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RIP Nelson Mandela


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R.I.P. Nelson Mandela, subject of Weinstein Co’s Idris Elba-starrer 'Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom' which opened Nov 29 and has awards buzz.

 

 

 

 

So THAT'S where we know  him from! Luthor played him in a movie!

 

You mean Stringer Bell dude.

 

In all seriousness, I'm usually pretty indifferent to "celebrities" deaths but Madiba's real hit me. Even when he got sick a couple of months I got teary-eyed because I realized "yeah he's really really old, he'll probably die soon.

 

He was one of the best of us.

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There's a difference between celebrities and Nelson Mandela. He's one of the handful of most important figures of the 20th Century. There were a lot of awful things that happened during that century. In the final decade, a lot of those narratives were ended. Apartheid was one of them.

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Shit, I remember exactly where I was when he was released from prison, and that was in elementary school for fuck's sake. What a terrible loss, but my God, 95 years old. What a life that man lived.

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You know, I don't know what it says about me that I thought about it, but I'm kind of surprised (pleasantly, mind) that I've yet to see a single "RIP MORGAN FREEMAN" status or tweet.

It took 10 minutes for me to see one :/

 

I learned of a Twitter that did nothing but RT tweets of people doing RIPs for Mandela while posting pics of Morgan Freeman

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Today I learned that back in '87 there was a UN meeting (http://tinyurl.com/knjbkov)

 

"... the Pretoria regime to release unconditionally and immediately all political prisoners and detainees, including Nelson Mandela and all other black leaders with whom it must deal in any meaningful discussion of the future of the country;"

 

There were only 3 votes against this motion. EUA, UK and Portugal.

 

The same guy that was the Prime Minister of Portugal is the current President. Nice.

 
 
 
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Today I learned that back in '87 there was a UN meeting (

 

"... the Pretoria regime to release unconditionally and immediately all political prisoners and detainees, including Nelson Mandela and all other black leaders with whom it must deal in any meaningful discussion of the future of the country;"

 

There were only 3 votes against this motion. EUA, UK and Portugal.

 

The same guy that was the Prime Minister of Portugal is the current President. Nice.

 
 
 

 

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I've learned a lot about Mandela in my life, but feel there's a lot more to know about him for me.   It's amazing to think what one man has done in his life.  Going from jail to president, the rugby story, ending Apartheid.  It's impossible not to be inspired by what he's done.  It's just too damn sad there's not too many people like him, who knows how we'd end up if that were the case.

 

And there's something eerie about his daughters finding out while watching the movie about him.  Of all the times to find out.  Sad too.

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There is a long history of right-wing and especially conservative Christian organizations in this country who were deeply opposed to Mandela as well.

And apparently Obamacare and apartheid are the same thing, according to some.  Not sure if this is can of worms that needs to be opened though.

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It's Rick Santorum, unless you're Phillip Rivers or completely insane, just ignore him at this point. It's what everyone else does. One of the loudmouthed morons tried to claim he'd be a Conservative if he was in the US, basically. Of course, folks have tried to say the same thing about MLK and Kennedy of all people, so who the hell knows what's going on there. Soon, Gandhi would have wanted to bomb Iran. Best to avoid it overall and just let the man's life and deeds speak for themselves.

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El Jones reads a poem about Nelson Mandela during Solidarity Halifax's A people's History of Nova Scotia Conference on October 5, 2013, in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Don't let them take Mandela
No no don't let them steal Mandela
Make no mistake they're going to fake erase and lie about Mandela
They can't wait for him to die so they can plasticize Mandela
Appropriate Mandela
Don't you know they hate Mandela?
We can't have the free Mandela
And they'll never let us know that we all can be Mandela
They won't let us feel Mandela
We can't have the real Mandela
Just like Che Guevara shirts they're going to buy and sell Mandela
Now that he cannot speak himself they're going to corporatize Mandela
And we shouldn't be surprised when we don't recognize Mandela
And they will whiten up Mandela and they'll hide the truth about Mandela
Because the last thing they want to do is end apartheid like Mandela
So they'll divide and rule and govern through a colonized Mandela
And this capitalistic system will consume the true Mandela
And we won't like the new Mandela cause he's not for me and you
And they will take him from the ghetto and the township and favela
Oh yeah they're gonna use Mandela
So we have to tell about Mandela
Don't forget the freedom charter when we yell about Mandela
But they cast a big umbrella
Full of brainwashing and error
It's got skeletons inside they already tried to get Fidel
And they will stick to their vendetta
Cause their clique goes on forever
They'll shove Obama down our throats
While they hide speeches songs and letters
You can bet that they will twist him to whatever serves them better
They're going to write their own novella
Because they can't control Mandela
So we have to hold Mandela
Know the goals that drove Mandela
Spear of the Nation old Mandela
And truth and reconciliation sold Mandela so we have to get to know Mandela
Not the diamond mines Mandela
Or the compromised Mandela
Not the World Cup or Invictus or the canonized Mandela
The ride or die Mandela
Viva la revolution socialized Mandela
Cuito Carnavale and militarized Mandela
Castro and Mandela raising fists to the oppressor
Oh but they'll give us safe Mandela
Nobel peace prize great Mandela
And let's forget about the state and institutions that brutalized Mandela
And are still in place world wide together
They'll say oh he forgave, remember?
So there's no need for the poor to ever rise up like Mandela.
We'll get quarter of Mandela
A watered down Mandela
A kindergarten cartoon for your sons and daughters
Just a shell of our Mandela
Just like with Gandhi and with King they'll sound the death knell for Mandela
And before his body's cold they'll cast their spell upon Mandela
We'll get have a dream Mandela and love your enemies Mandela
And power to the people will be buried with Mandela
So we can't let them steal Mandela
Because they can't feel Mandela
It's the spirit of the revolution can't conceal Mandela
It's a 500 year connection sharing ideals with Mandela
From the slave ships to Haiti, Cuba and Soweto
Thats what reveals Mandela
And that's why they can't keep Mandela
But we can't sleep on Mandela
Because the truth is there never was just one complete Mandela
It's the people made Mandela
The movement create Mandela
The youth in streets while he was still behind prison gates propelled it
And it went on whatever measures they attempted to suppress it
And so the people can remember
Solidarity forever
Because as long as our hearts beat then they can never take Mandela.

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http://www.okwonga.com/?p=869

 


Dear revisionists, Mandela will never, ever be your minstrel. Over the next few days you will try so, so hard to make him something he was not, and you will fail. You will try to smooth him, to sandblast him, to take away his Malcolm X. You will try to hide his anger from view. Right now, you are anxiously pacing the corridors of your condos and country estates, looking for the right words, the right tributes, the right-wing tributes. You will say that Mandela was not about race. You will say that Mandela was not about politics. You will say that Mandela was about nothing but one love, you will try to reduce him to a lilting reggae tune. “Let’s get together, and feel alright.” Yes, you will do that.

 
You will make out that apartheid was just some sort of evil mystical space disease that suddenly fell from the heavens and settled on all of us, had us all, black or white, in its thrall, until Mandela appeared from the ether to redeem us. You will try to make Mandela a Magic Negro and you will fail. You will say that Mandela stood above all for forgiveness whilst scuttling swiftly over the details of the perversity that he had the grace to forgive.
 
You will try to make out that apartheid was some horrid spontaneous historical aberration, and not the logical culmination of centuries of imperial arrogance. Yes, you will try that too. You will imply or audaciously state that its evils ended the day Mandela stepped out of jail. You will fold your hands and say the blacks have no-one to blame now but themselves.
 
Well, try hard as you like, and you’ll fail. Because Mandela was about politics and he was about race and he was about freedom and he was even about force, and he did what he felt he had to do and given the current economic inequality in South Africa he might even have died thinking he didn’t do nearly enough of it. And perhaps the greatest tragedy of Mandela’s life isn’t that he spent almost thirty years jailed by well-heeled racists who tried to shatter millions of spirits through breaking his soul, but that there weren’t or aren’t nearly enough people like him.
 
Because that’s South Africa now, a country long ago plunged headfirst so deep into the sewage of racial hatred that, for all Mandela’s efforts, it is still retching by the side of the swamp. Just imagine if Cape Town were London.  Imagine seeing two million white people living in shacks and mud huts along the M25 as you make your way into the city, where most of the biggest houses and biggest jobs are occupied by a small, affluent to wealthy group of black people.  There are no words for the resentment that would still simmer there.
 
Nelson Mandela was not a god, floating elegantly above us and saving us. He was utterly, thoroughly human, and he did all he did in spite of people like you. There is no need to name you because you know who you are, we know who you are, and you know we know that too. You didn’t break him in life, and you won’t shape him in death. You will try, wherever you are, and you will fail.
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