NELSON MANDELA IS NOT MORE IMPORTANT THAN THE ENTIRE CONTINENT OF AFRICA
Nelson Mandela cannot be more important than the entire continent of Africa and its people at home and in the Diaspora. It is absurdity to try and elevate Mandela over and above the entire Africa and its people. He cannot be more important than the South African Native National Congress (SANNC) of1912 and its founders.
The SANNC became the African National Congress in the 1920’s and its founding members were, among others, Sol Thekisho Plaatje and Pixley Seme. The former was invited by Marcus Garvey and UNIA to the US in the early 1920’s and the latter studied in the US . Mandela cannot be more important than the African Diaspora and its leaders like Frederick Douglass, Toussaint L’Ouverture, Martin Robison Delany, Edward Wilmot Blyden and Marcus Garvey to name but five.
Nelson Mandela cannot be more important than the entire continent of Africa and its people at home and in the Diaspora. It is absurdity to try and elevate Mandela over and above the entire Africa and its people. He cannot be more important than the South African Native National Congress (SANNC) of 1912 and its founders.
The SANNC became the African National Congress in the 1920’s and its founding members were, among others, Sol Thekisho Plaatje and Pixley Seme. The former was invited by Marcus Garvey and UNIA to the US in the early 1920’s and the latter studied in the US . Mandela cannot be more important than the African Diaspora and its leaders like Frederick Douglass, Toussaint L’Ouverture, Martin Robison Delany, Edward Wilmot Blyden and Marcus Garvey to name but five.
Delany was called “the father of Black Nationalism”. It is Delany who coined the phrase ” Africa for the Africans”. He was born on May 12, 1812. He subsequently worked with Frederick Douglass on his weekly newspaper, the North Star. He was the first black students at Harvard Medical School .
Blyden was born on 3 August 1832 and inspired Garvey among other Diasporan leaders who came after him. Garvey was born on 17 August 1887. An African-American historian Runoko Rashidi wrote that among the most acclaimed of the early pioneer advocates of the rights of African people were Delany and Blyden. They were intellectuals and activists whose lives personified Kwame Nkrumah’s maxim of “Thought without practice is empty, action without thought is blind”.
Douglass said HE always thanked God for making him a man but Delany went further to say HE always thanks him (God) for making him a Black man. Dr Blyden often remarked that “I would rather be a member of this race (the Black race) than a Greek in the time of Alexander, a Roman in the Augustan period, or Anglo-Saxon in the nineteenth century. Garvey said of Blyden that if “You do not knw anything of your ancestry it will do you well to read the works of Blyden, one of our historians and chroniclers, who has done so much to retrieve the lost prestige of the race”.
Garvey was the founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA-ACL). Garvey’s movement inspired many Africans in Africa and the Diaspora. The colours of the ANC were influenced by the Garveyite movement.
After his correspondence with Booker T. Washington, Garvey went to the US in 1916 and continued his Pan Africanist work until trumped up charges were brought against him. By 1920, UNIA claimed to have had about 4 million members. So Garvey was a good organiser. These leaders surely did more than Mandela and preceded him. But why has he been elevated to a position higher than his continent and people?
There is talk that he is the personification of reconciliation. But if you read “How Can Man Die Better” by Benjamin Pogrund you will learn that the first person to be reconciliatory was the PAC founding President Mangaliso Robert Sobukwe. The amazing reconciliatory approach of Sobukwe was noted by people like former Truth and Reconciliation Commission deputy Chairperson Alex Borraine who went to visit Sobukwe in hospital in Cape Town in the 1970’s. So what is so important about Mandela?
Why can’t we make the birthdays of Douglouss, Delany, Blyden, Garvey, Nkrumah and Sobukwe public holidays or 25 May, the founding day of the Organisation of African Unity, a public holiday instead of the birthday of this one man who even entered into questionable agreements with his former jailers? Are we suckers? Suppressing information about these other leaders is a ploy to suppress their role as liberators of our minds like Frantz Fanon and Cheikh Anta Diop.
By Sam Ditshego
Once more this is revolutionary outlook seeking to restore Black history that has been blacked out of history. What is great about “Assuring the White enemy about your own harmlessness to their interests”, as I. B. Tabata wrote in a letter to Mandela? Mandela is what PAC called “Press Heroes”. I itch to join in the battle against imperialist lies. Let the battle begin against the “Paper Tiger” as Mao put it.
ANC is suffering from an incurrable disease called personality cult, it just cannot exist without heroworshipping an individual over and above the revolution, a tendency rejected by all revolutionary ideologues who achieved and contributed more than Mandela did to revolution. In the ANC Mandela is bigger than Africa and he is regarded as the Superman who liberated Azanians which is a complete lie. This belief held by ANC undermines the sacrifices made by our forefathers, liberation leaders, masses of our people and the supreme price paid by our combatants in defense of our land and freedom. The Mandela celebrity concept is The Big Lie Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah once wrote about.
To hell with Paper Tigers and ANC lies.
Well put, i will pass on this great reading to everybody who passes by listerning or claim to not.
IZWE LETHU!AFRICA FOR AFRICANS!
Of historical interest — You can see a clip of Toussaint’s last moments in prison from the award-winning new short film “The Last Days of Toussaint L’Ouverture” at http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2468184/ This film is the basis for a new feature (not with Danny Glover) that is in development.
what questionable agreement did he get into with the apartheid regime?I really dont understand how can mamdela who just jailed be ealted so much while many people like Biko died for our libearation are not credible to be our freedom icon,fishy neh!pls help me on that question.
this is response to katlego. most of the things i write about nelson mandela come from his own book ‘long walk to freedom’. he started negotiating in secret with pw botha and other broederbonders in 1981 without even the knowledge of the anc. other anc leaders like oliver tambo, thabo mbeki etc started negotiating in secret from 1987 in britain. this info comes from john pilger’s book ‘freedom next time’ in a chapter titled ‘apartheid did not die’. it appears mandela is wont to undermining other people. this can be supported by david james smith in his scathing book title ‘the young nelson mandela’. i am yet to see it being reviewed. smith confirms my long held belief that mandela is not better than the rest of us. in 1995 i reviewed his ‘long walk to freedom’ and mayihlome has a copy of that review. readers should also familiarise themselves with “the groote schuur minute!” to see how we were sold out. i hope i have answered katlego.
it is astounding to hear about his name being accoladed as if he was the first person to embark on the strugle yet there were many gallant forces before him. it is in that reason why he said he is not happy with the accolades, simply because he is clear that he is not suppose to be claiming the victory of african leaders Aluta continua izwelethu ma-afrika