Mandela Was My President, Too
REMEMBERING MANDELA
By Njuguna Kabugi WI Contributing Writer On my seventh birthday, my eight-year-old cousin and play buddy Hanna announced that she was changing her name to Winnie. “Winnie Mandela?” I asked. “Yes, you will now call me Winnie,” she replied. The name change idea became less appealing after an aunt weighed in cautioning that she was too young for such a serious name. But that youngsters in Kenya would be familiar with the Mandelas, who lived more than 2,000 miles and at least three counties away, did not strike anyone as odd that day in my old neighborhood deep in the Kenyan highlands. Nelson, Winnie and millions of South Africans could very easily have been us. We had celebrated independence the year before Nelson Mandela was banished to Robben Island. Every day, accounts of the brave men and women who had gone to the forest to wage the Mau Mau liberation struggle against the British rule and the system of racial oppression that came with it reminded us of the plight of the South Africans. Many of my relatives and friends’ parents had been tortured and jailed during Mau Mau, just like those South Africans who dared join the African National Congress. Even our new president, Jomo Kenyatta, had to endure his own Robben Island. Like Mandela, Kenyatta had been convicted and jailed by a Kangaroo court based on flimsy evidence on grounds that demanding freedom for his people was the greatest sin a leader could commit. When Mandela walked away from jail 27 years later, I was already an adult. I had come of age in the shadows of independence fervor and had seen the hopes of many Africans dashed. Sure we were independent and ran our own affairs, but many of our nations were troubled. While many liberation leaders of Mandela’s generation had led independence movements, many suffered from a leadership deficit – waging the struggle and governing required completely different skills sets. They had squandered precious time bickering among themselves, mismanaging economies and wasting
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–Nelson Mandela precious resources. Mandela, on the other hand, became that rare triumphant liberation leader who transitioned into a successful political leader. His perseverance and willingness to forgive proved he had become the model for many African countries. He demonstrated how a leader, faced with a racially, ideologically and culturally divided country, could bring about a common mindset and a common set of working principles, rules and policies to make a nation governable. And leaving the highest seat of power when the applause is the loudest; wow! wi
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Njuguna Kabugi. /Photo courtesy of Njuguna Kabugi
The Washington Informer
December 12, 2013 - December 18, 2013
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