Post by cjm on Jul 19, 2020 15:39:24 GMT
South Africa: Mandela Was a Flawed Icon. but Without Him South Africa Would Be a Sadder Place
Pontificating from the safety of London, having unleashed the ANC on us.
I was thrilled but also, underneath that, felt concern about the forces against him. I worried about the violence the apartheid military and its proxies would unleash.
I fretted about what I'd seen during my decade of membership of the African National Congress (ANC), the leading liberation movement for which he was jailed: the seeping corruption, elbowing for position, the exile old guard's insistence on primacy. And, as he left prison hand in hand with his wife, Winnie, I feared the influence of a woman who'd already been convicted of kidnapping, and accused of so much more.
...
The four years of negotiations saw more people killed in political violence - mostly from the state and its proxies, with an estimated 14,000 people dying. Mandela could not prevent this mayhem, but his authority and gravitas kept the negotiations to end apartheid afloat. Authority and momentum seeped from De Klerk into Mandela.
...
Gavin Evans, Lecturer, Culture and Media department, Birkbeck, University of London
I fretted about what I'd seen during my decade of membership of the African National Congress (ANC), the leading liberation movement for which he was jailed: the seeping corruption, elbowing for position, the exile old guard's insistence on primacy. And, as he left prison hand in hand with his wife, Winnie, I feared the influence of a woman who'd already been convicted of kidnapping, and accused of so much more.
...
The four years of negotiations saw more people killed in political violence - mostly from the state and its proxies, with an estimated 14,000 people dying. Mandela could not prevent this mayhem, but his authority and gravitas kept the negotiations to end apartheid afloat. Authority and momentum seeped from De Klerk into Mandela.
...
Gavin Evans, Lecturer, Culture and Media department, Birkbeck, University of London
Pontificating from the safety of London, having unleashed the ANC on us.