A South African anti-apartheid revolutionary, philanthropist, and political leader, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was known for his activism after he become involved in the anti-apartheid movement in his 20s. Mandela spent 27-years in jail for political offenses, but he never stopped fighting against racism and segregation, which existed for a long time in South Africa and South West Africa. In 1993, F. W. de Klerk, South African President, and Nelson Mandela were awarded with a joint Nobel Peace Prize for their effort to end the apartheid system in the country. Mandela become an inspiration for all activists, who were fighting for civil right all around the world. In 1994, Mandela was elected as the first black president of South Africa, serving in the office until 1999. He became the change many people around the world wanted to see and live.
Author Mark Crear’s book, Peace Be Still 978-1-950088-90-4, is based on the ideas of racial reconciliation and racial unity. Crear, in his book, discusses racial discrimination and its types as well. Crear’s aim is to help people, who are victims of racism and discrimination, to heal from the generational trauma. He believes healing can be achieved through promoting racial reconciliation and racial unity.
In June 1990, Nelson Mandela spoke on racial discrimination, while addressing the United Nations Special Committee against Apartheid. He said:
“It will forever remain an indelible blight on human history that the apartheid crime ever occurred. Future generations will surely ask: What error was made that this system established itself in the wake of the adoption of a universal declaration of human rights? It will forever remain an accusation and a challenge to all men and women of conscience that it took as long as it has before all of us stood up to say ‘enough is enough.’...
Let us travel it together. Let us, by our joint actions, vindicate the purposes for which this Organization was established and create a situation wherein its Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights will become part of the body of law on which will be based the political and social order of a new South Africa. Our common victory is assured.”
Nelson Mandela also spoke on racial reconciliation in New Delhi, India, on 25 January, 1995: “We in South Africa are convinced that it is both possible and practicable to reach our goal of a better life for all in the shortest possible time. We derive our confidence from the knowledge that this is a vision shared by the overwhelming majority of South Africans across the color and political divides.
And we fully appreciate the role of the international community in making this happen — not only in the form of material support. If we are able today to speak proudly of a rainbow nation, united in its diversity of culture, religion, race, language and ethnicity, it is in part because the world set us a moral example which we dared to follow.
This achievement is bound to last because it is founded on the realization that reconciliation and nation-building mean, among other things, that we should set out to know the truth about the terrible past and ensure it does not recur. Ours must therefore not be merely a respite before the bitterness of the past once more reasserts itself.
We recognize too, that reconciliation and nation-building would remain pious words if they were not premised on a concerted effort to remove the real roots of past conflict and injustice. Our national security and the survival of our young democracy depend, above everything else, on the programme to meet the basic needs of the people. Reconstruction and development will ensure that all South Africans have a stake in life; that they share an interest in the well-being of the country as a whole.”
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