Afrikanman - were you imprisoned for failing to join the army?
Nelson Mandela - comments of what his life meant to you
by MMXIV 54 Replies latest jw experiences
-
-
eyeuse2badub
Sounds like most posters here would not agree with my wife who thinks that Nelson Mandela would have been better off if he had become a JW like his first wife.
Just a small comparison I thought of; Nelson Mandela came out of prison after 27 years with forgiveness and reconciliation in mind. Joe Rutherford came out of prison after only 18 months with revenge in mind. Just saying!
eyeuse2badub
-
Earnest
Nelson Mandela was head of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing of the ANC, which was organised after the Sharpville massacre. Without any doubt he argued in favour of violence to meet violence, but at the time it was primarily aimed at installations and not people.
sammielee24, you have misrepresented the facts in several respects.
The SA president P.W. Botha told Mandela in 1985 that he could be a free man as long as he did just one thing: ‘publicly renounce violence’. Mandela refused. PW Botha was Minister of Defense from 1966 until 1980 and hence responsible for the atrocities committed under his watch. He was also determined that Jehovah's Witnesses of military age, who did effectively renounce violence, would spend their life in prison. If Nelson Mandela had renounced violence at a time when that was the government's primary tool he would have been as effective as a wet rag.
The picture of the bombing victim in Pretoria which you show occurred in 1988 when Mandela had been in prison for more than 20 years. Further, the "victim" that you show was the perpetrator who was blown up by his own bomb.
You refer to munitions and bomb-making equipment which was confiscated with him and his comrades and attempt to lend authenticity to this by saying - read his ‘Rivonia trial’ transcripts. The munitions and equipment you list was a wish list drawn up by Joe Slovo and Govan Mbeki. It was never confiscated because they never had it, at least not in the quantities you list. I thoroughly recommend you read the Rivonia trial transcripts, and especially Mandela's closing speech. It will change your viewpoint!
I have no doubt that as a master statesman Nelson Mandela showed the side of his character which was necessary to accomplish his purpose. But I know this too, that when he was released in 1990 he could have set the country alight. Instead he set up the Truth & Reconciliation Commission and led by example which allowed for a relatively peaceful transition which I can still hardly believe.
Jehovah's Witnesses in South Africa are as grateful as anyone else that the country has been spared a blood-bath.
-
AFRIKANMAN
Ernest not sure if you are from RSA - but thanks for correcting the points. The Apartheid regime was illegitmate - if by nothing else than by the evidence of hindsight.
Was there violence perped from both sides - of course there was - then too one needs to examine the very awkward "3rd Force" time when quite possibly the NATS [Nationalist Party] worked in cahoots with the IFP [Inkhata Freedom Party - mosty Zulu people] to try to undermine the forward moving process.
Does the big man bear blood on his hands? Yes he more than likely does - not much differently from that of King David methinks.
Did he also intervene and prevent occasions of blood shed? Most definitely - eg when we nearly saw our A---S after the assasination of Chris Hani.
He was just a man - with fears and foibles, strengths and weaknesses.
The present leadership is a scary one ! Corrupt, Inept, very Stupid and power hungry //
-
Band on the Run
What could well ask if America's Founding Fathers were terrorists? We were a British colony. Many of the Founders, such as Washington, Adams, and Franklin, played roles in the colonial administration. There were very close ties to Britain. It appears that history determines who is a terrorist. Only about one third of Americans were Patriots. One third did not care either way. One third of Americans were Loyalist and most emigrated. Many of the Americans who left with the British lived lifes of poverty b/c of the move.
The victors write history. Apartheid was not a democratic institution. My sense of South Afircan history is flawed. I don't recall means that could be used to end apartheid. Many would argue that the Africankers imposition of apartheid was the terrrorist act. If I recall, demonstators could not even gather. Apartheid was not benign. Black people were exiled to homelands. There were curfews. Were the German officers who plotted to assasinate Hitler terrorists?
I don't know b/c I the facts are not clear to me. Winnie Mandela gave me the creeps. Given Africa's very sad state, Mandela did well. Legal reforms are much easier than economic reforms, though. The legal basis of Jim Crow in the American South crumbled but the economic disparities remain.