Colonialists and imperialists come to eulogize Mandela

Empowering Weak & Oppressed

Crescent International

Safar 07, 1435 2013-12-10

Daily News Analysis

by Crescent International

Western hypocrisy was on full display in South Africa today as scores of leaders from around the world gathered to pay respects to Nelson Mandela, the father of South Africa's liberation struggle who died on December 5. He was 95. The same western rulers whose countries had aided and abetted the apartheid regime that had tormented Mandela and his fellow strugglers for decades were now singing his praises.

Pretoria, Crescent-online
December 10, 2013, 14:43 EST

Nelson Mandela was a giant figure. He struggled and suffered for his principles of social and political justice enduring 27 years of incarceration in one of the worst prisons in the world.

In a twist of irony, the very people—European colonialists and American imperialists—that had aided and abetted Mandela’s white European tormentors came to eulogize him in death.

Tens of thousands of South Africans, mainly blacks since it is an overwhelmingly black country but also others including Muslims, whether of Indian or Malay descent, as well as white South Africans gathered today at a stadium in Johannesburg in pouring rain to pay tribute to Mandela.

“This is how Nelson Mandela would have wanted to be sent on,” said Cyril Ramaphosa, the deputy ANC leader who chaired the proceedings. “These are blessings. In our African tradition [when it rains] it means the gods are welcoming you and the gates of heaven are open.”

There were four US presidents, four British prime ministers, two French presidents, the Chinese vice president, Cuban President Raul Castro, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff as well as leaders from Africa in the stadium to pay tribute to Mandela.

The most sickening sight was that of George W Bush, a mass murderer and war criminal. On the eve of America’s second invasion of Iraq, Mandela had said in January 2003: “What I am condemning is that one power [the US], with a president [Bush] who has no foresight, who cannot think properly, is now wanting to plunge the world into a holocaust. ... If there is a country that has committed unspeakable atrocities in the world, it is the United States of America. They don't care.”

Mandela’s words proved prophetic. The US murdered more than one million Iraqis and the country has still not recovered from that devastation.

Apartheid South Africa's white collaborators declared Mandela a terrorist. It was during the presidency of Ronald Reagan that Dick Cheney, then a senator, presented a bill in the US senate to put Mandela on the US “terrorist” watch list.

Bill Clinton was also there and throughout his presidency despite the fact that the late African leader had been released and was awarded the Nobel Peace prize in 1993, no steps were taken to remove his name from this insulting list.

It was not until 2008 that Mandela came off this list. In June 1990, four months after his release from prison, Mandela was invited to the US. He had to be granted special exemption before he could set foot in the US to speak to gatherings all across the country.

The British had actively supported the apartheid regime in South Africa, refusing to impose sanctions claiming they did not work.

The only relief was that the Zionists—Shimon Peres and Benjamin Netanyahu—were not there. Zionist Israel continues to remain an apartheid state today. Throughout the white racist apartheid regime, the Zionists were active collaborators. They even supported the South African apartheid regime with nuclear weapons.

In his eulogy, Obama waxed eloquent. “It is a singular honour to be with you today, to celebrate a life unlike any other. To the people of South Africa – people of every race and walk of life – the world thanks you for sharing Nelson Mandela with us.”

He admitted the US, too, had had its history of racism. He then went on to say that he and Michelle had benefited from the struggle for civil rights in America but the journey was not finished yet.

How ironic that apartheid ended in South Africa and Robben Island, seven miles off the coast of Cape Town where Mandela spent 18 years of his 27-year sentence, has now become a museum to remind the world of man’s inhumanity to man, yet the US continues to maintain Guantanamo Bay where people have languished since 2002.

Like Mandela, these people are also branded as terrorists. But unlike Mandela, their lives will neither be celebrated nor eulogized in death.

END

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