Fri 6 Dec 2013 In: Hall of Fame View at Wayback View at NDHA
Obituary: Nkosi Sikelili 'iAfrika - Nelson Mandela (1919-2013) There are times when I truly hate writing obituaries, particularly for a legendary historical figure of such magnitude as this one, who gave hope and liberation to so many black South Africans- including LGBT South Africans. At 95, Nelson Mandela passed away at home in Johannesburg after a long life, facing adversity and imprisonment but committed to his beliefs. Ultimately, he was vindicated as the end of apartheid arrived in South Africa at last in 1994 and he became the first African National Congress president of a free, post-apartheid 'rainbow nation.' Of the Xhosa tribal community, and a member of the Thembu royal family, Mandela attended Fort Hare University and the University of Witwatersrand in the thirties, where he studied law. In Johannesburg, he joined and became active within the African National Congress as the Afrikaner-dominated National Party regime came to power in 1948 and began to institute its racist apartheid anti-democratic segregationist policies. Mandela rose to prominence in 1952's Defiance Campaign of civil disobedience against the regime, becoming President of the Tranvaal ANC in 1955. Although initially committed to nonviolent civil disobedience, he eventually became disillusioned with that strategy, especially given murderous episodes of mass murder and repression such as the Sharpeville massacre in 1962. As a consequence, Mandela and the Communist Party of South Africa collaborated in the establishment of the Umkhonto we Sizwe movement, for which he was imprisoned on South Africa's Robben Island for the next twenty-seven years of his life. Mandela married three times- his first marriage, to Evelyn Mase, foundered on his commitment to the ANC and ended in the mid-fifties. In 1956, he met and married Winnie Madikizela, a social worker, who shared much of his life and political struggles, as well as undergoing a period of imprisonment herself while her husband was held on Robben Island. He endured nearly thirty years alongside other core figures of the ANC such as his later successor as South African President, Thabo Mbeki, and other black liberationist organisations such as the Pan African Congress, Black Consciousness Movement and the South African Communist Party. Outside South Africa, a growing international movement emerged to support solidarity with black South Africans and an end to the apartheid regime's sporting and military contact with western societies, justified by authoritarian conservatives of the eighties like Thatcher and Reagan in the name of "anti-communism," which also justified links with repressive Latin American, black African and East Asian regimes and military dictatorships. In the case of Australia and New Zealand, it was the issue of rugby sporting contacts with South Africa, which led to widespread protests when the Springboks played in Australia in 1971 and in New Zealand in 1981. The latter Springbok Tour convulsed New Zealand in a state of virtual civil war and was orchestrated by then Prime Minister Rob Muldoon to orchestrate a (narrow) election victory in 1981, only to see him swept from office in 1984. At that point, the Lange Labour administration kicked the South African Embassy out of New Zealand and ended sporting contacts with South Africa until the cessation of apartheid. Finally, in the early nineties, Mandela was released from imprisonment, at the same time that communism collapsed in Eastern Europe and finally, within the former Soviet Union. Meanwhile, the Clinton administration came to power within the United States and the Cold War ended. Resultantly, the apartheid regime realised that the game was up and finally started multilateral talks to end its half-century of racist segregation. Mandela was released from prison in 1990 and resumed his ANC leadership role, leading the party to victory in South Africa's first fully free non-racist election in 1994, and becoming South African President in that year, at seventy-five. He made his peace with liberal corporate capitalists and even with the formerly diehard cornerstone of South African white supremacy, the Springboks. Unfairly, it was his inspirational presence that later led to a subsequent Rugby World Cup victory. At the same time, Mandela had to deal with the challenges of a disintegrating marriage as Winnie became involved with violent Soweto gang and criminal figures, and he divorced her in 1995. Fortunately, he found new love with Graca Machel, widow of a former African head of state and married her shortly afterward. Graca has been at his side ever since. In office for five years, he behaved prudently, establishing the Truth and Reconciliation Commission led by Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu, another icon of black South African liberationist politics. There were other challenges- the long-term consequences of poverty and educational disruption had led to an escalating post-apartheid violent crime epidemic, as well as the other HIV/AIDS epidemic. Unfortunately for Mandela, after he stepped down and Thabo Mbeki succeeded him, the latter was captured by "AIDS denialist" junk science, which meant that an estimated 300,000 black South African and other HIV+ people died from AIDS during the successive presidency. Due to the efforts of South Africa's Treatment Action Group, that was ultimately overturned. Personal tragedy visited the Mandela family during this period, given the death of one of his own sons from HIV/AIDS, and his Nelson Mandela Foundation adopted efforts against HIV/AIDS as one of its primary objectives. By now, though, the living legend was in his eighties as a new century dawned. Although he frowned at the corruption and greed scandals that engulfed the ANC and strongly disagreed with Mbeki's embrace of AIDS denialism, as well as harshly criticising former anti-apartheid ally and increasingly repressive tyrant of Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe, calling on the latter to resign and restore democracy and pluralism to South Africa's neighbouring state. His health has suffered in recent years, with recurrent problems from prostate cancer at first, and then lung cancer and cardiovascular problems in more recent years, for which he has repeatedly been hospitalised. As the periods of hospitalisation became more recurrent, South Africa dreaded the inevitable day when Mandela would pass away and began the process of mourning and relinquishment of this iconic political figure. What about LGBT rights in South Africa? As a result of the fundamentalist and racist white South African Reformed Churches and their role in the establishment and maintenance of apartheid, the Pretorian regime was conservative Calvinist in terms of its approach to social issues. As a consequence, 'anti-sodomy' laws originated during the initial period of Dutch colonisation in the eighteenth century. As a result, black and white LGBT South Africans grew up in an abnormal and segregated environment, with the involvement of many black gay South Africans, like Simon Mbeki, in the ANC. Like Nicaragua during the eighties, the resultant pluralist political environment influenced the ANC under Mandela's leadership and later presidency. During the apartheid era, lesbian and gay South Africans could be treated with involuntary ECT and psychoactive and harmful medication. That grim era came to an end when Mandela's ANC government decriminalised male homosexuality in 1994. In 1996, LGBT equality was written into the South African constitution, which was a world first. In 1998, the Mandela administration passed antidiscrimination reforms that included LGBT South Africans and at the same time, adoption and IVF access became open to prospective same-sex parents (1999). Finally, as a culmination of all of this reform activity, South Africa introduced LGBT civil marriage in 2005, after Mandela had left office, but with his support. Due to the legacy of the Mbeki era, HIV/AIDS still remains a serious problem, but Mbeki's successor, Jacob Zuma, has ended the era of AIDS denialist pseudo-science, listened to the Treatment Action Group and restored access to HIV/AIDS medication. Unfortunately, there are still 'corrective rapes' of black South African lesbians within townships. As for South Africa's Christian Right, the end of apartheid and the association of feminists and LGBT organisations with the ANC has made it a marginal presence. There is a tiny fundamentalist "African Christian Democratic Party" within the South African Parliament, but with only three MPs. It is anti-abortion, antigay and opposed to condoms and safe sex. It has negligible influence within a nation whose dominant philosophy is social liberalism, and is comparable to Destiny Church within New Zealand, appealing to much the same constituency. As I've said, some obituaries affect one more deeply than others. Nelson Mandela was an iconic figure of great magnitude and great compassion, whose conciliatory and pluralist politics transformed South Africa from a right-wing extremist governed international pariah state during its brutal, murderous half-century of apartheid to a modern, pluralist liberal democracy and open economy, albeit one still suffering the legacies of its nightmarish past. Rest in peace, beloved one. And as for the people of South Africa, know that you are not alone in mourning this loss-not only to your country, but all humanity. Recommended: Nelson Mandela: The Long Walk to Freedom I: 1918-1962: Little Brown and Company: 1994 Nelson Mandela: The Long Walk to Freedom II: 1962-1994: Time-Warner Books: 2004. LGBT rights in South Africa: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_in_South_Africa Craig Young - 6th December 2013