What is Madiba’s legacy?
Nelson Mandela left an indelible mark on South Africa and the World but what was his legacy?
IN 1991 Wits University bestowed an Honorary Doctorate on Nelson Mandela for his commitment to justice. Millions of people have paid tribute to Tata Madiba and have mourned his passing but what was his political legacy?
Daryl Glaser is an associate professor of politics at Wits University. In recent years he has done most of his research and writing in the areas of democratic theory, analytic political philosophy and the history of radical political thought, with both South African and non-South African case studies.
Northglen News asked him what Madiba’s importance is to South African culture and why he has served as a symbol for democracy and libertarian values.
“Mandela’s lasting importance to South Africa is that he did more than anyone else to make possible a relatively peaceful transition from apartheid to democracy. He has also become a symbol of self-sacrificial heroism in pursuit of racial justice and reconciliation. His two great gifts to democracy and political liberty were helping to embed constitutional democracy and quitting after a single term, thus breaking the more typical pattern in post-independence Africa of leaders clinging to power.
“His passing might provide an occasion for collective self reflection. There will be a struggle over his political legacy. But his death will not have a major policy impact in itself, since Mandela has been out of power since 1999 at least and many politicians have since distanced themselves to one degree or another from the compromises he embraced in the name of stability and nation building,” he said.
Wits University Professor Achille Mbembe, born in Cameroon, obtained his Ph.D in History at the Sorbonne in Paris in 1989 and a Diplome D’Etudes approfondies (DEA) in Political Science at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques (Paris). He was Assistant Professor of History at Columbia University, New York and a Senior Research Fellow at the Brookings Institute in Washington.
Mbembe concurred with Glaser and said Nelson Mandela is the last hero of the twentieth-century.
“He is the last name for the century-long struggles for human emancipation. He prolonged, in his own way, what had begun in the nineteenth-century with African resistance against colonial subjugation. But the meaning of Mandela far extends beyond Africa. Through his life and work, Mandela reached out to similar efforts elsewhere in the world.
“His legacy is a very simple, but formidable idea. It can be formulated in one sentence, a world free from the burden of race. He has left many of us with an immense sadness. We have not been accustomed to a life without him. Even when he was in captivity, we kept dreaming about his return. He always stood as the indestructible rock during the long struggle to be free,” he said.
Related Articles
Mandela praised for contribution to fight against AIDS
Madiba to be laid to rest in Qunu
