Nelson Mandela
By Shaka Momodu
South African civil rights icon Nelson Mandela on December 5 finally lost the battle that no man has ever won. He died at the age of 95. Known all over the world for his role in dismantling the South African apartheid regime, Mandela had been treated for a persistent lung infection earlier this year, and in recent days had retreated to his Johannesburg home. "He is now resting," South African President Jacob Zuma said. "He is now at peace."
Mandela began as an activist with the African National Congress, arranging general strikes and "Defiance Campaigns" in protest of the policies of apartheid. After a string of arrests and increasingly violent police crackdowns, Mandela was arrested in 1963 on charges of sabotage, and for plotting the violent overthrow of the government. At his trial, Mandela admitted to sabotage and some acts of violence, but insisted it was towards the goal of a free and equitable society. "I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities," Mandela told the court. "It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die." Amid fears of a Communist uprising, he was sentenced to life in prison.
As global outrage over Apartheid grew, Mandela gained global prominence as a political prisoner, kept for 18 years in an 8-by-7-foot cell in South Africa 's Robben Island prison. In 1990, Mandela was released and immediately became one of the country's most powerful political figures. Shortly after his release from prison he addressed a crowd of more than 100,000 at Johannesburg 's Soccer City , calling for an end to the politics of racial supremacy which had defined the nation. "We call on our white compatriots to join us in the shaping of a new South Africa ." In 1994, he was elected president of South Africa , serving until he withdrew from politics in 1999.
In the wake of his death, world leaders have lined up to mourn Mandela. In a speech to the nation, South African President Zuma called upon South Africans to celebrate Mandela's life by renewing their commitment to social justice. "Let us recall the values for which Madiba fought," Zuma said, using Mandela's colloquial nickname. "Let us reaffirm his vision of a society in which none is exploited, oppressed or dispossessed by another."
His demise has finally put an end to a long period of hospitalization, prayer vigil, recuperation, speculation and perhaps suffering.
His life was a struggle and the land of South Africa was the battle field. He fought wit such dogged determination that not even incarceration for 27years could break his resolve to see the end of apartheid and a free and liberated South Africa.
After his release on February 11, 1990, having served 27tears in prison, Mandela went on to win the first democratic election and became the first elected President of South Africa. His leadership freed the nation from oppression to democracy, he went on to serve one before quitting politics and withdrawing from much of public attention, but behind the scene he provided the moral compass that guides the country.
As he health deteriorated over the years, the fearsome fighter in him rebounded fending off one illness after the other with an uncommon determination to stay alive. He made several trips to the hospital. Just when one expected the end has come, he would pull through, recuperating. Several times such that he prepared many for the inevitable end.
South Africa and indeed the world over knew that this day would come, but when it finally came, it was without a drama that we had seen surrounding his hospitalization. Indeed Mandela sneaked out in the quite and peace of his home surrounded by his family.
The press which had made a circus of his frequent hospital trip were totally cutoff guard.
He lived a good life to a full ripe age, nothing more can be more satisfying. The encomiums being poured on him from every nook and cranny of the world testifies to the extra-ordinary life of Madiba.
According to British Prime Minister David Cameron, a great light has gone out in the world and in the words of President Barrack Obama, he now belongs to the ages.
ROBBEN ISLAND THE FACTS
Education
If they wanted to, the prisoners could apply for permission to study and permission was granted for D group prisoners too. Certain subjects weren’t allowed like politics and military history. The prisoners had to get funds from their family, making it hard for poor prisoners to get books to study. Prisoners couldn’t lend their book to another prisoner.
They were allowed to enroll at the University of South Africa (UNISA) or Rapid Results College, if they needed to get high school qualifications.
They didn’t have desks or chairs to study, so authorities made each cell a stand up desk, which really was a piece of wood attached to the wall at chest height. Later, authorities lowered the desks and gave them three-legged stools.
People who were studying for a higher degree could read to 10 or 11 o’clock. Some men asked to study at night and the prison officials agreed because of the pressure from the Red Cross.
Robben Island was starting to be called “the university”. They studied English, Africaans, art, geography, and math through correspondence courses and those men taught what they learned to others. There was a shortage of guards on Robben Island, which meant the end of hard labor. Nelson Mandela was still under the 4 year ban of formal study, but allowed to talk with other prisoners and write.
Punishments
If the prisoners did something wrong, did something that the guards didn’t like, or didn’t meet prison requirements, they could be sent to an isolation cell. Isolation cells are located in the same complex, but in a different wing. They weren’t allowed visitors, exercise, company, or food. They only got rice water, which was the water that rice boiled in, 3 times a day for 3 days.
Specials
The prisoners weren’t allowed to read the newspaper or listen to the radio, so the prison started their own radio station.
The prisoners later got to read newspapers that were heavily censored. They broadcasted good government new and bad news for people against apartheid. They later got their own cinema on the island. About every week, they would watch movies on a sheet in a big room. Later, they got a better screen.
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