Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela has been laid to his final rest at
his home town of Qunu (pronounced Kunu if you don’t want to risk using the
wrong one of the eighteen Xhosa click varieties). So much has been written about him over the
last two weeks, and so many eulogies have been delivered, that there is really
nothing original that I can add. Stan’s
tribute to him last week movingly summed up the feelings of many South Africans
of our age. (Mind you, Stan is much
older than I am.)
On Tuesday Soccer City, the huge football stadium in Soweto (built
for the world cup in 2010), was packed to capacity with people of all races and
from all walks of life, from the unemployed to superstars and presidents. Unusually for Johannesburg in summer, rain
settled in and drenched the mourners, many of whom had waited since the early
hours of the morning to be sure of a seat.
One woman said that even the angels were crying. Still, in Africa rain is always a blessing,
which is why the unit of Botswana currency is the Pula, meaning rain.
At the memorial, it was Barrack Obama whose speech seemed to
best capture Mandela’s life and the mood of the audience. It focused on Mandela’s contribution and
what it means for all of us – not only in South Africa but everywhere. It demands that, while we may fall short, we
should at least try to emulate his example.
If you haven’t already heard President Obama’s speech, and if you are
still reading this blog you will want to hear it, you can find it HERE.
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| President Zuma booed at the memorial |
South Africa did come together to pay
due respect to Madiba, but by the memorial service cracks were beginning to emerge. The president of South
Africa, leader of Mandela’s African National Congress, was booed during his
speech. President Obama said he fell
short of Mandela’s example. Maybe so,
but Jacob Zuma isn’t in the ball park.
And some in the crowd didn’t want him in the football stadium
either. Perhaps it wasn’t the most
appropriate of moments, but isn’t that what Mandela’s courage was about? Not doing what's appropriate, but what you
believe to be right. By Sunday, we had
the Thembu king boycotting the funeral, apparently unwilling to share the stage
with Zuma. No doubt he had his reasons,
but then again Zuma is a Zulu whereas the king, of course, is a Xhosa. There was some discussion that the king wasn’t very
happy with the behavior of Mandla, Mandela’s grandson, either. (Mandla arrived at the family home in Qunu at the weekend to
find himself locked out. The locks were
changed while he was at the Union Buildings where his grandfather was lying in
state.)
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| President Obama being "translated" |
Then there was the embarrassment of
the signer who shared the stage at the memorial with the speech makers. He's incomprehensible to deaf sign language
users. Apparently the sign for “prawn” occurred
frequently in his translation of President Obama’s speech, but nothing made sense. A representative of the
deaf community complained that she'd drawn the translator’s incompetence to
the attention of the authorities on more than one occasion, but summed up their
response rather charmingly by saying that “no one listens to us deaf people.” The fact that he is not merely incompetent
but also a self-confessed schizophrenic who claims to have seen angels at the
memorial (apparently not crying) and has been accused of fraud and violent acts,
suggests that the security was lax to say the least. Thank heavens it all passed off with nothing
worse than drenched clothing and a few sniffles.
Looking ahead to 2014, South Africa will
face its first election without Mandela.
The landscape has changed forever.
It’s twenty years since the first free elections; the youngest voters
next year are “born frees”, people to whom Apartheid and the Struggle are
history rather than personal experience.
There is no doubt that the ANC will win comfortably, but if its vote
drops significantly, Jacob Zuma will be out.
That will be none too soon for many people.
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| Madiba casts his vote in 1994 |
Since “selfie” is the word of the
year, I can’t resist concluding with this cartoon, sent to me by a friend in
the US.
Michael – Thursday.
