Madiba a to Z by Danny Schechter

Author:Danny Schechter
Language: ara
Format: epub
Tags: Nelson Mandela, Winnie Mandela, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Robben Island, Nadine Gordimer, Long Walk to Freedom, Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, documentary, South African history, South Africa, Madiba, Walter Sisulu, Ruth First, journalism, apartheid, Treason Trials, African National Congress
Publisher: Seven Stories Press
Published: 2013-11-25T16:00:00+00:00

Negotiator

There is a comic book about Nelson Mandela called The Negotiator, an indication that his Centre of Memory wants the public, especially young people, to value the art of negotiation as a weapon of change. A song that is sung in schools also teaches this “N” word:

He set out to change and transform,

the whole country one mind at a time.

Joined the African National Congress,

ANC, what’s that? Y’all gonna have to wait and see.

At first he tried to talk and negotiate,

Deal with the government, start bargaining.

But his talks were met with silence,

So as a last resort he turned to violence.

But he was prosecuted and put on trial,

The judge said, “You’re going to go to jail for a while.”

Nelson Mandela was a fighter for freedom, but also a lawyer who recognized that his movement needed to negotiate with its enemies. There’s an old saying that to achieve progress, you can’t just negotiate with your friends. Sometimes, you need to break the ice first before enemies will sit down with their adversaries, especially those who have been trying to kill each other. You have to overcome distrust, cultivate trust, and find a way to agree on an agenda.

And ultimately, you need to have the support of your comrades, and in a larger sense, of your constituency, the people, as Mandela emphatically believed, though he pointedly started talking first with the government without his movement’s okay. But to finish those negotiations, as he said repeatedly, the ANC had to negotiate collectively, as a team.

And that’s exactly what they went on and did, with many lawyers including Joe Slovo playing a major role. When he had practiced law, Mandela was known as a fierce cross-examiner and questioner. Anthony Sampson quoted a Botswanan freedom fighter, Michael Dingake, about what it was like to argue with Madiba in the university-like classes they offered on Robben Island: “In arguments with someone with insubstantial facts, Nelson could be vicious, adopting a modified Socratic method. Very few people like to be cross-examined and exposed in their vagueness and ignorance. Going against Nelson was the worst. He took no prisoners.” (In a prison!)

Cyril Ramaphosa, the labor leader turned businessman, was the chief negotiator of the ANC’s first negotiating team. He described the process that ultimately led to agreements: “Coming from two completely different backgrounds, two completely different histories, and representing organizations that have completely different strategic objectives, we found that . . . we could share the common vision . . . to resolve the apartheid problem and to introduce democracy in our country. . . . There were times during the negotiations when . . . we didn’t see eye to eye on a number of issues. And we always said there is no problem without a solution. After that we found trust developing on an ongoing basis.”

Roelf Meyer, former minister of constitutional affairs and chief government negotiator—and Ramaphosa’s main adversary—credited the personal relationships that developed between the two sides as critical. “The aspect of personal relationship was one of the most important parts of the process.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.