Mystagogy
With the
passing of Nelson Mandela, we are reminded once again to what extent
the Fall of Constantinople influenced world history. The text below was
written by General Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, the current President of
Uganda, showing how the story of colonization and apartheid in South
Africa begins in 1453.
It is with sadness that I heard of the news of Mzee Nelson Mandela’s death.
The sad and heroic story of Mzee
Mandela starts in 1453 AD when the Ottoman Turks captured
Constantinople (Istanbul as it is called today) from the Byzantine
empire.
That capture blocked the overland route from Europe to Asia that had been established by Marco Polo many centuries before.
That route was important to Europe especially for spices and silk trade.
With that blockage, the
Europeans started looking for an alternative sea route to the east,
around the massive African continent.
Prince Henry, the navigator, of
Portugal established a naval school at Cadiz to improve on the
construction of ships and on navigation techniques so that they could
have ships that could withstand long ocean voyages to Asia, around
Africa.
This is not the time and place to go into the details of that European effort of circumventing the Moslem blockade.
Suffice it to say that by 1498, a
mere 45 years after the fall of Constantinople, the Portuguese, Vasco
Da Gama, had rounded the Cape of Good Hope (Cape Town) and spent the
Christmas of that year at Natal, that is why that area was so named,
remembering the birth of Christ.
With the discovery of the sea
route to the Far East by the Europeans, that is where the sad but also
heroic story of Nelson Mandela and Africa begins. Initially, the
Europeans came as traders, establishing refuelling and replenishment
stations for their ships on the way to the Far East.
Within a few centuries, however,
the traders had become the colonisers. The sad thing is that while all
this was unfolding, the African chiefs and other leaders never made
serious efforts to co-ordinate in order to guarantee our future as free
people. Yes, various tribes fought the colonialists. However, the
co-ordination was either not there or too late.
On account of internal
weaknesses within Africa, therefore, by the birth of Mzee Mandela in
1918, the whole of African continent, except for Ethiopia, had been
colonized. Therefore, Mandela had the misfortune of being born under
colonialism like many of us were.
Various individuals reacted
differently to this situation. Many acquiesced and accepted colonialism
or even collaborated with it. However, a few others like Mandela,
Albert Luthuli, Walter Sisulu, Oliver Tambo, etc., chose the difficult,
hard route of resistance to colonialism.
That resistance invited
reprisals from the oppressors. The African National Congress (ANC)
people are more qualified to go into the details of that resistance by
the party and the individuals that were involved. On account of our
Pan-Africanist orientation, we linked up with the ANC in 1967 in Dar
esSalaam.
Ever since that time, the NRM,
or its precursors, have been working closely with the liberation
movements of southern Africa – ZANU, ZAPU, FRELIMO, ANC, SWAPO, MPLA,
etc, etc.
The resistance of all the
colonized peoples in the world had benefitted from three factors: the
continued resistance of those colonised peoples, the fratricidal
fighting among the imperialists (the first and second World Wars); and
the solidarity from the socialist countries (Soviet Union, China, etc,
ever since 1917).
Nelson Mandela with Patriarch of Alexandria & all Africa Theodoros (photo from here). See here:
Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa: "Who could imagine at those times that Nelson Mandela would become President of South Africa, would favour reconciliation, putting aside the traumatic experiences of the past..."
Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa: "Who could imagine at those times that Nelson Mandela would become President of South Africa, would favour reconciliation, putting aside the traumatic experiences of the past..."
That resistance had led to some
of the cleverer imperialists giving back the freedom of the people
peacefully, examples being India and many of the African countries,
including Uganda. However, those who were not so clever, such as
Portugal and the Boers of South Africa and Rhodesia, thought they could
maintain their colonial or minority and racist regimes.
It was the lot of freedom
fighters like Mzee Mandela and his colleagues to sacrifice and fight
those regimes. Mzee Mandela spent almost the whole of his adult life
fighting for freedom, starting as a youth in the 1940s.
Eventually, he went to jail
where he spent 27 years. Out of his 95 years on earth, given to him by
God, it is only in the last 22 years, since 1991, that he has lived as a
free man. What a sacrifice!!
Even those 22 last years of his
life, he was not out of danger. Did I not recently hear of South African
racists that were plotting to kill him for fighting for freedom?
Didn’t Chris Hani die, shot
dead, when South Africa was preparing for the first democratic
elections? Chris Hani had been at Rwakitura to visit me where I tried to
prevail on him not to go back to South Africa yet, but in vain.
Mzee Mandela and his colleagues
in the ANC have fulfilled their mission of throwing out the oppressors.
It is the duty of the present generation to immunize Africa against
future colonization.
Salutations to the sacrifices and achievements of Mzee Mandela and his colleagues.
See also
See also
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