Tributes to Nelson Mandela

Geraint Davies Excerpts

Monday 9th December 2013 Commons Chamber

[Geraint Davies (Swansea West) (Lab/Co-op)]

The people of Swansea Bay city region and Neath have been supporting this cause for more than 50 years. In 100 years’ time, the story of Nelson Mandela will be known and repeated by schoolchildren around the world when many other people are forgotten. It is a story of religious proportions. It is the story of a man who resisted the injustice of people not having rights or votes on the basis of their skin colour, who was imprisoned simply for his principles rather than for a crime, and who emerged from incarceration 27 years later not embittered but enlightened, offering the hand of friendship and partnership to his captors and oppressors—an act of forgiveness that avoided a future bathed in blood. We have already heard this quotation today, but I think that in 100 years people will still be reading and saying:

“No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin, his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.”

Mandela was born on 18 July 1918, which happened to be six days before the birth of my father, whose own father died when he was 12, as did Mandela’s. Other global events were taking place at the time. John F. Kennedy was born in the preceding year, and in 1960, when he stood for the presidency, he did so largely on a platform of racial integration. That was the year in which I was born, and it was the tragic year in which 67 people were massacred in Sharpeville. They were innocent black protesters, and many were shot in the back. That was the point at which Mandela moved away from protest that involved no direct action and towards violent protest and sabotage, and the point at which the ANC was criminalised. Mandela took that action to focus the world’s attention on South Africa and the need for democracy and human rights, and some 200 acts took place during that period.

Meanwhile, in the State of the Union address, JFK was calling for the right of black people in America to vote, and the mood of the world was beginning to change. In 1962, when Nelson Mandela was arrested, the great majority of people thought that he would be executed. Nine out of 10 white people thought that he was just a terrorist, and very few knew that he was an attorney. It took the judge some three weeks to reach his conclusion, partly—as was pointed out by my right hon. Friend the Member for Neath—because of the demands for clemency, and partly because of the calculation that his execution would trigger an awful bloodbath.

As we heard from my hon. Friend the Member for Walsall North (Mr Winnick), it took 25 years—until Mandela’s 70th birthday—for us to witness a crescendo in the calls for his release. At the age of 18, I was singing along to “Free Nelson Mandela” at that famous concert and supporting the cause. It was not until 1990 that Mandela was released, and famously said in response to the impending civil war between the ANC and other black groups:

“Take your guns, your knives…and throw them into the sea.”

It must be remembered that his principles were applied to black and white alike, some of whom would have wanted to see a violent end to what was a very long-lasting conflict.

As we all know, in 1994 Mandela was elected President. I find it very interesting that a person’s opinions can change and mature over 27 years, and that such a change can actually change the future of the world.

This was a man who kept going day after day, year after year, in incarceration, driven by ideals, not thinking of himself and with no fear for himself. This was a man who said:

“Do not judge me by my successes, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again.”

He was a true global hero of his time. This is my favourite quotation:

“Like slavery and apartheid, poverty is…man-made and can be…eradicated by the actions of human beings.”

He also said:

“For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.”

The spirit of Mandela lives on. Let us live our lives true to that spirit.