The death of Nelson Mandela

[brtmchl]

I cannot get behind the media as of late comparing Nelson Mandela to Abraham Lincoln.

Just recently President Obama said, " Now he belongs to the ages." And just today referred to Mandela as " The Great Liberator."
I must confess my ignorance about my knowledge of Nelson Mandela. I do believe he was a great humanitarian. His fight against dismantling the legacy of apartheid is something to be praised.
This being said, I am confused about his politics.

When Mandela said, " We Communist Party members are the most advanced revolutionaries in modern history...the enemy must be wiped out from the face of the earth before a Communist world can be realized." Nelson Mandela, during his 1962 trial for terrorism. Quoted again in The Wanderer, July 1, 1990. page 6
This sounds much more radical than I could ever imagine President Lincoln proclaiming. Maybe more appropriate comparisons could be made for other famous abolishionists.

I am confused because Mandela has made other quotes, such as “If by Communist you mean a member of the Communist Party and a person who believes in the theory of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin, and who adheres strictly to the discipline of the party, I did not become a Communist.” Yet also called Castro’s Communist revolution "a source of inspiration to all freedom loving people,”

"Mandela’s brief membership in the South African Communist Party, and his long-term alliance with more devout Communists, say less about his ideology than about his pragmatism. He was at various times a black nationalist and a nonracialist, an opponent of armed struggle and an advocate of violence, a hothead and the calmest man in the room, a consumer of Marxist tracts and an admirer of Western democracy, a close partner of Communists and, in his presidency, a close partner of South Africa’s powerful capitalists." - Nelson Mandela, Communist, by Bill Keller Published: December 7, 2013
This article goes on to imply that Mandela only used the Communist Party to fund his movement.

And yet other examples that Mandela was a radical can be found. The idea that Mandela was wrongfully imprisoned was something I had heard in movies and in media. However, Amnesty International refused to take on Nelson Mandela’s case because they asserted that he was no political prisoner but had committed numerous violent crimes and had received a fair trial and a reasonable sentence. Acknowleging claims that Nelson Mandela was the head of UmKhonto we Sizwe, (MK), the terrorist wing of the ANC and South African Communist Party. He had pleaded guilty to 156 acts of public violence including mobilizing terrorist bombing campaigns, which planted bombs in public places, including the Johannesburg railway station. Many innocent people, including women and children, were killed by Nelson Mandela’s MK terrorists.
South African President P.W. Botha had, on a number of occasions, offered Nelson Mandela freedom from prison, if he would only renounce terrorist violence. This Mandela refused to do. - Invictus Idolatry.

Upon his release from prison an assasination of a black man named Chris Hani ignited widespread anger, triggering huge demonstrations calling for violence and retribution. Blacks wanted revenge, and the atmosphere was ripe for looting, violence and mayhem. Mandela spoke to the crowd, appealing for peace and calmer heads. Here is part of what he said to the people.

"Tonight, I am reaching out to every single South African, black and white, from the very depths of my being. A white man, full of prejudice and hate, came to our country and committed a deed so foul that our whole nation now teeters on the brink of disaster. A white woman, of Afrikaner origin, risked her life so that we may know and bring to justice, this assassin. The cold-blooded murder of Chris Hani has sent shock waves throughout the country and the world….. Now is the time for all South Africans to stand together against those who, from any quarter, wish to destroy what Chris Hani gave his life for - the freedom of all of us."

Upon becoming President, Mandela decided early that he would never seek a second term. This gesture was remarkable in a continent where leaders tend to seek maximum power. In his speech he said, “We have, at last, achieved our political emancipation. We pledge ourselves to liberate all our people from the continuing bondage of poverty, deprivation, suffering, gender and other discriminations. Never, never and never again shall this beautiful land experience the oppression of one by another….

To me there seemed to be two Nelson Mandela's. A young emotional and sometimes reckless radical revolutionary who fought passionately for causes he believed in, while also alligning himself with anyone who fought along side him. And the Nelson Mandela that we know now, his sacrifices in pursuit of freedom for the oppressed , a man devoted to the encouragement of racial harmony, forgiveness, power sharing ( through Democratic Socialism), and a strong focus on the future, not the past.

He may have become a Great man. But, in my own opinion, NOT Lincoln.