Thank you for bringing this up, Mary. In celebration of Mandela's
birthday (July 18, 1918), I have copied a famous statement he released
in 1961, when he was about 43.
Mandela is certainly one of history's finest (and rare) examples of
unfailingly standing up for human rights while being a brilliant
statesman and leader. Mandela is also an exemplary revolutionary,
dedicating his life to an uncompromising struggle for freedom.
Here is a little context for the statement below. The South African
government was formed in 1910 as a coalition of local Boer states
presiding over a racist, segregated colonial system. This system of
segregation became fully codified when apartheid was adopted in 1948,
which sparked new levels of resistance in the population, where
Mandela emerged as a leader. 1961, the year of the statement printed
below, was a turning point. The 1960 Sharpeville massacre, where at
least 69 people in a demonstration were shot and killed by police,
many in the back, was followed by a major increase in government
repression. Mandela's call in his statement for open "non-
cooperation" with the apartheid government by Blacks in South Africa,
and by all those in the world who opposed apartheid, reflected the
militant spirit of the movement at the time. By the end of 1961 this
resistance broke into open armed struggle, when a Mandela-led wing of
the African National Congress began to engage in controlled sabotage
of specific buildings and other symbols of apartheid (deliberately
attempting, by the way, to avoid deaths from these operations). The
government found and arrested Mandela in 1962, who would spend the
next 27 years in prison. He was released in 1990 under the massive
pressure of the by then succeeding antiapartheid movement. That year,
Mandela and the ANC officially called off the armed struggle in favor
of negotiating major changes in the government, such as instituting
universal elections. Mandela was president of South Africa from 1994
through 1999.
Speaking about the warrant out for his arrest in 1961, Mandela's
statement explained that he was going to remain underground and fight
the apartheid government.
"I shall fight the government side by side with you, inch by inch, and
mile by mile, until victory is won. What are you going to do? Will you
come along with us, or are you going to co-operate with the government
in its efforts to suppress the claims and aspirations of your own
people? Or are you going to remain silent and neutral in a matter of
life and death to my people, to our people? For my own part I have
made my choice. I will not leave South Africa, nor will I surrender.
"Only through hardship, sacrifice and militant action can freedom be
won. The struggle is my life. I will continue fighting for freedom
until the end of my days."
Read his words below and see if you aren't stirred by his
revolutionary spirit.
from http://www.themilitant.com/2008/7229/722949.html
Nelson Mandela on battle to
end South Africa apartheid
(Books of the Month column)
Below is an excerpt from The Struggle Is My Life, one of Pathfinder’s
Books of the Month. It is a collection of Nelson Mandela’s speeches
and political writings from his days as a leader of the African
National Congress Youth League in 1944 until his release from prison
in 1990. The selection reprinted here is from a statement released by
Mandela in 1961 in the midst of the struggle against the apartheid
regime of South Africa. Copyright © 1990, Pathfinder Press. Reprinted
by permission.
BY NELSON MANDELA
The magnificent response to the call of the National Action Council
for a three-day strike and the wonderful work done by our organisers
and field workers throughout the country proves once again that no
power on earth can stop an oppressed people determined to win their
freedom. In the face of unprecedented intimidation by the government
and employers and of blatant falsehoods and distortions by the press,
immediately before and during the strike, the freedom-loving people of
South Africa gave massive and solid support to the historic and
challenging resolutions of the Pietermaritzburg Conference. Factory
and office workers, businessmen in town and country, students in
university colleges, in primary and secondary schools, inspired by
genuine patriotism and threatened with loss of employment,
cancellation of business licenses and the ruin of school careers, rose
to the occasion and recorded in emphatic tones their opposition to a
White republic forcibly imposed on us by a minority. In the light of
the formidable array of hostile forces that stood against us, and the
difficult and dangerous conditions under which we worked, the results
were most inspiring. I am confident that if we work harder and more
systematically, the Nationalist government will not survive for long.
No organisation in the world could have withstood and survived the
full-scale and massive bombardment directed against us by the
government during the last month… .
At the present moment it is sufficient to say that we plan to make
government impossible. Those who are voteless cannot be expected to
continue paying taxes to a government which is not responsible to
them. People who live in poverty and starvation cannot be expected to
pay exorbitant house rents to the government and local authorities. We
furnish the sinews of agriculture and industry. We produce the work of
the gold mines, the diamonds and the coal, of the farms and industry,
in return for miserable wages. Why should we continue enriching those
who steal the products of our sweat and blood? Those who exploit us
and refuse us the right to organise trade unions? Those who side with
the government when we stage peaceful demonstrations to assert our
claims and aspirations? How can Africans serve on School Boards and
Committees which are part of Bantu Education, a sinister scheme of the
Nationalist government to deprive the African people of real education
in return for tribal education? Can Africans be expected to be content
with serving on Advisory Boards and Bantu Authorities when the demand
all over the continent of Africa is for national independence and self-
government? Is it not an affront to the African people that the
government should now seek to extend Bantu Authorities to the cities,
when people in the rural areas have refused to accept the same system
and fought against it tooth and nail? Which African does not burn with
indignation when thousands of our people are sent to gaol every month
under the cruel pass laws? Why should we continue carrying these
badges of slavery? Non-collaboration is a dynamic weapon. We must
refuse. We must use it to send this government to the grave. It must
be used vigorously and without delay. The entire resources of the
Black people must be mobilised to withdraw co-operation with the
Nationalist government. Various forms of industrial and economic
action will be employed to undermine the already tottering economy of
the country. We will call upon the international bodies to expel South
Africa and upon nations of the world to sever economic and diplomatic
relations with the country.
I am informed that a warrant for my arrest has been issued, and that
the police are looking for me. The National Action Council has given
full and serious consideration to this question, and has sought the
advice of many trusted friends and bodies and they have advised me not
to surrender myself. I have accepted this advice, and will not give
myself up to a government I do not recognise. Any serious politician
will realise that under present-day conditions in this country, to
seek for cheap martyrdom by handing myself to the police is naive and
criminal. We have an important programme before us and it is important
to carry it out very seriously and without delay.
I have chosen this latter course, which is more difficult and which
entails more risk and hardship than sitting in gaol. I have had to
separate myself from my dear wife and children, from my mother and
sisters, to live as an outlaw in my own land. I have had to close my
business, to abandon my profession, and live in poverty and misery, as
many of my people are doing. I will continue to act as the spokesman
of the National Action Council during the phase that is unfolding and
in the tough struggles that lie ahead. I shall fight the government
side by side with you, inch by inch, and mile by mile, until victory
is won. What are you going to do? Will you come along with us, or are
you going to co-operate with the government in its efforts to suppress
the claims and aspirations of your own people? Or are you going to
remain silent and neutral in a matter of life and death to my people,
to our people? For my own part I have made my choice. I will not leave
South Africa, nor will I surrender.
Only through hardship, sacrifice and militant action can freedom be
won. The struggle is my life. I will continue fighting for freedom
until the end of my days.
<end>
On Jul 18, 2008, at 4:31 AM, Elinami Swai wrote:
> Thanks Mary. This is an exciting event. Mandela is one of a very few
> leaders in the entire world whose heart is truly for the people, but a
> large part of his energy was spent behind the bars. I wish he was
> younger too, people like Mugabe, Kibaki and others would behave
> differently.I wish him fifty more year, if he has no illness bothering
> him.
> Elinami.
>
> On 7/18/08, Mary van der Riet <vanderriet@ukzn.ac.za> wrote:
>> Madiba turns 90 today. A huge tent has been erected outside his
>> house in a small village in the Eastern Cape Province of SA, called
>> Qunu. The Provincial Minister of Agriculture has donated 500 goats
>> to the surrounding residents.
>> The national TV station is broadcasting live from Robben Island -
>> the prison where Mandela was incarcerated.
>> Children are interviewed on TV guessing his age and wishing him
>> happy birthday.
>> His picture is in the United Nations. What effect do you think he
>> has had on the world?
>>
>> Personally I wish he was 50 years younger so that the world could
>> be affected by him for much longer)
>>
>> Mary
>>
>>
>>
>> Mary van der Riet; School of Psychology; University of KwaZulu-Natal
>> Private Bag X01, Scottsville, 3209
>>
>> email: vanderriet@ukzn.ac.za
>> tel: 033 260 6163; fax: 033 2605809
>>
>> Please find our Email Disclaimer here: http://www.ukzn.ac.za/disclaimer/
>> _______________________________________________
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>
>
> --
> Dr. Elinami Swai
> Womens' and Gender Studies
> University Hall 4220-A
> The University of Toledo
> Toledo, OH, 43606
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