Tag Archives: mandela

Is Steve Biko to Mandela what Malcolm X was to Martin Luther King?

22 Sunday Dec 2013

Posted by in Politics, Social History

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Whilst the furore surrounding Mandela and what he achieved, what about the legacy left by Steve Biko. Another leading anti-apartheid activist who was killed by the police, but I haven’t heard his name mentioned for a long time, perhaps because he didn’t fit in with the direction South Africa was moving in.

Mandela and Biko ideology are ideal to compare, highlighting how different types of discourse can different outcomes (see Hayden White’s theory on meta-history)

However, many present-day social movements, activists, and academics continue to stress the relevance of Biko’s black consciousness. This includes a strong critique of voting by academic Andile Mngxitama who has said that if Biko were alive today, he would not be supporting any political party, would not even vote, but would be marching with the social movements against government.

Metahistory – Using a different style of discourse could Mandela have done even more.

10 Tuesday Dec 2013

Posted by in Politics, Social History

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This is not a criticism of Nelson Mandela, but an attempt to highlight what I want to achieve with this blog, by using Mandela as an example.

One could argue that Mandela was very calculated and precise to get across his vision of integration, peace and harmony; whilst respected world wide South Africa is still a mess, albeit not as much as a mess as it was before his release.

But what if, when Mandela came out of prison he came out advocating a different means to unite South Africa, what if he didn’t turn the cheek, but burnt down all that supported and benefited from apartheid. What if he didn’t play nice, where would South Africa be now. Some would argue that he would just be another dictator, but I believe Mandela (like Lenin) was stronger than that. Power doesn’t have to corrupt, but it takes a rare individual to be able to deal with it.

I believe Mandela was a man who could have done this, but chose a path that brought peace and the limitations that may have come along with that. Mandela was more of a Martin Luther King in comparison to a Malcolm X. It could be suggested that the fact that Mandela wasn’t assassinated was due that the reality that he never really threatened the white anglo saxon hegemony of the established capitalist system in the western world.