Politcal Odyssey of chief Madu Ndigba-(a belief in totems by an African leader) An Allegory part9

CHAPTER VIII

CHARACTERISTICS OF MANDELA,
WHAT DO WE KNOW OF HIM?

The publication, “Becoming a Leader”, which he obtained on arrival at the airport was very instructive as excerpt summary indicate. In the publication, ‘Becoming a leader’ by Nelson Mandela Foundation, in its contribution for the Madiba Legacy Series, many heroic involvements were highlighted. Mandela left the rural village of Mvezo, Eastern Cape to far away Johannesburg to avoid early marriage after the death of his father. He found that miners worked long hours in dangerous conditions. While wives and children remained in rural areas, sustaining traditional homesteads, workers earned barely enough to send money back home. This also meant that children grew up without their fathers.

As he rejected the mining job, he arrived at Walter Siulu’s office and indicated that he wanted to continue his Law Studies by correspondence. Mandela couldn’t believe that Sisulu had only a standard six education and he was further told that Sisulu had graduated from the University of Life – the streets of Johannesburg. Mandela was employed as a clerk at the firm of Witkin, Sidelsky and Edelman. He rented a room in Alexandra Township, called Dark City because there was no electricity. Even though he had a job, he was not exempt from the laws and conditions that applied to all Africans pass laws, curfews, high transport costs, separate poverty stricken communities, high crime, and no facilities as he read to complete his degree with candle light. He noticed that in the office, there was separate treatment for Africans, as they drank tea in kitchen with one cup; while whites drank their own tea in the office with different type of cups.

In 1943, Mandela graduated with his B.A. degree in Fort Hare. Even though ANC was founded in 1912, Mandela and his group, after 1943, vowed to make the movement purely African Orientation to fight their cause in non-violent manner. Thus, at the annual ANC Conference in Bloemfontein in 1949, the inner group, AP MDA, Walter Sisulu, Oliver Tambo and Nelson Mandela emerged as the new kingmakers.

On the other hand, in 1948, The Afrikaner National Party under Dr. Francois Malan came to power. Afrikaner Nationalism was a powerful political and social force. It was determined to destroy what he saw as its greatest enemies – African Nationalism, Communism and White Liberalism. By 1st May 1950, government banned all gatherings. But for Mandela the struggle had become consuming. His sympathy was not only confined to main ANC Movement but also to the Young Wing and Women Wing. For instance, on his return, to Jo’burg, a third ban was served on him. The year 1956 was marked by the Women’s Campaign against pass laws. Mandela had many meetings with Lillian Nyoyi, a leader of the Federation of South African Women. 9th august 1956, biggest protestation by women against pass laws as 20,000 women marched to the Union Building to deliver petitions to Prime Minister STRIDJOM. On 2 December 1952, Mandela and other leaders were banned under another unjust law, the Riotous Assemblies Act, of which people were banned from attending meetings, talking to more than one person at a time, or leaving the area where they lived. In the end, he was charged for treason, arrested and imprisoned in the Old Fort, deprived of basic human dignity and threatened with death penalty and finally banished to Robin Island.

He was greatly disappointed that Madiba did not court ‘power of totem’. He thereafter queried the rationale for making the trip to see Madiba. It started to dawn on him that the environment where he grew and started politics was quite different from the apartheid environment that Madiba operated.

This development speaks volume as to whether Chief Ndigba Madu was prepared to learn from this historical development of Madiba, his life, as well as his struggle to eradicate apartheid.