December 6, 2013

Dear Sir,

As everyone of us will know, yesterday, December 5th, 2013, marked the day the world lost Nelson Mandela.

I was a student when I became truly aware - aware of apartheid in South Africa and a similar, insidious practice here in Bermuda.

I had started to grow up and take notice.

In the UK we marched in great numbers and we chanted anti apartheid slogans. We wore ‘Free Mandela’ and ‘Isolate Apartheid’ tee shirts. We boycotted South African goods.

Later, a movement throughout the world (and here in Bermuda) gained momentum. Businesses, banks and international sports associations were urged to boycott and isolate South Africa.

Eventually, the almighty dollar (and the denial of olympic participation) caught the full attention of the South African Government and, in time, Nelson Mandela was freed.

The purpose of this letter is to remember also another great man - another South African hero - Stephen Bantu Biko who met a horrible death on September 12, 1977, at the hands of the South African police.

I quote from the book ‘The Testimony of Steve Biko - Black Consciousness in South Africa’, edited by Millard Arnold:

“....For Biko brilliantly synthesised a Black Consciousness idea, providing a leadership that could combine political pragmatism with an appealing philosophy of mental emancipation as the precondition to political emancipation”.

That quote, I believe, speaks for itself and also speaks volumes regarding any oppressed society’s quest for economic and social freedoms and what people must do in order to achieve those freedoms.

That they can struggle and eventually bring about change in laws and social mores but if their minds are still chained, true personal freedom will be elusive.

And, despite President Nelson Mandela’s belief that in order for true reconciliation to take place forgiveness and understanding must be parts of the process, Gideon J. Nieuwoudt, a former South African security policeman held personally responsible for the torture and death of Steve Biko, was denied amnesty in South Africa, in 1994, by the newly instituted Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

There are some things in this world of ours which cannot be forgiven - not even by Nelson Mandela.

Kathleen Bell