were thrown at our garage door by not-so-approving neighbours.I was too young then to understand the struggle. Our country was isolated from the rest of the world, as it had become the home for racism and racial oppression. My naïve self couldn't grasp that a regime passed a law that imprisoned thousands of people because of their fight for equality and basic human rights.Nelson Mandela had now become the face of the political freedom fighter. People who were blind too, and others who had assisted in the plight of the black man in South Africa, now understood the arduous journey that he had travelled.I would later, in my teen years, be taught about the Rivonia trial.Mandela, who was arrested in 1962, and was already serving a five-year prison sentence for inciting workers to strike, was then prosecuted with Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki, and Ahmed Kathrada amongst others. Their trial was a mechanism through which the government attempted to mute the African National Congress (ANC). They were prosecuted and subsequently found guilty.After a worldwide protest that 'intimidated' the apartheid regime, they did not impose the requested death penalty but sentenced them to life in prison, on Robben Island.Ten years old, in 1994, I stood in the courtyard of my primary school amongst other children - black and white - and we celebrated Nelson Mandela becoming the first black president of a new democratic country.I appreciated the opportunity that was offered to me. I had access to the best schools, best health care and a neighborhood in which no one threw eggs at my garage anymore.Being part of the transition generation that grew up in the infant stages of a democratic South Africa came with its blows.The laws were easier to change now and protected me as a young black child, but the mindset of people was a little harder to change.The friends I made and have kept to this day who were encapsulated by the influence of Madiba's immense love and ability to forgive, like me, did not see colour.This man had led us to become a rainbow nation. Years later we, as a nation, share Madiba with the entire the world.He is an icon who has combined a servant-type leadership with a tenacious soul. He believes that no single person can liberate a country and one can only liberate a country if it acts as a collective. Most of us have a little Madiba in us and the world has great hope.Tata Madiba, whose words are penned in his autobiography - Long Walk To Freedom - has entrusted us to continue that walk:My people, today I am free. I am free because you have not forgotten me.Mosibudi Pheeha is a filmmaker at Forward Films Africa. View her full profile here.
First posted December 06, 2013 14:55:16
06 Dec 2013 3:25:59pm
Thank you Mosibudi for sharing your story and your Tata with us.It's a pity that Australia's 'leaders' aren't even a shadow of Mr Mandela. They don't exhibit a skerrick of his "immense love and ability to forgive" or the genuine humility of a "servant-type leadership".
06 Dec 2013 3:58:31pm
We are often told that we cant judge Africa by western standards. That what goes on there is none of our business and we just get in the way of Africans being African.Apartheid was always doomed. It was a stupid idea, like all twentieth century fascist movements, born of Afrikaner fear reacting to British imperial hubris and British concentration camps.What Mandela by means almost magical achieved was not simply the end Apartheid but the full trust and respect of his former enemies so that he became their own ideal. South Africa is different from other African countries it is not perfect and not ideal but it is a country where everybody is a South African. It is evolving. Though out that process Mandela has been the force of unity and the moral compass that points to the ideal. The real test is now when the lion is gone can they hold the course or are there only jackals left to tear it apart. Alert moderator
06 Dec 2013 6:00:40pm
What Nelson Mandela did was demonstrate that he understood democracy and what it means and stood for, better than white South Africa ever did. And this was from a man who had never been a part of a democracy, had never had an opportunity to participate in a democracy until his release and the overthrow of Apartheid. In the end he was the man who not only fought and struggled against the oppression of Apartheid, but led all of South Africa to democracy.But as we have seen in South Africa democracy does not necessarily lead you to equality. That is another struggle that South Africa like so many other nations still has to struggle with. Racism is one form of oppression, of power inequality. Wealth inequality is also another form of oppression, of power inequality. Education is one tool for dealing with wealth inequality. But it is only one of the many tools that governments and others need to use. And to achieve that not only South Africa, but all nations will need to find new champions to fight that battle. Even in America, the land of the America dream, many Americans are seeing that American dream disappear before their eyes.
06 Dec 2013 6:44:37pm
The Imperialistic Nations such as Australia, USA, France, and the UK could learn a hell of a lot from this man! Sadly, I doubt all these nations have little idea of what Mandela's freedom fight was really about, yet here they all are puffing out their chests through the Main Stream Media Networks, in once again another "fanciful facade"
06 Dec 2013 7:08:44pm
Read Langston Hughes ... then you'll know all about it.'Go Tell It On The Mountain', by MR Baldwin, ain't a bad read either ... but if all those kids who study 'English' don't actually read a decent book, then they ain't gonna see such stuff, are they ?
06 Dec 2013 7:25:59pm
Vale Nelson Mandela, may your peaceful soul be remembered and emulated forever more.And may each South Afrikaner have enough drinking water, schooling and three meals a day.
Sharing South Africa's hero with the world - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
Sharing South Africa's hero with the world
Updated December 06, 2013 17:42:50
Nelson Mandela became the face of the political freedom fighter. (AFP)
I was 10 years old when I stood amongst my classmates - black and white - and celebrated Nelson Mandela becoming the first black president of a democratic South Africa, writes Mosibudi Pheeha.I killed a man Nelson. Is that what you want?Did I kill him? I was there. I wanted to kill him. I saw his eyes; I hated him so much.I wanted to kill him. But then I saw his eyes. See what they have done to me Nelson. They have filled me up with hate, but not enough. I have to be so full of hate that there is no room for anything else. Make me numb Nelson. Make me numb.- The opening lines to a prison scene in the internationally acclaimed South African film Sarafina released in 1992.In 1992, my 8-year-old mind had been sheltered from the turbulent politics of our country by my parents. Whilst the reality of the state our country was in was evident in my mother's protective nature, my siblings and I were growing up behind high walls of an all-white neighbourhood, in a house we moved into in 1990, the very year Nelson Mandela was released from prison.I watched on screen as the young character of Sarafina was manoeuvring through the days of the Soweto uprising (1976). I was introduced to the effect that Mandela had on us as a nation, as opposed to the picture I still held in mind of his release two years prior: fist up in the air in solidarity with thousands of people around the world.Two things happened to me that fateful afternoon when I watched that film. Firstly, I knew I wanted to become a filmmaker. I wanted to master this tool of storytelling so my people could know our truth.Secondly, I understood. I understood whom Tata (father), as we have affectionately came to know him as, was. He was our Madiba.Sarafina represented the collective thought of black people in the monologues she had directed at Madiba. They all dreamed and talked to him, they could not believe how long he had been away. They were desperate for answers and change. They were dying. They were crying for him and they did not know he could hear them.The South Africa I knew in my backyard meant jumping over the wall to visit my childhood friend Suney. Her parents had no idea that when they were gone the maid would let their daughter play with the new blacks next door. (Soon they found out and moved).The South Africa in my front yard, however, was one in which my parents feared all day for our safety and hurried home to wipe the runny eggs that were thrown at our garage door by not-so-approving neighbours.I was too young then to understand the struggle. Our country was isolated from the rest of the world, as it had become the home for racism and racial oppression. My naïve self couldn't grasp that a regime passed a law that imprisoned thousands of people because of their fight for equality and basic human rights.Nelson Mandela had now become the face of the political freedom fighter. People who were blind too, and others who had assisted in the plight of the black man in South Africa, now understood the arduous journey that he had travelled.I would later, in my teen years, be taught about the Rivonia trial.Mandela, who was arrested in 1962, and was already serving a five-year prison sentence for inciting workers to strike, was then prosecuted with Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki, and Ahmed Kathrada amongst others. Their trial was a mechanism through which the government attempted to mute the African National Congress (ANC). They were prosecuted and subsequently found guilty.After a worldwide protest that 'intimidated' the apartheid regime, they did not impose the requested death penalty but sentenced them to life in prison, on Robben Island.Ten years old, in 1994, I stood in the courtyard of my primary school amongst other children - black and white - and we celebrated Nelson Mandela becoming the first black president of a new democratic country.I appreciated the opportunity that was offered to me. I had access to the best schools, best health care and a neighborhood in which no one threw eggs at my garage anymore.Being part of the transition generati
on that grew up in the infant stages of a democratic South Africa came with its blows.The laws were easier to change now and protected me as a young black child, but the mindset of people was a little harder to change.The friends I made and have kept to this day who were encapsulated by the influence of Madiba's immense love and ability to forgive, like me, did not see colour.This man had led us to become a rainbow nation. Years later we, as a nation, share Madiba with the entire the world.He is an icon who has combined a servant-type leadership with a tenacious soul. He believes that no single person can liberate a country and one can only liberate a country if it acts as a collective. Most of us have a little Madiba in us and the world has great hope.Tata Madiba, whose words are penned in his autobiography - Long Walk To Freedom - has entrusted us to continue that walk:My people, today I am free. I am free because you have not forgotten me.Mosibudi Pheeha is a filmmaker at Forward Films Africa. View her full profile here.
First posted December 06, 2013 14:55:16
06 Dec 2013 3:25:59pm
Thank you Mosibudi for sharing your story and your Tata with us.It's a pity that Australia's 'leaders' aren't even a shadow of Mr Mandela. They don't exhibit a skerrick of his "immense love and ability to forgive" or the genuine humility of a "servant-type leadership".
06 Dec 2013 3:58:31pm
We are often told that we cant judge Africa by western standards. That what goes on there is none of our business and we just get in the way of Africans being African.Apartheid was always doomed. It was a stupid idea, like all twentieth century fascist movements, born of Afrikaner fear reacting to British imperial hubris and British concentration camps.What Mandela by means almost magical achieved was not simply the end Apartheid but the full trust and respect of his former enemies so that he became their own ideal. South Africa is different from other African countries it is not perfect and not ideal but it is a country where everybody is a South African. It is evolving. Though out that process Mandela has been the force of unity and the moral compass that points to the ideal. The real test is now when the lion is gone can they hold the course or are there only jackals left to tear it apart. Alert moderator
06 Dec 2013 6:00:40pm
What Nelson Mandela did was demonstrate that he understood democracy and what it means and stood for, better than white South Africa ever did. And this was from a man who had never been a part of a democracy, had never had an opportunity to participate in a democracy until his release and the overthrow of Apartheid. In the end he was the man who not only fought and struggled against the oppression of Apartheid, but led all of South Africa to democracy.But as we have seen in South Africa democracy does not necessarily lead you to equality. That is another struggle that South Africa like so many other nations still has to struggle with. Racism is one form of oppression, of power inequality. Wealth inequality is also another form of oppression, of power inequality. Education is one tool for dealing with wealth inequality. But it is only one of the many tools that governments and others need to use. And to achieve that not only South Africa, but all nations will need to find new champions to fight that battle. Even in America, the land of the America dream, many Americans are seeing that American dream disappear before their eyes.
06 Dec 2013 6:44:37pm
The Imperialistic Nations such as Australia, USA, France, and the UK could learn a hell of a lot from this man! Sadly, I doubt all these nations have little idea of what Mandela's freedom fight was really about, yet here they all are puffing out their chests through the Main Stream Media Networks, in once again another "fanciful facade"
06 Dec 2013 7:08:44pm
Read Langston Hughes ... then you'll know all about it.'Go Tell It On The Mountain', by MR Baldwin, ain't a bad read either ... but if all those kids who study 'English' don't actually read a decent book, then they ain't gonna see such stuff, are they ?
06 Dec 2013 7:25:59pm
Vale Nelson Mandela, may your peaceful soul be remembered and emulated forever more.And may each South Afrikaner have enough drinking water, schooling and three meals a day.