Love Comes More Naturally To The Human Heart: Nelson Mandela

Certainly there are many historical parallels in hypocrisy. America’s founding fathers, for example, were considered criminals and traitors in their day for rejecting the oppressive yoke of the British Empire, all the while decimating the native peoples, putting those few native Americans who survived under the yoke of occupation. 

I had a personal awakening as a university student regarding the struggle against South African Apartheid. In particular, the story of Nelson Mandela’s personal sacrifice for human rights was very compelling to me. At that time, Mandela was still a political prisoner, held captive on South Africa’s obben Island. One day in the university library, I brought down a nondescript book from a random shelf. Upon reading the first few words, I sunk to the carpeted floor between the long rows and shelves, in the sudden 

and unexpected presence of the profound: 

Terror is the use of violence to try to create and maintain a political reality. For twenty-seven years of his life, Nelson Mandela was a victim of state terrorism. He was locked in a tiny jail cell. He did hard time doing hard labor. After many prisoner protests, prisoners, including Mandela, were permitted to study, and Mandela took full advantage. He earned his Bachelor of Laws from the University of London during his incarceration. He encouraged other prisoners to study, as well. Yet, his bed was a thin woven mat upon the hard ground. His window was concrete-embedded steel bars. 

The United States played a role in Mandela’s capture and arrest. The CIA uncovered where he was in hiding and tipped off the Apartheid regime. For what? What was his crime? Mandela held the bedrock conviction that we are all created equal. He preferred peaceful means of achieving freedom, but if all else failed the ANC and Mandela reserved the right to fight. But fight what, exactly? 

The system of apartheid – ‘apart’ – that Mandela grew up in was a racist violent system run by a minority who were Dutch, German and British descendants.They believed themselves superior to blacks. This conviction of superiority is always part and parcel of any form of colonialism. 

The Bantu Education Act is a dark example of apartheid law.The author, Dr. Hendrik Verwoerd (who would later be elected Prime Minister) indicated that the purpose of the Act was to prevent blacks from aspiring to work at skilled jobs. Education of blacks was to provide them with basic skills to prepare them for work in menial jobs for whites. [1] 

It is shocking to note that most of the laws underpinning the apartheid system came into being after the Second World War and that western countries (for example, Great Britain, the U.S., and Israel) – did business with Apartheid South Africa. 

One way that apartheid was fought was that, around the world, civil society organized world-wide boycotts against the apartheid regime. Citizens encouraged their respective countries, businesses, and educational institutions to tow the boycott line. 

In 1994, Mandela, still designated a terrorist by the U.S., in the nation’s first democratic election, became 

South Africa’s first black President.

The dark clouds of racism and war swell ominously on the horizon today. Nelson Mandela’s heartening 

message is more timely than ever, and it is his lived experience; from oppressed political prisoner, to president of a nation that aspires to be a rainbow nation of many colors, free from oppression, discrimination and fear. 

Nelson Mandela was born July 18, 1918. In 2009, the U.N. declared July 18th to be ‘Nelson Mandela International Day’ in his honor. Celebrating his 93rd birthday this year, there were songs sung by children’s choirs, while others happily reported marking the day doing good deeds of community service.