A remembrance to recall on the birth anniversary of
freedom icon, Nelson Mandela, on 18 July 2023
INTRODUCTION:
In August 1988, a month after Nelson Rolihlahla
Mandela turned 70 while still being imprisoned, one of the country’s best-known
activist, sociologist and author, Professor Fatima Meer, published her book on
the life of the freedom icon.
The book, “Higher than Hope: Rolihlahla We Love You”
was published by Professor Meer in order to promote the values and principles
of Mandela in the struggles for a free, non-racial and democratic South Africa.
At this time, I was the Editor of the Press Trust of
SA News Agency. I made contact with Professor Meer and interviewed her about
the book at a time when Mandela was in prison for 25 years.
The article was submitted to the Press Trust of India
(PTI) and other news agencies and media organisations around the world on
August 6 1988. The article (below) is just as relevant now in 2023 as it was in
1988 when the struggles had reached heightened proportions.
IDEALS,
VALUES AND PRINCIPLES
August 6 1988
The ideals, values and principles that Nelson Mandela
stands for and that he so ardently and tenaciously fought for during the years
before his incarceration in 1963 have in some way been lost and need to be
brought back to the people of South Africa.
So says Professor Fatima Meer, sociologist and
veteran anti-apartheid opponent, and author of a new book on Mandela, “Higher
Than Hope: Rolihlahla We Love You”.
“I wrote my book primarily for the South African
people,” said Professor Meer.
“They have so little tangible knowledge of this great
man and his life. I wanted to fill the gap.
“But more than that, I wanted Nelson to be able,
through the book, to speak out to the people of this country. I want him to
come to us through the book and remind the people of his values and ideals.”
And, says Professor Meer, at the particular
conjuncture that South Africa finds itself in at present, there has never been
a more pressing need for this reminder.
“I think that at this point in our history, where the
townships are devastated with violence, where there is a dominant – although
not yet predominant – element of black youth who seem not to understand
democracy and confuse it with anarchy, who do not understand authority and
responsibility, Nelson Mandela is needed more than ever.
“And since he is still imprisoned, the only way he
can come to us and especially the youth is through words.”
Professor Meer said she felt the South African
Government was to blame for the “moral vacuum” in certain parts of the national
democratic struggle.
“The Government is so anti-democratic, so violent, so
repressive and intolerant, these traits have become internalised and reflected
in a large part of our population.
“These people need someone who can get up now and
speak out about what real values are all about and Mandela is that person.”
What emerges from her book, said Professor Meer, is a
man who is imbued with a sense of uncompromising discipline and democracy.
“Discipline is very important to Nelson. Nothing
could happen without there being a tremendous amount of discipline.
“He also understood democracy better than most people
and took it to its ultimate extent. He understood it precisely because he was
deprived of it.”
The book, which is due to be out to the public within
the next few weeks, could not have been penned by a more qualified person.
Professor Meer, who is involved in a number of
community undertakings and research projects, was herself part of the
“hurley-burley” years of the 50s and 60s and has an intimate knowledge of the
values which drove the struggles then.
During that period, she spent time with Mandela, and
grew close to his family and in 1976 spent a period of time with Winnie Mandela
in prison. Indeed, much of the basis for the book were the many letters of
Winnie that Professor Meer had in her possession for safe-keeping.
Other source material were scores of interviews with
family members – including many with Mandela’s family in the Transkei, and with
friends, associates and acquaintances.
In addition, Professor Meer had the support and
backing of Mandela and his family to undertake what she terms an “overwhelming
task”.
“Nelson wrote to me in 1972, and said that he thought
that people who wrote their autobiographies were really on an ego trip. I
responded and said, well, some biographies needed to be written and his was one
and I mentioned sort-of jokingly that I would be honoured to write it,”
Professor Meer recalled.
“Some time later, I got a message from a mutual
friend who said Nelson wanted me to write his biography. But it was more of an
informal request than anything else.”
While the primary role of the book is to bring back
the morals of Mandela and his era, its main area of focus is the ten-year
period of Mandela’s life between 1950 and 1960.
Part One looks at the roots – it examines Mandela the
boy and the Tembu history in an effort to put Mandela’s resistance to apartheid
into perspective.
Part Two locates him in Johannesburg.
“It explores – to the extent that I have been able to
explore without being able to interview him directly – his early friendships,
his life at college, his life as an articled clerk, his first marriage and the
early years of the ANC and the Youth League.
“But I am really homing in on the ten years between
1950 and 1960 because his crucial contribution is within those ten years.
“I have tried, while I have attempted to place
Mandela in Johannesburg for those ten years, to look at what is happening in
the country and see how he involved himself in that.
“It is an interactive picture between a man and his socio-political
environment.”
The book examines a range of historical events in
which Mandela played an instrumental role, including the defiance campaign, the
treason trial, the banning of ANC and the decision to go underground, Mandela’s
years as the “Black Pimpernel” and finally the Rivonia Trial.
“For South Africans struggling for a just and
democratic society,” Professor Meer said, “the Rivonia Trial is crucial”.
“In his statements from the dock, Mandela offers a
magnificent analysis of the entire political problems of the African people at
the time. He also explains why armed resistance was chosen.”
Another major part of the book centres around the
hundreds of letters that flow between Polsmoor Prison and the Mandela family
and friends.
According to Professor Meer, through the letters
Mandela emerges as a very concerned and compassionate man with his finger on
the pulse, not only of world and national affairs, but also on those of his
family.
“The letters make up Part Five of ‘Higher Than Hope’
and what comes out of there is just how he cares for people, how he cares for
friends and what his feelings are about events that happen to his family,”
Professor Meer said.
“What emerges from the prison is the extent to which
he has been able to influence so many young people in his family. To exhort
them to go and educate themselves, to get to university. And he has succeeded.
Even from the confines of prison, where until a few years ago his family have
had a half-image of him through a glass plate window, Nelson has had an
enormous impact on his extended family.
“And this is an indication of the kind of influence
he would have if he were allowed to be a free man.”
The book also contains a section on Winnie – a
biography within a biography.
“The few chapters focus on her childhood and
education; how she is drawn into Nelson’s politics and how the state uses
Winnie to hit out at Nelson and how she herself emerges out of this as a leader
in her own right.”
Professor Meer said she fervently hoped the South
African authorities would not move to ban her book.
“Each and every person in South Africa, from white
conservatives to black radicals need to read about this great man,” she said. –
ends – Press Trust of SA News Agency August 6 1988
