Liberal ideology is whitewashing Nelson Mandela to be some nonviolent hero of liberal democracy who was the African (all of it, apparently) analogue of MLK
I said this on Reddit, but I imagine most liberals in America think Mandela was imprisoned for like a peaceful sit-in or something.
And it’s not even like MLK was some avid supporter of liberal capitalist democracy in the way that liberals speak of him. He advocated a radical redistribution of wealth that capitalists would never accommodate.
Liberals just need to stop liberal-washing history overall.
Just for reference, I actually live in South Africa and it’s not just Americans who think that Mandela was jailed for being a peaceful protester. In school when we learned about the apartheid I can assure you there was literally no mention of why he was jailed, aside from the fact that he was anti-apartheid – “he was peacefully protesting for human rights when the extremist white supremacist party had him jailed” is what we were, and school children here, are, still told. It paints him as being even more of a “peaceful” figure when you compare him to the extremism of the AWB, if that makes sense.
Barely anyone is aware that Mandela himself subscribed to a lot of Socialist and Marxist ideology for his dream of what South Africa should be, he firmly stated this. He was involved with the South African Communist Party along with other notable anti-apartheid figures such as Joe Slovo – he did distance himself from the actual label of communist, but spoke a lot, like MLK, about the radical re – distribution of wealth.
The fact is, growing up in South Africa post-apartheid we are not at any point told Mandela’s actions before jail – not in our history books, or memorials or museums. He is painted as a peaceful, liberal idol of the people who dreamed of a rainbow nation.
When there is any sort of violent action or rebellion toward our horribly and openly corrupt government the African National Congress – the government and a vast majority of the (specifically white) liberal population say in response “this is not what Mandela would have wanted”.
It also is a very insidious form of racism because the majority of people who turn to violent resistance are the people who these conditions affect the most – the poverty stricken lower class, which is predominantly black.
Last year public universities were heavily affected by protesters asking for equal access to education, and the majority of the protesters were young black adults who are unable to even access tertiary education at all. At one of the universities there was a statue of (in)famous colonist Cecil Rhodes and it was defaced and eventually pulled down by the students (of various races and ethnicities) who are fighting in the name of resistance to racism.
Obviously a lot of these protests turned violent and oh boy, you should have seen the responses. “Mandela would have been so disappointed” they said. The blatant racism, specially from white afrikaners, called the student protesters “animals” and the removal of the statue was protested because “it’s a historical symbol” (familiar isn’t it?). Good riddance.
Examining this country as it stands, this is the last thing Mandela would have wanted South Africa to be. But in the face of actual, violent resistance, this is exactly what Mandela would have wanted because remember kids, violence is wrong. Just look at Nelson Mandela’s peaceful long walk to freedom.
Mandela: *runs armed wing of resistance movement, bombs military installations, power plants etc*
White folks now: “Mandela would have been so disappointed that your protest turned violent.”
It’s surreal.
QueerAnarchism 