In my first year as a doctoral student at Clark Atlanta University, I enrolled in a course called “The Person in History and Literature.” One of the first texts on our course reading list was an autobiography entitled, Long Walk to Freedom. Consequently, it was during that semester that I became familiar with the life of a rare and penetrating figure of the twentieth century, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela.
Since Mandela’s transition into the spiritual world, there has been a cacophony of media commentators, Twitter feeds, and Facebook posts resonating with sentiments expressing what Mandela’s life meant. The generous appellations and proclamations have hailed the resiliency and fortitude of the South African leader. Indeed, he courageously and selflessly forged a life that became one of the most effective weapons in dismantling the racism and white supremacy of South African apartheid. Over the next week, the international discourse on Mandela’s life will continue to assemble into a grand survey of the far reaches of his influence on the world. However, we should always remember the simple fact that Mandela always strove to realize a humanistic imperative, which he viewed as fundamental. This humanistic imperative was the head of the spear and as his life pierced through the struggle, it guided the course towards freedom.
Photo: Alexander Joe/AFP/Getty Images
The establishment press and those people who are less familiar with him will recall that Mandela’s humanistic imperative was driven by a non-violent struggle against the racial inequality and brutality of South African apartheid. They will recall his organizing with South African workers, and the stay-at-home strikes, which he and other members of the African National Congress (ANC) helped to plan. We will more than likely hear about the watershed moments in the anti-apartheid struggle. There will be multifarious references to the anti-pass campaigns that resulted in the violent murder of thousands of black South Africans in Sharpsville in 1960. Conventional historical memory will recognize Mandela as the moral exemplar. Countless times, we will be reminded about the peace seeking Mandela who exercised forgiveness and worked with his former oppressors to end South African apartheid after his release from prison in 1990. Additionally, there will be an abundance of adulations that acknowledge Mandela as the first black and the first democratically elected president of the modern nation of South Africa. Of course, the accent on our safe memories of Mandela highlights the humility he displayed in willingly stepping down as president of South Africa in 1999. Thus, many commentators will point to Mandela’s political leadership as a conspicuous mark of distinction when compared to African leaders such as Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe or Muammar Gaddafi in Libya.
Yet, comparisons between Mandela and other heads of state who stood opposed to Western imperialism and capitalism are actually very relative. Some of us will look at Mandela’s life and more accurately trace the force, speed, and trajectory of his spear throughout the freedom struggle. More than likely, there will be a continuing proliferation of those voices who stand at the margins and remind us that Mandela’s humanistic imperative was inherently progressive and radical. For example, Mandela and the ANC worked closely with communists and received a considerable amount of support from communist and socialist states during the anti-apartheid struggle. Thus, Mandela spurned the idea of condemning leaders of communist and socialist orientated nations, such as Fidel Castro and the aforementioned Muammar Gaddafi, because they were his friends.
Within the international sphere, Mandela and the ANC members were often identified as political dissidents. For example, the governments of Great Britain, as well as the United States characterized Mandela’s tremendous dedication and sacrifice to the struggle for liberation as “terrorism.” Casting Mandela and the ANC as inimical to American Cold War interests during the 1980s, the Ronald Regan administration placed the ANC on its list of terrorist organizations.
Likewise, more contemporary recounts of Mandela will note that he was a relatively vehement critic of George W. Bush’s “war on terror” and called into question the United States’ invasion of Iraq, as well as the extra-legal tactics used to bring Osama Bin Laden to “justice.” Most notably, Mandela was not removed from the U.S. terrorist watch list until 2008. Nonetheless, commentaries on Mandela’s fervent fight against poverty, along with his universal solidarity with organized labor, will also afford us unconventional impressions of the currents that stirred his humanistic imperative.
In reflecting on the confluence of complexity regarding Mandela’s life there has been discussion of his advancement of armed resistance in the course of the anti-apartheid struggle. The conversation has not received much detail beyond acknowledgement. Arguably, Mandela’s gravitation towards armed resistance may best measure the head of the spear and the core quality of Mandela’s humanistic imperative.
After the Sharpsville Massacre in 1960, Mandela became considerably disillusioned with the prospects of employing a non-violent strategy in the course of the struggle against apartheid. During a meeting with anti-apartheid allies in June of 1961, Mandela made reference to the African expression “Sebatana ha se bokwe ka diatla” (The attacks of the wild beast cannot be averted with only bare hands). Shortly thereafter, Mandela would act as the principle architect of the ANC’s military wing known as Umkhonto we Sizewe, or MK, which translates into English as “the spear of the nation.” Thus, Mandela began a nearly exhaustive reading of literature on armed revolutionary struggles that included material on the exploits of Che Guevara, Mao Tse-tung, and Fidel Castro, among others. Mandela and other members of Umkhonto we Sizwe traveled to the well-known cockpits of revolutionary struggle located throughout the continent of Africa, such as Algeria, Ethiopia, and Tanzania and learned guerilla warfare tactics.
Although Mandela was arrested and spent twenty-seven years in prison before they fully expanded their operations, Umkhonto we Sizwe is emblematic of Mandela’s humanistic imperative. Mandela was uncompromising on the aim to achieve freedom for all of South Africa and he knew that liberation must come with no limitations on human rights or the dignity of the people. His advocacy of armed resistance was a product of the pragmatism and principled approach he took towards the freedom struggle. Therefore, the head of the spear was Mandela’s core commitment to the natural right to a certain quality of life and human condition. The humanistic imperative guided Mandela towards armed resistance in a manner very similar to the way the humanistic imperative has served to navigate other freedom fighters through the history of the human experience. Underlying the head of Mandela’s spear was the same spirit of resistance to tyranny, injustice, oppression, and human exploitation that created the impetus for the Haitian Revolution, along with many of the world revolutions in the twentieth century. Mandela’s humanistic imperative is consistent with that of black American revolutionaries such as Harriet Tubman, Nat Turner, Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and many others in the sense that they, like Mandela, were unbending on the tenet that there are conditions necessary for human existence and that all humans are entitled to those conditions without exception.
As we continue to remember all the complex textures and contours of Mandela’s life, let us not forget the head of the spear. For it was the head of Mandela’s spear, his humanistic imperative, which guided him through the struggle. The more we remember the life of Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, the more we keep him alive. Most importantly, his death comes with a great social responsibility. We are all charged with carrying forward the momentum of Mandela’s spear, which he fearlessly thrust with an undying will to capture a standard of truth, justice, and freedom that is mandatory for humanity.
N. Josiah Pamoja
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