THE MEANING AND MEASURE OF MANDELA: AN AFROCENTRIC ASSESSMENT Los Angeles Sentinel, 12-12-13, pp. 6-7 DR. MAULANA KARENGA

o accurately and usefully grasp the negotiate from a position of power rooted in T measure and meaning of Rolihlahla the people. Dalibhunga Mandela or any person of Moreover, this means we must praise greatness, we must move beyond deserved but others along with Mandela, those who also detached declarations of admiration; interest- struggled and were brutalized, tortured, ing but insufficient in themselves, anecdotes imprisoned, banished, murdered and martyred of personal encounter; and certainly beyond in the interest and advancement of the the extensive but self-serving and manipu- struggle. For Robert Sobukwe, , lative coverage by the established order Winnie Mandela, Albertina Sizulu, Walter media. In a word, we must put Mandela or any Sizulu, David Sibeko, Elizabeth Sibeko, Chris person and all our praise and claims for them Hani, , Vuyisile Mini and many in context and view them, not detached from others are being left out of or erased from the their people and history, but rather in the very history they helped make and embody. midst of lives born and lived in community, But we can give Mandela and ANC credit struggle waged with and for the people, and a without dismissing or diminishing Robert victory cut and carved out of the hard rock of Sobukwe and the Pan-Africanist Congress, a daily reality of sacrifice, suffering, martyr- Steve Biko and the Black Consciousness dom, resiliency and refusal to be dispirited or Movement, the Azania People’s Organization, defeated. the labor unions, the people and youthful The media mythology seeks to reduce soldiers of and numerous other groups the liberation movement to a man and then and formations, as well as ordinary people redefine him in ways that instruct us and other who suffered everyday humiliation, harass- oppressed and struggling people how to win ment, hanging, judicial persecution, constant their freedom and White favor. The stress is torture, poisoning, letter bombs and merciless on accommodation to Whites, called variously pummeling, and many other forms of murder racial reconciliation, forgiveness, compromise, and mayhem. and “transcending racial passions”. But may And let us remember, raise up and show God and good sense save us from such proper respect for the central and sustaining seduction by our oppressor and illusions about work and struggle of Winnie Nomzamo their embrace of us. For in their unsolicited Madikizela-Mandela. For it is she who, as “approval”, there is the unspoken reality that Madiba’s wife and fellow freedom fighter, they only praise us for doing what is in their served as a vital link between him and the interest, even if it means injury to ourselves liberation movement throughout the 27 years and the world. This media mythology, which of his captivity. And let us note with added also seeks to make Mandela into a servant of admiration that she did this in the midst of White interests rather than a servant of his raising their children, eking out a living and people as he defined himself, must be resisted resisting the hounding, hassling, arrests, and rejected at every level. They are re- banishment and imprisonment inflicted on her defining him so that he stands alone and by the racist regime which has been officially outside the very people that brought him into absolved in the interest of so-called of racial being, supported him as he struggled and was reconciliation. But clearly no man, group or taken captive, sustained the movement, government can officially and rightfully demanded his freedom and enabled him to absolve a victimizer; only victims, themselves, can do this. THE MEANING AND MEASURE OF MANDELA: AN AFROCENTRIC ASSESSMENT Los Angeles Sentinel, 12-12-13, pp. 6-7 DR. MAULANA KARENGA

Clearly, we cannot let the corporate indict it as racial hatred, bitterness and a desire hypocrites and global highwaymen, who for vengeance or retribution. holler hurrah for Mandela now but demonized When we praise Madiba, then, let’s him as a terrorist earlier, define his measure or praise him for our own reasons—for his meaning for us. They praise him for “reasons” sacrifice for the liberation struggle and his of their own, not for our reasons. They praise dedication to it; his willingness to lay down him to appropriate his image and memory; to his life in armed and any form of struggle redefine his life and legacy and hold him up in necessary; his refusal to disown allies who his redefined and limited legacy and role of assisted the South African liberation struggle, racial reconciliation, congenial compromises, neither the leaders nor the people of Cuba, unangry and unembittered elder statesmen Palestine and Libya; his peace-making and made wiser by this imprisonment, underserved condemnation of oppression and war- suffering and “rightful” respect for White mongering; and his serving as a symbol and power and perspective. inspiration to all freedom-loving, peace- But if the oppressor nations are so seeking, oppressed and struggling people. And impressed with their definition of Mandela’s again, let us do this without denying the legacy, they should follow his example in sacrifice, suffering and relentless struggle of some meaningful way. Perhaps, they could the South African people. Indeed, let us praise demonstrate commitment to his ideas by: them, as we praise Madiba, and recommit ending the occupation of other people’s ourselves to continuous support for their countries; releasing all political prisoners; stop unfinished struggle to lift themselves out of invading countries and plundering other poverty and misery and end the continuing people’s wealth; returning the people’s White monopoly of wealth and its associated wealth; tearing down the walls on power. the borders and in conquered and colonized But no matter what praise oppressors lands; ceasing the torturing of prisoners; and have for concession and compromise, and no stopping the plundering, polluting and matter what condemnation they have for depleting of the earth. resistance, we must continue the struggle. For It is more than interesting and vulgarly we know righteous anger against oppression is hypocritical to urge Africans and other people not hatred; uncompromising commitment to of color to love their oppressor, forgive the justice is not vengeance; and wanting the savagery of their suppression, and to embrace people to regain their land and freedom is not the victimizers as fellow human beings even seeking retribution. And so the struggle when they have done their brutal best to continues and in the distance, we hear and join dehumanize us. But we all know there are no the liberation song of the martyr, Vuyisile similar lessons for the oppressor of loving his Mini, who on the way to the gallows called on enemy, forgiving his brutalizer or enslaver, or fellow prisoners and the Movement to even offenders of White racial interests and continue the struggle, defiantly chanting: sentiments. Thus, shocked at our relentless “Watch out (oppressor), Black people are resistance and struggle for liberation, they coming”. And so, we still are.

Dr. Maulana Karenga, Professor and Chair of Africana Studies, California State University-Long Beach; Executive Director, African American Cultural Center (Us); Creator of Kwanzaa; and author of Kwanzaa: A Celebration of Family, Community and Culture and Introduction to Black Studies, 4th Edition, www.OfficialKwanzaaWebsite.org; www.MaulanaKarenga.org.