Published on ACP (http://www.acp.int) Home > Printer-friendly PDF > Printer-friendly PDF SPECIAL TRIBUTE: Not even Madiba was great enough SPECIAL TRIBUTE: Not even Madiba was great enough By Dr Obadiah Mailafia, Chef de Cabinet - ACP Secretariat During the morning of Thursday the 12th of December, we were all at the Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula in the heart of Brussels to celebrate a requiem mass for Nelson Mandela. It was a deeply moving experience officiated by Canon Dr. Robert Innes while Bishop Jean Kockerols served as host. The event was attended by members of the diplomatic community and other personalities from the world of business and industry. Her Excellency Ms. Joelle Milquet, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Home Affairs and Equal Opportunities of the Federal Government of Belgium represented the host state. The European Union was represented by Mr. Peteris Ustubs, who spoke on behalf of the High Representative and Vice-President of the EU, Baroness Catherine Ashton of Upholland. Several speeches were made in tribute to Mandela. H. E. Ambassador Nkosi Mxolisi of South Africa described him as one of the greatest heroes of our time and the liberator of the people of South Africa. H. E. Alhaji Mumuni, Secretary-General of the ACP, described Mandela as one of the greatest sons of Africa and a paragon of servant leadership. The scripture reading was taken from Exodus 14 where God used Moses His servant to deliver the people of Israel from the heavy hand of their Egyptian oppressors. The choir sang a beautiful rendition of Laude Omnes Gentes, while a young woman by the name of Ms. Tutu Puoane, sang Lakutshon’ilanga in a manner so moving that I did not know when my face was drenched in tears. The service ended with a closing prayer, and then we all had to sing Nkosi sikel’ iAfrika. Tributes have continued to flow in from across the world. President Barack Obama described Nelson Mandela as “a giant of history”, lamenting that we may never see his likes again. Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain observed that “a great light has gone out in the world”. German Chancellor Angela Merkel noted that Mandela “led by shining example and his political legacy of peaceful resistance and the rejection of racism will continue to be an inspiration for people around the world”. Former U.S. President George W. Bush described him as “one of the great forces for freedom and equality of our time”. Former President Jimmy Carter noted that his “passion for freedom and justice created new hope for generations of oppressed people worldwide”. Aung San Suu Kyi of Burma expressed grief at the passing of a man “who made us understand that we can change the world”. Olympic gold medallist Usain Bolt described Madiba as “one of the greatest human beings ever”. Football legend Pele revealed that Madiba was both a hero and a friend, “a companion to me in our fight for the people and for world peace”. Vladimir Putin of the Russian Federation is not a man known for verbosity. He tersely noted that Madiba was a “great humanist”. President Jacob Zuma captured the mood of the nation when he remarked that South Africans have lost “a father”. The mood in South Africa has been one of celebration as well – celebration of a life that has touched so many by his compassion and commitment to social justice. Former Nigerian President, Olusegun Obasanjo, who once visited him in his prison cell as Co- President of the Commonwealth Eminent Persons Group and who maintained a personal relationship with him, has urged us to celebrate “the life of a man who raised the beacon of human struggle to lofty heights of nobility”. We had long expected it. But when it came we were never quite prepared for it. Since November last year, Nelson Mandela had been in and out of hospital for one ailment or the other. The angel of death came knocking on the night of Thursday, December 5, 2013, the very same day the premiere of his eponymous autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, was being released by Hollywood. Convicted of treason in June 1964 by the South African Apartheid regime for daring to fight for his people, Mandela and 10 of his comrades were sentenced to life imprisonment in Robben Island. Once a leper colony settlement, the island was turned into a prison for hardened criminals and those considered enemies of the state. A good 7 km from the beaches of Cape Town, the shark and crocodile infested waters separating the island from the mainland would make escape perilous. In 1819, the Xhosa warrior king and prophet, Makana, and 30 of his people who had been imprisoned in the island broke open the gates and plunged into the sea. Makana drowned, but several of his men were able to escape alive. Mandela and his comrades became the iconic heroes for my generation. The Soweto students uprising of June 16, 1976 and the massacre of more than 200 defenceless children drew universal condemnation from the world community of nations. The cold-blooded execution of Steve Biko, leader of the students Black Consciousness Movement by the security forces in September 1977 pricked the conscience of civilized humanity. It was not before long that the international community accepted that economic sanctions were imperative if this evil regime were ever to be removed. Within South Africa itself, the Mass Democratic Movement was gathering momentum, bringing together labour unions, students, the churches and civil society. Among its moving spirits were Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Rev. Allan Boesak, Helen Joseph and Albertina Sisulu. Winnie Madikizela-Mandela made extraordinary sacrifices for the struggle, a fact that is not always fully acknowledged. The reason why the anti-Apartheid movement was so uniquely successful was on account of its humanism, multi-racial character and appeal to universal values. Several whites and Indians joined the struggle and paid dearly for their principles. People like Bram Fischer and Joe Slovo were, in my estimation, the equals of Nelson Mandela. Slovo’s wife, Ruth First, was one of the most outstanding intellectual leaders of the movement. She paid the ultimate price when she was killed by a letter bomb on the campus of Eduardo Mondlane University in Maputo in August 1982. Indians such as Mac Maharaj, Yusuf Dadoo and Ahmed Kathrada paid their dues to the full. So did Frene Ginwala, Fatima Meer, Mary Benson, Vella Pillay and Wolfie Kodesh. Beyers Naudé, an Afrikaner high churchman, paid heavily for betraying his tribe and going with his conscience. The Englishman Archbishop Trevor Huddleston was a towering pillar of the anti-Apartheid struggle, and easily one of the greatest spiritual leaders of the 20th century. And then there are the writers: Athol Fugard, Breyten Breytenbach, André Brink and Nadine Gordimer. The majority of African countries boycotted South African goods and banned any transport or diplomatic links with the Apartheid regime. The liberation of the former Portuguese colonies of Angola and Mozambique and independence of Zimbabwe in 1980 did not sit well with the Apartheid state. The socialist regimes that came to power in Angola and Mozambique were seen as a threat to Western strategic interests in Southern Africa as defined by the Kissingers of this world. The charismatic Samora Machel of Mozambique was brought down in a mysterious plane crash within South African territory in October 1986. Angola and Mozambique were soon plunged into civil war, with direct involvement by South African forces. Fidel Castro sent in his battle-hardened Cuban forces. At the famous battle of Cuito Canavale in March 1988, thousands of South African troops were cornered by Cuban fighters. They could have been wiped off, but for the fact that the Cubans allowed them to beat a humiliating retreat. Cuito Canavale was the tipping-point -- the historical marker – that conclusively convinced the Apartheid regime that a military solution was no longer an option. It was in this context that the Oppenheimers and other visionary industrialists prevailed on the government to begin dialogue with the ANC and other opposition groups. Chris Hani, Thabo Mbeki, Cyril Ramaphosa and other brilliant young minds were involved in these delicate secret talks. In 1982, Mandela and some of the leading political prisoners were moved to the mainland, ostensibly to enable contact with officials of the ruling government. In1985, President P. W. Botha offered Mandela freedom in exchange for renouncing armed struggle. They were hardly in a position to grasp the full measure of the man they were dealing with. The negotiations between the ANC and the government finally culminated in the release of Nelson Mandela in April 1990. In the following year, he was made President of the ANC, with his friend and comrade Oliver Tambo as Chairperson. Frederik Willem de Klerk, scion of the Afrikaner aristocracy and a diehard member of the Broederbond, the secret society that was founded to promote and protect Afrikaner supremacy, claimed that he was inspired by a dream to release Mandela and the other prisoners. Tambo, who was increasingly weakened by cancer, was to die two years later, in April 1993. The years of transition were to prove among the most difficult in the history of South Africa. The regime made a last-ditch effort to orchestrate inter-ethnic violence among the African population. Much innocent blood was shed in those bleak years. The April 1993 assassination of Chris Hani by Janusz Walus, a white right-wing Polish emigrant nearly plunged the nation into civil war. Commander-in-Chief of Umkhonto; a Marxist revolutionary seen by many as the heir apparent to the Mandela mantle; the charismatic Hani was the legendary prince who could discourse at once on Shaka Zulu’s military doctrine as he could on Roman Law, the paintings of Vermeer and the music of Bach.