wicked said:
Oh, please, he's no saint.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelson_Mandela#Armed_anti-apartheid_activities
Mandela later admitted that the ANC, in its struggle against apartheid, also violated human rights, sharply criticising those in his own party who attempted to remove statements supporting this fact from the reports of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
I am not trying to condone apartheid, but he wasn't exactly Gandhi.
He wasn't Gandhi. But Gandhi was one of a kind and a rare human.
And Mandela has lived a remarkable life in his own right.
Mandela did challenge a policy that discriminated against him because of the color of his skin. He led a wing of the movement that used arms and force. So, no, he was not Gandhi. But given the discrimination and awful treatment he received, why would that be the thing people focus on today, particularly given the peaceful means he used later in life to show kindness and forgiveness and to pull that country together and out of an awful policy of racial discrimination in the best way he could?
He was thrown into prison for 27 years. And while it's easy to throw out a, "He wasn't Gandhi," comparison, what it misses for me is that when he was released from prison, he walked out a remarkable man, considering the bitterness most people would have carried with them. He gave South Africa the perfect mix of leadership qualities, forgiveness and a spirit that projected kindness and made reconciliation something that was going to happen by the force of his will.
If you want to focus on the militancy of the ANC, fine. But put it within the context of Apartheid and how Mandela and people with his skin color were treated -- which led to them arming.
What I will focus on are moments like when Chris Hani was assassinated, and Mandela gave that majestic speech that called for peace. The respect he engendered and the speech he gave, prevented a much worse violent outburst than what the country saw, and it allowed the transition from apartheid to really happen. It so easily could have been derailed at that point. Mandela might not have been Gandhi, but that speech certainly evoked the spirit of Gandhi, and after all he had been through, that, and all the other times he held that country together through the force of his personality and will, and everything he did to create a better racial harmony, is why he is such a remarkable man. After what he had been through and how he was treated? To me that is an incredible man.
