The personality of Nelson Mandela is complex, with strong determination to strive for his beliefs and ideas. While he embraced violence in the 1960’s as a result of deep hatred for the apartheid regime, he chose a peaceful reconciliation with the white African people after his inauguration as the president of South Africa.
2. Analysis
Identify the actor (group, company, party) that the leader primarily represents and how he or she came to represent this actor.
Nelson Mandela had been one of the most significant leaders of the African National Congress (ANC), in which he was elected as the president of the political group in 1991 soon after his liberation.
Mandela, after joining the ANC during his student days, established his position in the organization by leading young colleagues with radical opinions and ousting the older leaders in the organization. Gaining conformity from the mass black Africans, Mandela was gradually recognized as a national black leader. He devoted himself totally to the resistance activities of the ANC during the 1950’s until he was finally arrested and imprisoned in 1962.
Mandela’s status was well kept as a symbol of South African people’s fight for freedom during his imprisonment. The ideology which Mandela persistently held encouraged black Africans and influenced international humanity movements.
Identify three central quotes that represent how this leader thinks.
“At the beginning of June 1961, after a long and anxious assessment of the South African situation, I, and some colleagues, came to the conclusion that as violence in this country was inevitable, it would be unrealistic and wrong for African leaders to continue preaching peace and non-violence at a time when the Government met our peaceful demands with force”.
“During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. 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”.
Choose one statement that you consider most central. Explain briefly, why you have chosen this one.
“During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. 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”.
This quote reflects the core of Mandela’s ideology, in which he believes that there are no substitutes or compromises. It also explains why Mandela was willing to go to great ends to realize this ideology, even to the extent of sacrificing his freedom and his life. The quote also indicates the early actions and decisions of his life, during his imprisonment, and after his release in 1990.
The power struggle within the ANC in the 1950’s and Mandela’s rise to power within the ANC represent his first steps toward his goal. Until then, the ANC was exercising a “self-restraint and polite” policy towards the white government, one in which Mandela saw no chance of realizing his ideals.
His decision to take up an armed struggle against the Apartheid government, after all other efforts failed, implies his shear determination to realize his vision. This extreme move underlined the statement “if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die”. The action was taken although he knew very well that armed struggle had no chance of succeeding during the era of 1950’s.
Moreover, his refusal to compromise with his jailers for early release reflects his unwillingness to be wavered from his ideals even in the most extreme conditions. As stated in the quote, he lived for the ideal, and could simply not accept any deflections from this ideal, even when he was offered early release from jail and freedom.
Finally, his reconciliation with white Africans, despite spending almost thirty years in prison, truly fulfilled his vision for South Africans to live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. He has strived to create an ideal society where neither white nor black dominate.
Describe the social context for this statement (actors, interests, constraints). Limit your description to the two or three actors, and the constraints under which they interact, that are most critical.
The statement was made on the April 20, 1964, when Nelson Mandela was defending himself in the Rivonia trial after being charged with sabotage. The two main actors associated with the statements are the white dominated Apartheid government and the black dominated ANC represented by Mandela.
The ANC represented by Nelson Mandela, took up an armed struggle against the Apartheid government. Its interest is to force the Apartheid government to recognize the existence of black Africans, and to give equal rights and opportunities. Their constraints are limited funding for their movement, and the lack of military capabilities for their armed struggle. Furthermore, their efforts were not fully supported by the mass black population, who were unwilling to sacrifice their lives or jobs for an uncertain cause. After all, most among the black population do not believe that uprisings can be successful.
The white population who has populated and controlled South Africa for many generations dominated the Apartheid government. They were landlords, mine and plantation owners, and others who generally have large interests in the well being of a stable South Africa. The black Africans on the other hand, were their source of cheap labor. Thus, to lose their dominant power over the black Africans meant losing their economic advantages, making political power sharing an unpleasant option. This is in addition to the fact that white supremacy ideals reigned not only in Africa in that era, but in the European and the American continents as well.
Describe, how this statement responds to the situation and the interests of the parties concerned. What is the leader trying to achieve for his/her group? What is the intended impact on other groups? What is the impact on society at large if relevant)?
Nelson Mandela, after making this statement in defense during the Rivonia trial, was sentenced to life in prison where he spent the next 27 years. Could he have foreseen that the trial would be his last public appearance? Clearly, he was making the statement to justify his armed struggle and movements against the Apartheid government, and to plead with the white dominated government to reconcile with the black Africans. On the other hand, Mandela could be making a last public appeal to the international communities to intervene and help end the Apartheid policy in South Africa.
His statement did not affect his sentence, and the Apartheid policy remained unchanged. The ANC’s underground movement and armed struggle continued from where Mandela started.
Mandela’s attempt in justifying the ANC’s policy through his statement, which was well publicized at that time, was successful in that it later moved the international communities to take action against the South Africa Apartheid policy. By creating this awareness among the international communities, the statement could possibly be one reason that he was not killed in prison, as many of his peers were. Nonetheless, his imprisonment influenced the international communities and resulted in a United Nations resolution in 1963 calling on the Apartheid government to abandon their segregation policies. The statement was later used as part of the ANC slogan during the reconciliation period in the 1990’s, and the transition from white dominated governance to joint governance.
3. EToM and Kantianism
Kantianism
“I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. 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.”
Quoting the definition of Kantianism, “Act only according to that maxim by which you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law”.
The Mandela quote is a pure reflection of Kantianism in a way that it satisfies the universally acceptable law. The maxim is the ideal in the quote, which stated that all people have the rights to live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. And by acting in accordance to the ideal, the Kantianism rule is therefore satisfied. Mandela makes this statement unconditional for all persons regardless of whether they are whites or blacks.
By Kantianism, “Act so that you treat humanity, whether in your own person or in that of another, always as an end and never as a means only.” In the years of apartheid governance, the whites, encouraged by the discriminating legislation in South Africa, had been consistently taking advantage of the cheap black labour to explore the golden mines they owned. They treated the blacks only as a means for obtaining wealth and achieving their goals. In contrast, Mandela’s vision was of a state, which belonged equally to all its different ethnic groups.
Remaining always true to his ideal, he was never tempted to make exceptions for himself and the black population he represented. Differing from other African leaders, he did not fight for exclusively black liberation movement; all segments of the multicoloured population were included. By offering reconciliation to his enemies instead of looking back at the deep wounds of the past, Mandela excelled as an outstanding leader. Not excluding the whites from the future government he clearly showed them that they had future in the new state of South Africa.
EToM
The interacting parties in this case are: ANC, representing the blacks which are large in number but do not hold any political power; and the White government, which holds blanket political authority but faces pressure from international community calling for abolishment of apartheid policy.
Trying to codify white supremacy through implementing racial and discriminating legislation, the Apartheid government had been continuously defecting from the common interest. Interested only in their well-being, they disregarded the basic rights of the black population. In other words, they were realizing their self-interest with no respect to the interest of the blacks. Obedience to the rules imposed by the White government could mean that the other party would be consistently suffering damage. In order to defend themselves and to achieve their goals, ANC, in the early 1960s, endorsed “armed struggle” and the military wing of the organization was formed. They initiated a guerrilla warfare and took steps to sabotage the government by targeting symbols of apartheid and government offices. As a result, ANC exercised their right of defection.
In effect, the parties ended up with an outcome that was unfortunate for both. ANC was proclaimed as an illegal organization, blacks were excluded from governing the country. They also experienced limited access to education and suffered suppression of civil rights. On the other hand, political and economic situations in the country worsened. Many countries broke their economic relations with South Africa; the U.S. Senate voted for strict economic sanctions against South Africa, with U.S. companies closing down their operations, and banks stopped offering state loans. In addition, violence in the region escalated and insecurity increased.
In the late 1980s South Africa was subjected to huge international pressure and the government realized that apartheid had never been a viable strategy. Eventually, they dismantled the apartheid structure, initiated official negotiations with ANC, and later recognized it as a legal political entity. At the same time, Mandela managed to persuade ANC to abandon their armed struggle against the apartheid government. He showed both parties that they could move from a zero-sum perspective to a positive-sum perspective, thus escaping the social trap and achieving a win-win situation through cooperation. The foundations of future multi-racial democracy were set. Despite terrible provocation, Mandela has never answered racism with racism.
<Reference>
90 Years of Struggle, A brief overview of ANC history
“I am Prepared to Die” Nelson Mandela’s statement from the dock at the opening of the defense case in the Rivonia Trial, Pretoria Supreme Court, 20 April, 1964
Biography of Nelson Mandela
Address by Nelson Mandela on behalf of the ANC delegation to the conference of the Pan-African freedom movement of East and Central Africa, Addis Ababa, January 1962
Interview to Anthony Sampson (a British journalist), FRONTLINE: The Long Walk of Nelson Mandela
Interview to Richard Stengel (Senior Editor, Time Magazine), FRONTLINE: The Long Walk of Nelson Mandela
Nelson Mandela and the Rainbow of Culture by Anders Hallengren
Mandela: A tiger for our time, published in the Mail & Guardian, Vol.15, No.22, 4 June 1999
Free Nelson Mandela
TIME 100: Leaders & Revolutionaries – Nelson Mandela, by Andre Brink
