Nelson Mandela: a leader above all others His character, and a life that kept him off stage

for a long period, produced an almost unique mixture of wisdom and innocence Editorial The Guardian, Thursda ! "ecember #$%& #&'&$ GMT (ump to comments )*$+ ,hen Helen -u.man went to see Nelson Mandela on /obben 0sland in %123, the first prisoner she encountered was a man called 4ddie "aniels, who told her: 56es, we know who ou are' "on7t waste time talking to us' Go and talk to Mandela at the end of the row' He7s our leader'5 "aniels7s absolute certaint struck -u.man ver forcibl ' 8lthough "aniels did not spell it out, she learned later that the prison administration had tried to arrange her tour so that she would not reach Mandela7s cell before her limited time on /obben ran out' -he took the advice, made her wa to Mandela7s cell, and found there a quietl eloquent and direct man of imposing ph sique and great natural authorit ' 4ddie "aniels was of course right: Mandela was indeed the leader, not onl of the detainees in the island prison, but of the -outh 8frican liberation movement as a whole' He had mentors and partners, some in detention with him, some in exile, and some enduring a harassed and persecuted life in -outh 8frica itself, and he had rivals inside and outside the 8frican National 9ongress' :ut he was indubitabl the man who came, above all others, to s mbolise the struggle of the 8N9, from the time when it seemed to have collapsed under the assaults of the apartheid state, to the time of its final successes, when that same state found itself pleading with the 8N9 to enter a new era in which the structures of oppression would be liquidated' 6et this leadership, even if we define it as moral rather than practical, remains ultimatel something of a m ster ' Mandela was not able, during #3 ears in prison, to exercise sustained operational control or to take a regular part in 8N9 decision;making, except toward the ver end, when he negotiated with <, de =lerk' :efore he went to >ail, his record was of brave failure rather than of significant victor ' His attempts, during his earl ears, to wage, along with others, a legal and non;violent campaign for black rights were st mied b a government which was not onl unresponsive but positivel preferred to push the 8N9 into clandestine activit so that it could fragment and criminalise the movement' His reluctant conversion to the militar path ended abruptl when he was arrested within da s of returning to -outh 8frica to pursue the armed struggle' 8s a civil rights leader, he was ineffective' 8s a short;lived guerrilla leader, he was an amateur' 8nd when, released from prison, he became the first president of the new -outh 8frica, he was often inattentive, he discarded his once radical views on the econom , and, arguabl , he endorsed the wrong man as his successor' To set against that, he insisted on respect for the >udgments of the -outh 8frican 9onstitutional 9ourt even when the upset the 8N97s plans, and he refused to support the death penalt ' Mandela was far from alone among #$th;centur liberation leaders in achieving stature in prison' ?rison could be, as (awaharlal Nehruobserved, a sort of postgraduate preparation for politics' :ut that was in the relativel eas circumstances of the subcontinent, where 0ndian National 9ongress leaders treated detention as an opportunit to draw breath between bouts of challenging the :ritish' The closest parallel toda can be found in 8ung -ang -uu = i, whose

ears under house arrest similarl led to a sort of canonisation in her own lifetime' There is also alread evident a similar element of disillusion' ,hen the sainted person finall enters into something like normal political life and starts to make the compromises and mistakes inseparable from it, something is undoubtedl lost' 8 distant parallel would be with the =urdish leader 8bdullah @calan, who has maintained an extraordinar grip on his supporters from his own island prison and is even now negotiating with the Turkish government on something like equal terms' :ut @calan7s cult;like following does not fit the Mandela template' @calan is feared and worshippedA Mandela was respected and loved' The secret of Mandela7s leadership la in the almost unique mixture of wisdom and innocence which his character, and a life that kept him off stage for such a long and critical period, combined to produce' The wisdom la in his capacit to grasp at a ver earl stage the direction of -outh 8frican histor ' He knew liberation was a certaint , was unstoppable, and that onl the date and the manner were in question' He understood, too, at a time when their ph sical power was at its greatest, that the 8frikaners were a frightened and vulnerable tribe sub>ect to the same processes of modernisation as all others in -outh 8frica, and that their laager would sooner or later crumble' Through the lens of his own people7s traged he was able to perceive theirs' 0n his speeches at his various trials he laid out the path of compromise and gradual cession of power that 8frikaners )and other whites+ would eventuall have to follow' "ecades later the did, although so belatedl that the grace period Mandela had imagined would ease the transition was greatl curtailed' Mandela7s understanding of the future was also an unequivocall multi;racial one' 8ll would be liberated, not onl blacks' The innocence was a consequence of his ears in prison' He came back into politics with an understanding of life rooted in an ideolog that had changed and blurred while he was awa ' He was cut off from the black;on;black violence that had stained the movement during the township wars' His own life experience had narrowed down to the task of maintaining morale and hope in a small communit of detainees' 8ll this was in the end to suit him for a task to which he was b personalit alread inclined B that of reconciliation' Mandela spoke to his 8frikaner guards with an understanding of their situation to which man found themselves responding' The fiction of the 8frican as a child who needed to be guided b superior whites fell awa as his fatherl concern manifested itself to such ordinar men' Mandela7s essential decenc contributed to another role closel connected to his view of the future' He represented what could be called a ?lan : for the 8frikaner leadership' ,hile it could never be publicl admitted that apartheid might fail, it was privatel and increasingl recognised, at least b shrewder minds, that it might well become unworkable' 8frikaner life had been conditioned from its beginning b the idea that an thing necessar for the survival of the volk, however distasteful, must in the last resort be embraced' 0t was this which led to the acceptance, if onl after a fight, of :ritish rule' -o it proved with 8N9 rule' Mandela was a guarantee that if the time for compromise came, there would be a strong and moderate partner for peace B strong and moderate not onl in himself, but in his influence over the 8N9 as a whole' 8lthough he had warned of bloodshed, his captors knew that their prisoner7s preference was for the peaceful settlement that in fact took place' 0t is hard to remember now how unlikel this once appeared to man observers' The ,ashington ?ost correspondent (im Hoagland wrote in %13# that 5when 0 arrived in -outh 8frica, it seemed as if Cuthuli, Mandela, and -isulu were perceived diml , as if the belonged

to another time, long past, and long lost5' The apartheid state appeared strong and ruthless, and it had foreign friends, including the Dnited -tates' 4isenhower was initiall reluctant to condemn -harpeville, and although (ohnson was critical, the Dnited -tates was again close to ?retoria under Nixon' 6et that closeness was not to last long, as -outh 8frica overreached in 8ngola, and as 8merican attention moved elsewhere' Then, what -teve :iko called the 5paper castle5 of white power crumbled in a ver short period' The complex and usuall blood business of decolonisation in the world, rolled out over more than half a centur , brought man extraordinar leaders to the fore' The were variousl brave, far;sighted and dedicated, and also vain, corrupt, incompetent or in other wa s betra ers of their earlier promise' The alchem of character and events made of Mandela a peculiarl unspotted figure' <ew could den a certain sweetness in his personalit , and a largeness of mind that had room for all' :lack and brown -outh 8fricans were luck in his leadership, while white -outh 8fricans, particularl 8frikaners, were more than luck ' 8part from the fact that the had the common sense to preserve his life, the did not reall deserve him' 6et he forgave them even that' http:EEwww'theguardian'comEcommentisfreeE#$%&EdecE$!Enelson;mandela;a;leader;above;all; others