Nelson Mandela
From Education for Justice

Pope John Paul II praised South African President Nelson Mandela as a “witness of the new South Africa,” citing the efforts of President Nelson Mandela of South Africa to create “pacification in cooperation,” and invoked God’s help for him, his government, and “all his fellow citizens in the great task of reconciliation that awaits you.”- John Paul II, September 16, 1995

Nelson Mandela’s Story

• Rolihlahla “Nelson” Mandela was born on July 18, 1918 in the black homeland of Transkei in South Africa.  His first remembered action for greater equality was at Fort Hare University, where, while he was enrolled in a B.A. program, he became involved in student protests against the white colonial rule of that institution.  He was asked to leave the university because of the protests.  He completed his degree at the University of South Africa and then went on to attain his law degree.

• In 1942, Mandela joined the Youth League of the African National Congress (A.N.C.) where he became involved in resisting South Africa’s racist and unjust Apartheid laws.  Two years later, he founded the dynamic youth league branch of the A.N.C.

• After an Afrikaner, pro-apartheid party won the 1948 elections, Mandela organized peaceful anti-apartheid, pro-equality campaigns.  With a partner, he also operated a law firm to provide free or low-cost legal counsel to many blacks who would otherwise have not had access to legal representation.

• In 1952, the white South African government mounted a massive treason trial against Mandela and other activists.  In 1956, he and several others were arrested on treason charges.  His response was a creative denial of victimhood and a resolve to work harder for equality.  Meanwhile, the government was intentionally crushing all opposition, even to the extent that peaceful black demonstrators were massacred in 1960.

• In 1961, Mandela and the others who had been arrested were all acquitted.

• Mandela continued to organize against apartheid and was arrested several times before being sentenced to life imprisonment in 1964 for his anti-apartheid activities.  He spent 26 years but refrained from becoming bitter and disillusioned.

• Mandela refused an offer for release in return for denouncing the struggle against apartheid in 1985.  In 1990, he was finally able to negotiate with the South Africa President’s office for his own release and also the nation’s transition from Apartheid to a democracy.  On February 2, 1990, President F. W. de Klerk announced Mandela’s release and also lifted the ban against the A.N.C.

• In 1991, at the first national conference of the ANC held inside South Africa after being banned for decades, nelson Mandela was elected President of the ANC.

• In 1993, Mandela was a recipient of the international Nobel Peace Prize.

• In 1994, Mandela was elected president of South Africa, where he was able to preside over the transition from minority rule and apartheid to greater equality and reconciliation.

• In 2004, at the age of 85, Mandela announced his retirement from the public life.  However, he has continued to try to raise public awareness about HIV/AIDS and to lessen the social stigma attached to the disease that impedes treatment.  He has done this especially through talking about his eldest son, who died of AIDS in 2005.

• Andre Brink noted that. “Camus once said one man’s chains imply that we are all enslave; Mandela proves through his own example that faith, hope, and charity are qualities attainable by humanity as a whole.  Through his willingness to walk the road of sacrifice, he has reaffirmed our common potential to move toward a new age.”

Nelson Mandela on Justice

Nelson Mandela’s statement from the dock in the Rivonia Trial on April 20, 1964:
“Our daily deeds as ordinary South Africans must produce an actual South Africans must produce an actual South African reality that will reinforce humanity’s belief in justice, strengthen its confidence in the nobility of the human soul and sustain all our hopes for a glorious life for all.”

Nelson Mandela’s Acceptance a Nobel Peace Prize Lecture in 1993:
“I am also here today as a representative of the millions of people across the globe, the anti-Apartheid movement, the governments and organizations that joined with us, not to fight against South Africa as a country or any of its peoples, but to oppose an inhuman system and sue for a speedy end to the apartheid crime against humanity.  These countless human beings, both inside and outside our country, had the nobility of spirit to stand in the path of tyranny and injustice, without seeking selfish gain.  They recognized that a global solidarity and therefore acted together in defense of justice and a common human decency.”

Nelson Mandela’s Inaugural Speech in Pretoria, May, 1994:

“Out of the experience of an extraordinary human disaster that lasted too long, must be born a society of which all humanity will be proud.  We have, at last, achieved our political emancipation.  We pledge ourselves to liberate all our people from the continuing bondage of poverty, deprivation, suffering, gender, and other discrimination.  Never, never, and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will gain experience the oppression of one by another… The sun shall never set on so glorious a human achievement.”

Speech given by Nelson Mandela in Trafalgar Square on February 3rd, 2005:
“As long as poverty, injustice and gross inequality persist in our world, none of us can truly rest.  Massive poverty and obscene inequality are such terrible scourges of our times- times in which the world boasts breathtaking advances in science, technology, industry and wealth accumulation- that they have to rank alongside slavery and apartheid as social evil.  In this new century, millions of people in the world’s poorest countries remain imprisoned, enslaved, and in chains.  They are trapped in the prison of poverty.  It is time to set them free.  Like slavery and apartheid, poverty is not natural.  It is man-made and it can be overcome and eradicated by the actions ho human beings.  And overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity.  It is an act of justice.  It is the protection of a fundamental human right, human dignity, rights and responsibilities.  While poverty persists, there is no true freedom.”

Prayer

Compassionate God, we honor Nelson Mandela who came from humble beginnings to help justice roll down upon those who were suffer.  We ask that you will inspire in us today the resolve and courage, the compassion and passion, to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with you as he has done.  Amen.
Adapted from A Prayer for Justice, Brian McLaren