DEFENDING MANDLA MANDELA Malik Arafat 1 of 54 | Free Copy

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

DEFENDING MANDLA MANDELA Malik Arafat 1 of 54 | Free Copy FREE TO BE MUSLIM – DEFENDING MANDLA MANDELA Malik Arafat 1 of 54 | Free Copy – E-Book Version FREE TO BE MUSLIM – DEFENDING MANDLA MANDELA Malik Arafat This page has been intentionally left blank 2 of 54 | Free Copy – E-Book Version FREE TO BE MUSLIM – DEFENDING MANDLA MANDELA Malik Arafat In the Name of Allah, All Merciful, Most Merciful Allah the Ever-Present says, “Were it not for Allah’s favour to you and His mercy, a group of them would almost have managed to mislead you. But they mislead no one but themselves and do not harm you in any way. Allah has sent down the Book and Wisdom to you and taught you what you did not know before. Allah’s favour to you is indeed immense.” Surah An-Nisa’ (The Women) 4; Verse 113 3 of 54 | Free Copy – E-Book Version FREE TO BE MUSLIM – DEFENDING MANDLA MANDELA Malik Arafat Title: FREE TO BE MUSLIM Author: Malik Arafat First Online Edition: August 2019 For FREE Distribution Language: English Characters: Futura Md BT 10, 11 and 12 Design and Typesetting: Malik Arafat Copyright: Malik Arafat ISBN: 000-0-0000000-0- Produced in South Africa Publisher and Distributer African Muslim Assembly of Azania (AMA-AZANIA) 1367 Merapelo Street, Dube Village 1800, South Africa Cellphone: +27 79 839 0701 Email: [email protected] Facebook:Ama-Azania WhatsApp:+27 79 839 0701 (Ama Azania) Moya Messenger: :+27 79 839 0701 (Ama-Azania) 4 of 54 | Free Copy – E-Book Version FREE TO BE MUSLIM – DEFENDING MANDLA MANDELA Malik Arafat CONTENTS PAGE Introduction 7 Background to Christian Conversions 11 11 1 1 Some Mediterranean Influences 14 Some African Influences 20 Chrlistian Input to Struggle Against Apartheid 26 Background to origins of Islam 28 Background to Islam in South Africa 30 What is Islam 36 Conclusion 40 Appendix 1: Mandla Mandela’s Conversion 46 Appendix 2: Media Statement by MUCOSA 50 5 of 54 | Free Copy – E-Book Version FREE TO BE MUSLIM – DEFENDING MANDLA MANDELA Malik Arafat This page has been intentionally left blank 6 of 54 | Free Copy – E-Book Version FREE TO BE MUSLIM – DEFENDING MANDLA MANDELA Malik Arafat INTRODUCTION In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful As Salaamu alaikum (Peace be with you). My name is Malik Arafat and I embraced Islam in 1979 in Soweto after it was introduced to me by my maternal uncle Bushy Masilo – who is still to date not Muslim. My family members and relatives are Christians, atheists, communists, socialists, capitalists, African traditionalists and come from amaSwati, Batswana, KhoiSan, amaXhosa, Bapedi, Basotho, Coloureds, Ugandans, Nigerians and more through marriage and kinship. Yet we still relate very well and there has never been a moment when we made issue of our differences or argued about religion, tradition and culture. I write this book in response to the recent media hype regarding the conversion to Islam of the chief of AbaThembu in Mvezo, South Africa, Chief Zwelivelile Mandla Mandela (grandson of Anti-Apartheid struggle icon and former South African President Rolihlahla Mandela), and his subsequent February 2016 marriage to a Cape Muslim lady, Rabia Clarke. There have also been biased and misleading claims made in the media against Islam and or Muslims. The original article was written on the 18th of February 2016 and titled, “Open Letter about the conversion of Inkosi Mandla Mandela to Islam.” Some of the issues of concern according to those alleged statements are that; Chief Mandela’s new religious affiliation is a problem. He cannot both lead the people of Mvezo and be a Muslim at the same time. He must step down as a chief of 7 of 54 | Free Copy – E-Book Version FREE TO BE MUSLIM – DEFENDING MANDLA MANDELA Malik Arafat AbaThembu because the Mvezo people are not Muslims. That he is a traitor. I believe that those alleged statements; Promote religious and racial intolerance; Imply Chief Mandela has no right to religious and marriage choices; Imply Rabia Clarke is viewed as a foreigner racially and religiously; Imply South African Muslims and Muslims in general are viewed negatively racially and religiously by some members of the public. I believe that Chief Mandla Mandela and any other person in this country have the right to choose their religion and that this choice should not prejudice him or her in the execution of whatever type of private or public responsibilities, business undertakings, memberships, employment or contracts. I also believe that any harmful action against Chief Mandla Mandela, his wife Rabia Clarke and or any such person, is an attack on Azanian Muslims in particular and generally on all people who follow other religions like Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Traditional Beliefs. I am concerned such statements may agitate attacks against minority Muslims like with previous xenophobic attacks against foreign nationals and since most of them were Muslim economic and political migrants and refugees from across Africa and south Asia. We do however commend Contralesa for refuting the claims that their organisation is not welcoming Chief Mandla Mandela’s decision to marry a Muslim woman and reiterating his right to choose his religion and elaborating that it was his personal and constitutional right. Although they expressed disquiet about Chief Mandela “abandoning his family religion 8 of 54 | Free Copy – E-Book Version FREE TO BE MUSLIM – DEFENDING MANDLA MANDELA Malik Arafat in favour of his bride’s religion” they nevertheless expected him to uphold tribal customs and traditional practices. The most notable position on this matter came from the Director of Icamagu Heritage Institute, Dr Nokuzola Mndende who made claims that if it is true that Mandela has converted to Islam; i. He has betrayed his people, the ancestors and customs ii. He will face the wrath of his ancestors iii. He cannot claim to be the custodian of African customs iv. He has abandoned his African customs v. He has abandoned his own identity and vi. He has surrendered himself to another cultural practice Dr Mndende attributed the above assertions to the claim that Muslim faith and African religions have strong contradicting doctrines since the “The Muslim faith is based on Arabic culture and [has] always perceived itself to be superior to African religion”. She further claimed that according to the Muslim faith, “nobody can marry someone who is not a Muslim” and that “As a Muslim you cannot perform African religion like slaughtering sacrificial oxen and goats”. Cii News and The Dispatch - 09 February 2016. All those events happened in the backdrop of the unfortunate June 2015 brutal killing of Zaytuna Mlambo and the fatal stabbing of her brother Hashim Mlambo, in the Inchanga area of the Kwa-Zulu Natal Province, by a family member apparently opposed to their conversion to Islam. Unlike with the high profile Inkosi Mandla Mandela debate, the Mlambo case has gone largely unnoticed without any media coverage. The question is; how many such cases remain unknown? 9 of 54 | Free Copy – E-Book Version FREE TO BE MUSLIM – DEFENDING MANDLA MANDELA Malik Arafat However many cannot dispute that an apple always falls next to its tree because Chief Mandla Mandela’s grandfather Nelson Mandela allegedly proposed marriage to Amina Cachalia (a fellow struggle stalwart and an old Muslim lady friend) in 1995 before he got married to Graca Machel on his 80th birthday. Cachalia turned him down. From “Mandela and Muslims: A historical Journey - Channel Islam International Broadcasting.” 10 of 54 | Free Copy – E-Book Version FREE TO BE MUSLIM – DEFENDING MANDLA MANDELA Malik Arafat BACKGROUND TO CHRISTIAN CONVERSIONS There is no doubt that the European colonial project in Africa benefited immensely from the intricate relationship they had established between the corporate merchants, royal mercenaries and Christian missionaries. This was the case that whenever the flag of their country was hoisted on conquered territory, a Christian monument was also erected. This was the case already with the Portuguese explorer Bartholomeu Diaz who immediately upon his arrival in the Cape in the year 1488, he erect a limestone pillar and a Christian cross. In their book, “A History of the Church in Africa”, Bengt Sundkler and Christopher Steed write, “The Portuguese were not only motivated by the hope of finding lucrative trade, but were also inspired by religious zeal, although at this time their missionary involvement did not resemble the modern missionary movement. It was rather an expression of the medieval Catholic Church in its Lusitanian form. In principle, it was directed under the exclusive leadership of the king, who acted as the Grand Master of the Order of Christ.” These quests for conquest took the Portuguese around the Cape to the Far East were they found fertile ground to rule their newly acquired possessions from. Bengt Sundkler and Christopher Steed further write that, “In the 1470s Portuguese sailors reached the mouth of the Zaire River, eager to make conquista for their king. In 1497 Vasco da Gama rounded the Cape of Good Hope with a squadron of four caravels and 150 men. They began to explore the East Coast of Africa, from Natal to Malindi. Then, with the aid of monsoon winds, they steered 11 of 54 | Free Copy – E-Book Version FREE TO BE MUSLIM – DEFENDING MANDLA MANDELA Malik Arafat across the Indian Ocean to India, where Goa became the centre of government and church in the Portuguese empire.” It was however soon after the arrival of the Dutch in 1652 that an intimate relationship developed between the Dutch and the Khoi people that created the foundation for Christianity to grow. However those early cordial relations soon died after the Khoi experienced a smallpox ‘massacre’ in 1713 when the Khoi became more hostile towards the Dutch.
Recommended publications
  • Mandela at Wits University, South Africa, 1943–19491
    UCLA Ufahamu: A Journal of African Studies Title “The Black Man in the White Man’s Court”: Mandela at Wits University, South Africa, 1943-1949 Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3284d08q Journal Ufahamu: A Journal of African Studies, 39(2) ISSN 0041-5715 Author Ramoupi, Neo Lekgotla Laga Publication Date 2016 DOI 10.5070/F7392031110 Peer reviewed eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California “The Black Man in the White Man’s Court”: Mandela at Wits University, South Africa, 1943–19491 Neo Lekgotla laga Ramoupi* Figure 1: Nelson Mandela on the roof of Kholvad House in 1953. © Herb Shore, courtesy of Ahmed Kathrada Foundation. * Acknowledgements: I sincerely express gratitude to my former colleague at Robben Island Museum, Dr. Anthea Josias, who at the time was working for Nelson Mandela Foundation for introducing me to the Mandela Foundation and its Director of Archives and Dialogues, Mr. Verne Harris. Both gave me the op- portunity to meet Madiba in person. I am grateful to Ms. Carol Crosley [Carol. [email protected]], Registrar, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, for granting me permission to use archival material from the Wits Archives on the premise that copyright is acknowledged in this publication. I appreciate the kindness from Ms. Elizabeth Nakai Mariam [Elizabeth.Marima@ wits.ac.za ], the Archivist at Wits for liaising with the Wits Registrar for granting usage permission. I am also thankful to The Nelson Mandela Foundation, espe- cially Ms. Sahm Venter [[email protected]] and Ms. Lucia Raadschel- ders, Senior Researcher and Photograph Archivist, respectively, at the Mandela Centre of Memory for bringing to my attention the Wits Archive documents and for giving me access to their sources, including the interview, “Madiba in conver- sation with Richard Stengel, 16 March 1993.” While visiting their offices on 6 Ja- nuary 2016 (The Nelson Mandela Foundation, www.nelsonmandela.org/.).
    [Show full text]
  • “International Parliamentarians and the Question of Palestine”
    VIRTUAL EVENT “International Parliamentarians and the Question of Palestine” Convened by the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People (CEIRPP) 12 November 2020 ______________________________________________________________________________ CHAIR SUMMARY The virtual event “International Parliamentarians and the Question of Palestine” was convened on 12 November 2020 under the auspices of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People (CEIRPP). The event was moderated by Ambassador Cheikh Niang, Chair of the Committee and Permanent Representative of Senegal to the United Nations. It consisted of an opening session with remarks by the Chair and Minister Riyad Mansour, Permanent Observer of the State of Palestine to the United Nations. The panel was comprised of Ms. María Arena, Member of the European Parliament and Chair of the Subcommittee on Human Rights; Mr. Mandla Mandela, Member of the National Assembly of South Africa; and Ms. Betty McCollum, Member of the United States Congress. Member States participated in the two-hour event on WebEx, which was also livestreamed on UNTV. Viewers watched the conference on UN WebTV and had an opportunity to make comments and pose questions to the panellists on the Committee’s social media pages and via WhatsApp. At the opening, Ambassador Niang reiterated the important role played by national and regional parliaments as well as interparliamentary unions towards resolving the Israeli- Palestinian conflict through shaping public opinion, formulating public policies and upholding international legitimacy in support of a comprehensive and just settlement of the question of Palestine. Parliamentarians promoted diplomatic recognition of the State of Palestine, pressed for the implementation of international law by the executive branches in their respective countries and built on the advocacy of civil society organizations to put forward draft bills.
    [Show full text]
  • C a L L a L O O
    C A L L A L O O WHAT WE MEAN WHEN WE SAY ‘CREOLE’ An Interview with Salikoko S. Mufwene by Michael Collins Salikoko S. Mufwene is an internationally renowned theorist of language evolution, language contact, and sociolinguistics, among other subjects. He sat for the following interview on April 7 and April 8, 2003, during a visit he paid to Texas A & M University in College Station to lecture on controversies surrounding Ebonics. Mufwene’s ability to dazzle audiences was just as evident in Texas as it had been in the city-state of Singapore, where I first heard him lecture. His ability was indeed already apparent early in his life in Congo: Robert Chaudenson of the Université d’Aix-en-Provence reports that in 1973 “Mufwene received a License en Philosophie et Lettres (with a major in English Philology) from the National University of Zaire at Lubumbashi (with Highest Honors). The same year he also obtained his Agrégation d’enseignement moyen du degré supérieur (with Honors). Let me comment a bit on the significance of these diplomas, especially for readers who are not familiar with (post)colonial Africa. That the young Salikoko, born in Mbaya-Lareme, would find himself twenty years later in Lubumbashi at the University, with not one but two diplomas, should in itself count as an obvious sign of intellectual excellence for anyone who is in any way familiar with the Congo of that era. Salikoko must have seriously distinguished himself among his peers: at that time, overly limited opportunities and a brutally elitist educational system did entail fierce competition.” For the rest of Chaudenson’s remarks, and for further information on Mufwene, see http://humanities.uchicago.edu/faculty/mufwene/index.html.
    [Show full text]
  • African American Elitism: a Liberal and Quantitative Perspective by Chieke Ihejirika, Ph.D
    African American Elitism: A Liberal and Quantitative Perspective by Chieke Ihejirika, Ph.D. Abstract According to Edmund Burke the British philosopher generally regarded as the father of conservatism, this principle is all about preserving the status quo or, at least, the avoidance of radical or unstructured changes. This agrees with the saying that “if it aint broke don’t fix it,” implying that an unnecessary change must be avoided. Yet very few can question the universal veracity of the assertion that the more satiated members of any society tend to be more conservative than other members of that society. In fact, the most comfortable members would prefer no changes at all because of the fear that uncontrolled changes might have an adverse affect on them. Members of the Black community are very familiar with the censure that successful Blacks in America simply move to the mainline, start acting like the haves and forget the folks they left behind in the inner city. The need to establish or reject the efficacy of this denunciation provides the impetus for this study. This article attempts to validate or nullify the truth of this criticism, by investigating the hypothesis that high income always leads to greater conservatism among African-Americans, just as in White Americans. The study discovers that although middle class Blacks tend to move out of the inner city areas, they remain very sympathetic to many liberal values or issues they believe would be uplifting to their less privileged people, quite unlike their White counterparts. This study curiously exposes the fact that upper class Blacks are more liberal than upper class Whites and lower class Blacks.
    [Show full text]
  • Black History, 1877-1954
    THE BRITISH LIBRARY AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY AND LIFE: 1877-1954 A SELECTIVE GUIDE TO MATERIALS IN THE BRITISH LIBRARY BY JEAN KEMBLE THE ECCLES CENTRE FOR AMERICAN STUDIES AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY AND LIFE, 1877-1954 Contents Introduction Agriculture Art & Photography Civil Rights Crime and Punishment Demography Du Bois, W.E.B. Economics Education Entertainment – Film, Radio, Theatre Family Folklore Freemasonry Marcus Garvey General Great Depression/New Deal Great Migration Health & Medicine Historiography Ku Klux Klan Law Leadership Libraries Lynching & Violence Military NAACP National Urban League Philanthropy Politics Press Race Relations & ‘The Negro Question’ Religion Riots & Protests Sport Transport Tuskegee Institute Urban Life Booker T. Washington West Women Work & Unions World Wars States Alabama Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut District of Columbia Florida Georgia Illinois Indiana Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Nebraska Nevada New Jersey New York North Carolina Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania South Carolina Tennessee Texas Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming Bibliographies/Reference works Introduction Since the civil rights movement of the 1960s, African American history, once the preserve of a few dedicated individuals, has experienced an expansion unprecedented in historical research. The effect of this on-going, scholarly ‘explosion’, in which both black and white historians are actively engaged, is both manifold and wide-reaching for in illuminating myriad aspects of African American life and culture from the colonial period to the very recent past it is simultaneously, and inevitably, enriching our understanding of the entire fabric of American social, economic, cultural and political history. Perhaps not surprisingly the depth and breadth of coverage received by particular topics and time-periods has so far been uneven.
    [Show full text]
  • An Exploration of How Second-Generation Afro-Caribbean College Women Make Meaning of Their Race, Ethnicity, and Gender
    Florida International University FIU Digital Commons FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations University Graduate School 6-30-2020 We're Here, We Exist: An Exploration of how Second-Generation Afro-Caribbean College Women Make Meaning of their Race, Ethnicity, and Gender Emmanuela P. Stanislaus Florida International University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd Part of the Higher Education Commons Recommended Citation Stanislaus, Emmanuela P., "We're Here, We Exist: An Exploration of how Second-Generation Afro- Caribbean College Women Make Meaning of their Race, Ethnicity, and Gender" (2020). FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 4486. https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/4486 This work is brought to you for free and open access by the University Graduate School at FIU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of FIU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY Miami, Florida WE’RE HERE, WE EXIST: AN EXPLORATION OF HOW SECOND-GENERATION AFRO-CARIBBEAN COLLEGE WOMEN MAKE MEANING OF THEIR RACE, ETHNICITY, AND GENDER A dissErtation submittEd in partial fulfillmEnt of the requiremEnts for the degreE of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in HIGHER EDUCATION by Emmanuela PiErre Stanislaus 2020 To: DEan MichaEl R. HEithaus CollEge of Arts, SciEncEs and Education This dissErtation, writtEn by Emmanuela PiErre Stanislaus, and entitlEd WE’re HEre, We Exist: An Exploration of How SEcond-GEneration Afro-Caribbean CollEge WomEn Make MEaning of their RacE, Ethnicity, and GEnder, having beEn approved in respect to stylE and intEllEctual contEnt, is referred to you for judgmEnt.
    [Show full text]
  • Honours, Awards and Other Forms of Recognition
    Tributes to Nelson Mandela Streets, roads, boulevards and parks in Nelson Mandela’s name # STREETS ROADS BOULEVARDS DATE SOURCE SA High 1 Nelson Mandela Street, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Commission 2 Nelson Mandela Road, Gaborone, Botswana 3 Nelson Mandela Boulevard, Toronto, Canada 4 Mandela Street, Camden, London, NW1 0DU, SA High England Commiss (London Borough of Camden) ion SA High 5 Nelson Mandela Walk, Sheffield, S2, England Commission SA High 6 Nelson Mandela Road, London, SE3, England Commission SA High 7 Nelson Mandela Close, Harlesden, London, N10 8BWQ, England (London Borough of Brent) Commission SA High 8 Mandela Way, Southwalk1, London, SE 1, Commission England (London Borough of Southwalk) SA High 9 Mandela Close, Sunderland, Lancashire, SR1, England Commission SA High 10 Mandela Close, Stanley, County Durham, DH9, England Commission SA High 11 Mandela Close, Norwich, Norfolk, NR3 3BA, England Commission SA High 12 Mandela Close, London, NW10, England Commission SA High 13 Mandela Close, London (White City), W12 7PW, England Commission (London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham) SA High 14 Mandela Avenue, Falkirk, FK2, England Commission SA High 15 Mandela Way, London, SE1, England Commission SA High 16 Mandela Way, Southampton, Hampshire, SO15 Commission 5RZ, England 1 Southwalk is pronounced ‘suthik’ – the ‘u’ as in ‘Cuthbert’ 1 # STREETS ROADS BOULEVARDS DATE SOURCE SA High 17 Mandela Way, Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, NE11 9DH, England Commission SA High 18 Mandela Street, London, NW1, England Commission 19 Mandela Road, London,
    [Show full text]
  • Lois Benjamin. the Black Elite—Facing the Color Line in the Twilight of the Twentieth Century Korsi Dogbe
    Comparative Civilizations Review Volume 27 Article 13 Number 27 Fall 1992 10-1-1992 Lois Benjamin. The Black Elite—Facing the Color Line in the Twilight of the Twentieth Century Korsi Dogbe Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/ccr Recommended Citation Dogbe, Korsi (1992) "Lois Benjamin. The Black Elite—Facing the Color Line in the Twilight of the Twentieth Century," Comparative Civilizations Review: Vol. 27 : No. 27 , Article 13. Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/ccr/vol27/iss27/13 This Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by the All Journals at BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Comparative Civilizations Review by an authorized editor of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. Dogbe: Lois Benjamin. <em>The Black Elite—Facing the Color Line in the T Book Reviews 155 volved in Wittfogel's generalizations about 'hydraulic agriculture' giving rise to 'agrohydraulic despotism' [there is a reference to Witt- fogel at this point]. At best we can accept the term 'agrohydraulic' as denoting a certain technique, without any further implications con- cerning the political or cultural framework. Further discussion may help to explain and substantiate our reservations on this point. The striking contrast between ancient Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt lies in the psychological dimension. On the one hand we have the artistically-endowed Egyptian, confident in his ability to cope with his (in principle orderly) human and natural environment; on the other hand there is the more technically talented inhabitant of Meso- potamia who had to develop a wider range of capabilities in order to cope with the unpredictable world around him.
    [Show full text]
  • Mandela from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia (Redirected from Mandela) Jump To: Navigation, Search "Mandela" Redirects Here
    Nelson Mandela From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (Redirected from Mandela) Jump to: navigation, search "Mandela" redirects here. For other uses, see Mandela (disambiguation). Page semi-protected His Excellency Nelson Mandela OM AC CC OJ GCStJ QC GColIH RSerafO NPk BR MRCSI Nelson Mandela on his 90th birthday in Johannesburg, South Africa, in May 2008. Mandela in May 2008 President of South Africa In office 10 May 1994 14 June 1999 Deputy Thabo Mbeki F. W. de Klerk Preceded by F. W. de Klerk Succeeded by Thabo Mbeki Secretary General of Non-Aligned Movement In office 2 September 1998 14 June 1999 Preceded by Andrés Pastrana Arango Succeeded by Thabo Mbeki Personal details Born Rolihlahla Mandela 18 July 1918 (age 94) Mvezo, South Africa Nationality South African Political party African National Congress Spouse(s) Evelyn Ntoko Mase (19441957) Winnie Madikizela (19571996) Graça Machel (1998present) Children Madiba Thembekile Makgatho Lewanika Makaziwe Maki Zenani Zindziswa Residence Houghton Estate, Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa Alma mater University of Fort Hare University of London External System University of South Africa University of the Witwatersrand Religion Christianity (Methodism) Signature Signature of Nelson Mandela Website www.nelsonmandela.org Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (Xhosa pronunciation: [xo'li??a?a man'de?la]; born 18 July 1918) is a South African anti-apartheid activist, revolutionary and politic ian who served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999, the first to be e lected in a fully representative, multiracial election. His administration focus ed on dismantling apartheid's legacy, and cutting racism, poverty and inequality . Politically a democratic socialist, he served as president of the African Nati onal Congress (ANC) political party from 1991 to 1997.
    [Show full text]
  • Skin Tone and Stratification in the Black Community Author(S): Verna M
    Skin Tone and Stratification in the Black Community Author(s): Verna M. Keith and Cedric Herring Source: The American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 97, No. 3 (Nov., 1991), pp. 760-778 Published by: The University of Chicago Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2781783 Accessed: 23/04/2009 17:58 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=ucpress. Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1995 to build trusted digital archives for scholarship. We work with the scholarly community to preserve their work and the materials they rely upon, and to build a common research platform that promotes the discovery and use of these resources. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. The University of Chicago Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The American Journal of Sociology.
    [Show full text]
  • Nelson Mandela's Final Battle: Dying with Dignity
    Nelson Mandela’s Final Battle: Dying With Dignity By Danny Schechter Theme: Media Disinformation Global Research, July 15, 2013 Durban, South Africa: If I was an ailing Nelson Mandela, and, at all conscious of the storms surrounding me, I might not be in such a hurry to open my eyes. My diagnosis of “critical but stable” might change rapidly were I to find out how fiercely members of my own family are battling over my remains, and the funds I had provided for them in a special trust administered by people I trusted. This spectacle could kill me! As thousands of South Africans hold prayer sessions outside “his” Pretoria hospital, and with the world media still on an escalating ‘death watch,’ inside, there’s been a clash among and between family members, government officials trying to control and spin health information, and, even, doctors who have been cited, wrongly, in court battles about his condition. (The latest news from family members that he is “doing better” cannot be too encouraging to a media anxious to bring this expensive to cover story to its conclusion.) There had been an official denial of a claim that he is in a vegetative state, along with unsubstantiated rumors that he is being kept alive at least until July 18, his 95th birthday, a day marked worldwide as “Mandela Day” to encourage community service. Meanwhile, a sideshow sparked by warring family members robs the occasion of any of the dignity it deserves with one daughter of an earlier marriage, and her daughter, lashing out in an obvious bid for money and even to control media coverage with a demand that CNN, a foreign network, should be given “preferential access” to cover the funeral possible upstaging the South African Broadcasting Corporation, the national broadcaster.
    [Show full text]
  • Politics in Black and White: the Effect of Attention to Black Political Discourse on Black Opinion Formation
    Politics in Black and White: The Effect of Attention to Black Political Discourse on Black Opinion Formation Ismail K. White Department of Political Science The Ohio State University [email protected] Chryl Laird Department of Political Science The Ohio State University [email protected] Ernest McGowen Department of Political Science University of Richmond [email protected] We would like the thank the members of the Center for the Study of Democratic Politics at Princeton University, Seminar in Political Psychology at Harvard University, Rising Scholar Speaker Series at Notre Dame University and Center on African American Politics and Society at Columbia University for helpful feedback and suggestions. We would also like to thank Corrine M. McConnaughy for her helpful feedback and suggestions. All errors are our own. Politics in Black and White: The Effect of Attention to Black Political Discourse on Black Opinion Formation Abstract: In this paper we argue that variation in black public opinion can be explained at least in part by the degree to which African Americans attend to political messages originating from black indigenous information sources. Analyzing data from the 1996 National Black Election Study (NBES), we test the effects of exposure to mainstream and black political communication on black American’s assessment of an ostensibly non- racial institution, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). We find that, because of the racialized characterization of the CIA available within black information sources and the lack of such discussion in mainstream sources, blacks who were attentive to black elite discourse were not only less likely to support the CIA but were also more likely to connect their racial identity to their opinions about the agency.
    [Show full text]