CAMBRIDGE LETTER
Times of change
BILL KIRKMAN
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No one could have predicted in the 1960s that the apartheid regime would end by consent or that Mandela would be unveiling his own statue in London.
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Photo: AP
A powerful symbol: Mandela stands tall.
In 1961 I was present as a reporter at the press conference in London’s Dorchester Hotel at which the South African Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd announced that his country was leaving the Commonwealth. The announcement came as no surprise. C
ommonwealth leaders meeting in London had made it clear that under its oppressive apartheid regime South Africa’s continuing membership would not be acceptable. Verwoerd’s announcement was to pre-empt expulsion.
Along expected lines
The announcement surprised no one, but it underlined what was increasingly recognised as a bleak and apparently hopeless situation in South Africa. Verwoerd, who had become Prime Minister in 1958, was in office during the Sharpeville massacre (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharpeville_massacre), the banning of the African National Congress (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_National_Congress) and Pan Africanist Congress (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan_Africanist_Congress), and the treason trial at which Nelson Mandela was sentenced to imprisonment on Robben Island. In 1966 Verwoerd was assassinated, but the racist and repressive system to which he had been committed continued for many more years.
I doubt if anyone who reported, or reflected on, the 1961 announcement saw grounds for hope in South Africa for the foreseeable future. No one would have dared to predict that the apartheid regime would end by consent, or that Nelson Mandela would emerge after 27 years in prison to lead his country, as its first post-apartheid President, preaching reconciliation and inclusion, and without the bitterness that would have been completely understandable. (In 1994, I was privileged to be present at the service in Westminster Abbey at which South Africa was welcomed back into the Commonwealth, a very satisfying reminder that even the most depressing and apparently immutable scenarios can change dramatically.)
Deserving honour
Certainly no one would have dared to predict that 46 years after the 1961 press conference Nelson Mandela, now 89, would be in Parliament Square in London to attend the unveiling of his statue, a tribute to a man described by Gordon Brown, the British Prime Minister, as “the most inspiring, greatest and most courageous leader of our generation”. The statue faces the Houses of Parliament, and stands alongside statues commemorating other great leaders such as Winston Churchill, Benjamin Disraeli and Abraham Lincoln.
Uniquely, the Mandela statue has been erected while its subject is alive. The fact that this has not been a cause of controversy is another reflection of the greatness of the man. It is a reflection also of a huge change of attitude to human rights. Few people today would attempt (publicly at least) to justify the racist philosophy on which apartheid was based, a philosophy which was essentially grounded in the belief that a whole group of human beings were less human than others. (It was, incidentally, horrifyingly similar to the Nazi philosophy of the “master race”.)
No room for complacency
We should not of course be complacent. There are still, throughout the world, many examples of discrimination which are at least tacitly accepted, and which result in whole groups being treated as second-class citizens. There are also still depressing instances of whole groups being demonised, notably on religious grounds.
This kind of demonisation is obviously fed and encouraged by ignorance, and for that reason a remarkable exhibition currently being staged by the British Library is greatly welcome.
The exhibition is entitled “Sacred: Discover what we share”. It brings together the world’s greatest collection of the holy books of the three Abrahamic faiths: Christianity, Islam and Judaism. They are shown side by side, and attention is drawn to the similarities, as well as the differences, between these three faiths. The exhibition also features aspects of belief and practice of the three faiths’ worship, holy places, life ceremonies and festivals.
When my wife and I and a friend visited it, we were impressed not just by the exhibition itself, but by the fact that we were part of a steady flow of people, manifestly different in age, language and appearance, who had been attracted to see it.
“Sacred” continues until September 23. It has been widely (and justly) praised. It is intended to be the first of a series of exhibitions, which will address the great diversity of religious traditions in the United Kingdom, and look at many aspects of inter-faith dialogue.
Value of understanding
Exhibitions, however good, will obviously not solve the problems created and fed by ignorance and religious bigotry. In the same way, the Mandela statue in Parliament Square cannot provide a complete solution to the problems of racism. They are both, nevertheless, important reminders of the value of knowledge and understanding in a world where these qualities are, sadly, still too frequently absent.
