On the need for African leaders to learn the lessons of history - Part I

Mandela, who was an advocate, decided to make a statement from the dock of the illegitimate apartheid regime on the ideals and politics of the ANC.

In 1966 when I was in Senior Six at Busoga College Mwiri, former US Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy who was the younger brother of the charismatic and popular American President, John F. Kennedy, said something which has always inspired and encouraged me in my struggle for justice, peace and human brotherhood.

ennedy said: “Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”

Many originally insignificant and seemingly ordinary men and women have over the years stood up for ideals they strongly believed in; through relentless and protracted struggles they changed the course of history, for better. Among such men are Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi of India and yes, Nikita Khrushchev of the USSR.

In the early 1960s, a young, handsome and well-built man in his mid-forties called Nelson Mandela who joined the African National Congress (ANC) about 10 years earlier, in 1952, was put on trial. He was arraigned by the theracist, minority, and apartheid regime of South Africa and charged under the notorious “Suppression of Communism Act” with treason! The Rivonia trial started on October 9, 1963 with Mandela charged as “accused number one” and facing the death penalty. The case for the defence opened in April, 1964.

Mandela, who was an advocate, decided to make a statement from the dock of the illegitimate apartheid regime on the ideals and politics of the ANC.
In his speech, which lasted a full four hours, Mandela denied that he was a communist, but stated emphatically that he was an African patriot who admired the English MagnaCarta and Bill of Rights. Mandela’s famous speech made at the Rivonia trial on April 20, 1964 was titled, “An ideal for which I am prepared to die”.

Not an ideal for which I am prepared to kill another human being, but an ideal for which he was ready to lay down his life and that is the mark of a true hero. Mandela concluded his long statement as follows: “During my lifetime I have dedicated my life 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 with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to see realised, but my lord, if need be it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.”

That ideal was realised 30 years later, in 1994, when Mandela was sworn in as the first president of a democratic and non-racial Republic of South Africa.

Mahatma Gandhi began the struggle for his ideal in South Africa and relocated to the main theatre of action, namely India, in 1912. Gandhi assumed the leadership of the Indian National Congress in 1920 and soon after the Congress Party, a sister party of UPC, adopted his “non- violent and non-cooperation” programme (Satyagraha) vis-à-vis the British colonial regime which ruled India for 300 years!

Unlike Mandela, Gandhi was a smallish man who was regularly harassed by the police of the oppressor for all manner of petty, but basically political reasons which often landed him in jail. I am sure that will sound quite familiar to my friends and comrades in DP, FDC and UPC. Gandhi believed, like me, that the pursuit of the truth does not require the use of force against one’s political opponents because “what appears to be the truth to one may appear to be an error to another”.

In March 1922, the British colonial authorities arrested Gandhi and charged him with sedition for three articles he published in a magazine called YoungIndia. The trial took place in a town called Ahmadabad and Gandhi, who was a distinguished British-trained lawyer, shocked the mzungu judge by pleading guilty, as charged. He did not want to waste the time of the judge and especially his own time, but he asked for an opportunity to address the packed court.

“Non-violence is the first article of my faith. It is the last article of my faith, but I had to make my choice,” said Gandhi in his opening remarks which totally disarmed the British judge. He continued, “I do not ask for mercy. I am, therefore, here to invite and submit to the highest penalty that can be inflicted upon me for what in law is a deliberate crime and what appears to me to be the highest duty of a citizen.

The only course open to you, Mr Judge, is. . either to resign your post or inflict on me the severest penalty if you believe that the system and law you are assisting to administer are good for the people”. To be continued.

Mr Acemah is a political scientist,
consultant and a retired career diplomat.
hacemah@gmail.com