My husband is travelling in Europe and called me early this
morning, bereft that a character in the series “Sons of Anarchy” had died. I was still waking up, but was dumbfounded
that he called to tell me that, but had nothing to say about the passing of Nelson
Mandela.
He is about 13 years younger than me.
When Nelson Mandela was released from prison, my husband was
still in junior high while I was preparing to leave for El Salvador to support
that country’s march toward justice.
Nelson Mandela was a potent symbol of the injustice of the apartheid
system that many of my fellow student activists were fighting to overthrow.
I spent most of the 80’s relearning the world order as my
perspective shifted from my conservative parents’ devotion to Reagan and certainty
of “American Exceptionalism” to one of horrified recognition that the United
States often ignored the blatant behavior of dictators and bullies throughout
the world or worse, assisted them in their exploitation and oppression of the
people they ruled. The examples were
plentiful, Somoza and Pinochet, the Shah of Iran and scores of generals whose
names are better forgotten. But the
most cogent and embarrassing symbol of the United States’ official indifference
to the suffering of exploited and oppressed people the world over was the
Apartheid regime in South Africa. It was
a caricature of every value that Ronald Reagan claimed we possess. Reagan’s “shining city on the hill” as a
beacon of hope the world over was the provenance of cash and arms meant to
continue oppression.
The President’s insouciance in the face of the violent and
disgusting treatment of black South Africans left no space for ambiguity. Official “concern” about communism in South
Africa was laughable in the face of the Apartheid. A generation of social justice activists,
myself included, came of age as part of the wave of divesture that finally
forced the US to withdraw support from the Apartheid regime and we learned that
we did, in fact, have power.
Nelson Mandela began as a symbol of the Apartheid regime’s
fatuous racism and willingness of the powerful to crush dissent. But upon his release from Robbin Island, his
stature only grew. He demonstrated that
one did not have to be crushed by anger and bitterness. He lived and led by example the principle of
liberation theology that oppression equally oppresses both the oppressed and
the oppressor.
I believe that he is the greatest man who has lived within
my lifetime. I am saddened by the loss to
the world of this great man. My sadness
is greater still because my husband, who I believe is a good man who cares for
justice, is untouched by his passing.
We have been careless with his legacy.
