I couldn't not respond to this article. I have posted this reply to Mr Adebajo on the M&G website.
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I would normally approach such a letter with tactful insights followed by measured criticism but my dismay at your dangerous letter combined with my passion on the subject of reconciliation in South Africa forces me to begin with some terse remarks. You have clearly not understood the legacy of Nelson Mandela, the giant footprint he has left on our society and the reason for our rejoicing in it. You have also completely missed the foundational reasons for the unprecedented and miraculous reconciliation that has occurred, a shocking oversight by the charming executive director of the Centre for Conflict Resolution.
You would have us choose the revolution of Mugabe over that of Mandela. The act of destroying Rhodes’ statues is to you a symbol of reckoning with the past by a display of power in the destruction of the past’s symbols. To you, this results in a righteous judgement on the past by the victors of the present but where does this leave a nation? Does it help a nation to unify and move forward?
The results from history, had you cared to interpret them, are pretty much one-sided in their conclusions. In almost every situation where conflict resolution has failed the reason has had its roots in the leaders’ inability to forgive the injustices their people suffered in the past. It is in our nature to demand revenge and extract retribution from the past offenders but this inevitably only to further conflict, a sad result that we see perpetuated the world over for centuries. Except in South Africa . Even the peaceful revolution of Martin Luther King cannot compare because in Mandela’s revolution, a whole nation became united and forgave its demons of the past.
Black people had every right to take revenge and had Nelson Mandela come into power shouting slogans of hatred toward the past, we would have seen the bloodbath that the history books predicted. But forgiveness is not a process of wiping out the past, nor is nation-building achieved by selective amnesia. It is a process of making the past a part of one’s personal history.
There are other equally brutal symbols of an oppressive past in South Africa . Robben Island has been a place of incarceration since the foundation of the cape colony but today it is a beacon of light to the world, a testament to the power of forgiveness and the potency of the inspirational vision of Mandela.
It was while doing hard labour at Robben Island that Mandela and Walter Sisulu decided the future policies of the ANC. They committed themselves to delivering a message of hope for the future, of a united nation that would triumph over its past without taking revenge. Without the symbol of Robben Island and what it represents, how will future generations of South Africans understand the gravity of the transformation that Mandela achieved? It would be a crime to forget.
Mandela has understood that the past has produced the present but our actions today dictate the future. The scars of the past remind us of the mistakes we have made and serve as a warning never to return. The revolution that attempts to destroy the past will repeat the past’s injustices and we need only look as far as Mugabe to see that proved. He still blames the colonial and western powers for the country's disastrous collapse while he continues to oppress and brutalise his own people. The transformation that recognises the role of the past, understands it and deals with it, is the kind that can realistically create a positive future. The Mandela-Rhodes scholarship, in a small way, does just that.
I write as a current Rhodes Scholar who has had to do his own reckoning with the evils of the founder’s past. I have made no attempt here to represent Cecil John Rhodes’ actions as justified in the times of colonialism because he was a leader therefore bears the responsibility of his hegemonic actions.
Mandela is the nemesis of Rhodes and I am grateful that he has lent his legacy to the transformation of the scholarship. He has understood that more will be lost by vaporising the legacy of Rhodes than if he constructively draws it into his vision for the future.
Dom Pitot