by B. R. GOWANI
Nelson Mandela visits his former cell at the Robben Island prison where he spent 19 of his 27 years in jail. PHOTO/Bloomberg
for Nelson Mandela, oceans of tears
that’s US media’s way of saying: cheers
the world would have many times drowned
luckily, the tears were fake, we found
The reigning and three former US presidents are in South Africa to attend the memorial and/or funeral services of Nelson Mandela (1913-2013), an anti-apartheid revolutionary and one of the foremost twentieth century world leaders. President Barack Obama with his wife Michelle, Bill Clinton with his wife Hillary, Jimmy Carter, and George W. Bush. His father, Former President George H. W. Bush, due to his ill health, couldn’t go.
(It is reported that more heads of states will be present to pay respect to Mandela then were present at the funerals of Lady Diana, Princess of Wales; Pope John Paul; Winston Churchill; or John F. Kennedy.)
Why love and tears for Mandela?
The country which regularly targets foreign leaders-either to remove or kill them, unless they say “uncle“, is shedding so many tears and is expressing so much love may seem very surprising. But there is nothing to be surprised.
After his release from prison (see below) and assumption of the South African presidency, Mandela didn’t go for a revenge against the whites, who had put him and others (blacks and whites) in jails for fighting against the white minority government-the government which treated blacks as animals and were only permitted in white areas if they had the passes issued by the government.
Mandela government didn’t go after the white property.
Mandela government didn’t restart the nuclear program to make weapons. The white South African government had six nuclear bombs which it destroyed some years before it relinquished power.
Mandela government had every right to pursue the above things if it wanted to but it didn’t.
If Mandela had gone on a revenge spree?
What would have happened to Mandela is he had decided to do the above things? He would have ended up like Patrice Lumumba, Mohammad Mossadegh, and dozens of others-the victims of US.
The United States hates violence-not its own but that of others.
CIA’s role in Mandela’s arrest
The white minority government’s armed police was looking for Mandela who was on the run. After 17 months, on August 5, 1962 it succeeded. Mandela was to spend almost 28 years behind the bars. Who tipped off the police about Mandela’s whereabouts? It was the United States’ Central Intelligence Agency or CIA-known the world over for its dirty deeds. The person responsible was CIA officer, Donald C. Rickard, under cover as a consular official in Durban, South Africa.
Amy Goodman of Democracy Now has this to say:
“The US devoted more resources to finding Mandela to hand over to the apartheid forces than the apartheid forces themselves. It was the CIA that actually located Mandela, and he was driving dressed up as a chauffeur when he was stopped, and he was arrested and ultimately serves 27 years in prison.”
William Blum drew our attention to the difference in lives of Mandela and the CIA agent responsible for getting Mandela arrested.
Upon his release in February 1990, the then US President George H. W. Bush personally called Mandela to tell him that the people of the United States were “rejoicing at your release“. Once Bush himself had been the CIA Director (1976-1977). During the 1980s, when Ronald Reagan was President and George H. W. Bush was Vice President, the CIA and NSA (National Security Agency) regularly collaborated with South African intelligence agency.
However, years later after his release, Mandela diplomatically refused to blame the CIA when he wrote:
“The story has never been confirmed and I have never seen any reliable evidence as to the truth of it.”
But William Blum (author of several books on US terrorism and who also writes about it in his Anti-Empire Reports on his website) says:
“And almost all my sources were available to Mandela at the time he wrote his autobiography. There has been speculation about what finally led to Mandela’s release from prison; perhaps a deal was made concerning his post-prison behavior.”
B. R. Gowani can be reached at brgowani@hotmail.com