Nelson Mandela, 95 and still not out
Nelson Mandela
It must be one of the most frustrating moments for an editor – having to sit on an already prepared special obituary edition about probably the world’s most revered individual. Yet, somehow, the man just will not die.
Frail, weak and worn out, Nelson Madiba Mandela today labours and crawls his way past the 95-year mark, a feat that many deemed impossible, as recent as a month ago. He still lies in hospital.
A machine, according to an affidavit sworn by his granddaughter in a South African court, now supports his life and breathing. And with that, the world now stares straight into the face of the real possibility that the death of Nelson Mandela may not be a natural affair after all, but a decision taken to prevent him from suffering.
World over, even here in Uganda, attention continues to linger, directed at the South African statesman’s health. It jerks at the smallest of reports about his heartbeat or lack thereof. News of his health makes it to the news bulletins, even of small-time community radio stations in rural Uganda, whose listeners probably do not care a cent what goes on beyond their yard.
And after so many false calls about his death, so many admissions in hospital, and not forgetting the close to three decades he spent in prison, crushing rocks and damaging his lungs with fumes, it stands as a conquest of its own, that Nelson Mandela has defied the odds stark against him, living longer than many ever gave him a chance to.
If defeating apartheid was his foremost conquest, then defying life’s odds against him is the other. Boy, would it not be even a sweeter conquest if he lived to be 100!
A trajectory of astonishing selflessness
That, surely, must be in the inner most wishes for anybody that has followed his life’s trajectory, charting a journey from a militant activist, to prisoner, to father of a nation. And now, as he teeters towards the end, one cannot help but stand in awe at a life that has made it a habit to defy and overcome odds.
When he was younger, Mandela kept a mass of hair, the afro that was a particularly fashionable style for African men in the mid 20th century, with a dividing line through the middle. In photos, from his anti-apartheid struggle days, he at times beams up in a broad smile, as he holds up a fist in a show of defiance.
Then at times, he folds up his face in a frowning mess of acute concern, as if he has serious issues on his mind. Such pictures were taken of him in the early 1960s, a time when his anti-apartheid struggle had sent him underground away from the prying eyes of the state. And yes, it is true. At that time, Nelson Mandela had serious issues on his mind.
Joining politics
Since joining university, a feat he managed after escaping an arranged marriage, a young Mandela had been exposed to just what evils segregation against black people had done to his race. It had hurt and sent his bile boiling with rage. It is part the reason why he joined the African National Congress’ Youth League. Although, he practiced law in a firm he set up with friend, Oliver Tambo, from 1952, a lot of his energies were directed at standing up to the state and demanding equality for black people in South Africa.
Of course, it ran him into trouble. He was charged with high treason in 1956, but the charges were dropped within four years. And he kept going. He seemed a little frustrated at the slow progress of the civil protest against apartheid, and started to campaign for an armed insurrection against the apartheid state.
It is some of this that caused his arrest in 1962, which later led to his conviction and sentencing to life in prison, starting at Robben Island in 1964. Here, he spent the spent the next 18 years, subjected to hard labour, crushing stones into gravel.
It damaged his sight and weakened his lungs. Lung infections would come to cause his biggest health threat later in life. He was later transferred to two other prisons until his release in 1990.
By the end of his jail time, his prison number, 46664, had become a recited phrase. A man, who had entered jail as another of the thorns in the then government’s skin, got out as an international celebrity, for whom a 70,000-crowd concert was held in London.
In those 27 years, many things had changed about Mandela. Those close to three decades alone, spent largely in a tiny cell, must have led the man into close introspection, bringing him out much wiser. He was not militant anymore. He surprised many when after ascending to power, in 1994, as a grey haired man, he chose to lead his country down the path of forgiveness and reconciliation. There was no “it’s our turn to eat, or beat them up.”
Instead, Mandela asked his fellow black South Africans not to seek revenge.
He sounded almost too saintly to be true, even more when in 1999, he chose to step down from the presidency and allow others lead, even when he still had overwhelming support and love from the masses.
There were no, “I am the only one with a vision” comments from him. In a time when revolutions had turned on the very principles they upheld, Mandela was the exception. This has made him stand out, made him seem like he is made of some ultra-human form that is immune to the very attractive urges of greed and primitive enrichment of self.
The ability to forgive and forget, when the easiest alternative would have been to strike back even harder, surrounds him in a cloud of mystery.
It is the reason he is so revered, so loved, so looked up to, not just in South Africa, but world over. It is the reason why no editor wants to be beaten to the news of his death. It is the reason why emotions run high even among non-South Africans when members of his family are perceived to be laying to waste, a name and brand built with such toil and perseverance.
With love, from Uganda
Many a Ugandan today are named Nelson, and, Nelson Mandela, in honour of a man whose life is like no other. And although South Africa is not the closest of countries to our borders, his influence is hard to miss here. You see it in the way Ugandans on social media react, first with alarm and shock when a report about his death is posted. And then, with utmost angst when they realise that once again, the false news accounts had pulled their leg.
The country’s biggest stadium, at Namboole, is named after the freedom fighter. With the Nelson Mandela National stadium now being the epicentre of any meaningful Ugandan patriotism, it is important to note that Mandela is associated with such a feat. Uganda itself supported Nelson Mandela’s party, the African National Congress, by hosting its military wing in 1989.
And no doubt, you can rest assured that when he finally dies, many more landmarks will be named after the leader, say a prime road in Kampala.
95, not out
Death is such a grave subject that it is considered taboo to discuss anybody’s demise. But that norm has been thrown out of the window with Nelson Mandela’s chronic illnesses, going back to a decade now. It is now no longer taboo to discuss the possible death of Mandela. And in a way, it has started to wear the novelty out of it.
The suspicions that some of his family had already sold away TV rights for his funeral, works to further deprive his death and the air around it, of the sacredness it rightly deserves. You sense that when he finally dies, it will not shock us, because we have already lived through it, in our words and expectations, a million times over.
Not many people live to see 90-years-old. Not many people live to see 90-years-old if they spent their lives running their heads against the system, and, hence spent 27 years of their life in jail. And yet, Mandela now stands to have conquered that. Often he has stumbled and fallen into the shadow of death, ill from an infection or other, and each of these times, he has risen up from the stumble, once again the conqueror.
It is a sign of his strength, as if telling off the media and whoever else cares to comment on his health that he is made of stronger stuff than we ever imagined. And, that as and when the time comes for him to go, he will not be responding to their whistles. Mandela did not only conquer apartheid and oppressive rule, he has conquered our low expectations of his ability.
Today, the Mandela family, and South Africans in general, gather to sing happy birthday to Nelson Mandela again. Many will think it is the last time they do. But then again, it is what they thought this time last year.
Nelson Mandela Family squabbles
If these are indeed Nelson Mandela’s last days, then media reports from South Africa indicate that it is a troubled last few days for the man, especially in the enclose of his family. While he has been away in a medical facility, fighting for his life, his children and grandchildren have been at each other’s throats, fighting for everything, from what to do with his estate once he is gone, to where he will be buried, probably with one eye on cashing in on his gravesite as a tourist attraction.
And true, media reports indicated that before he went down with his latest lung infection, Mandela snapped at some of his family members for meddling in his personal estate. It made, and still makes, for an angry old man, who on top of his ill health, now has to contend with bringing his house of rowdy children into order. He may have conquered apartheid, but he failed to conquer the demons that haunt his family.
This cannot be separated from the concern that as Mandela lived a life worthy of note, his family has been anything but that. The watching South African public was alarmed, according to media reports, when it emerged that earlier this year, two of his grandchildren had started a reality TV show, dubbed Being a Mandela. The grandchildren, Swati Dlamini and Zaziwe Dlamini-Manaway, both in their 30s, say they only wanted to show the world that they are just a regular family, Time magazine reported.
But oh, there was no denying that this bunch of American-raised grandchildren of Africa’s most famous man, were trying to squeeze every monetary opportunity out of their grandfather’s name. And the show has been ridiculed for its flippancy and frivolous nature, a feat that drags the seriously taken name of Mandela, through the gutters of triviality. A review by the UK’s Daily Mirror, compared the show to Keeping up with the Kardashians, a vain American TV show where the self-indulgent ways of the children of a rich American lawyer are sold to an audience.
Nelson Mandela succeeded in bringing his nation into order. He fought white-supremacy rule, and when it was done, united the country’s black and white communities into a rainbow nation. But that magic wand has failed to wield the same charm onto his extended family, which seems bent on finishing each other off, over the benefits from his brand. It is thus not impossible to think that as he lays on his hospital bed, one of Nelson Mandela’s greatest regrets may be that he never got the time to mould his family into an image that reflected what he stood for.
Nelson Mandela timeline
1918: Born in the Eastern Cape
1944: Joined African National Congress
1956: Charged with high treason, but charges dropped
1962: Arrested, convicted of sabotage, sentenced to five years in prison
1964: Charged again, sentenced to life
1990: Freed from prison
1993: Wins Nobel Peace Prize
1994: Elected first black president
1999: Steps down as leader
2001: Diagnosed with prostate cancer
2004: Retires from public life
Additional reporting from BBC, Daily Telegraph and CNN
