The Nelson Mandela I Didn't Know

“A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in” – Greek Proverb.

Larger than life.

by Kudakwashe Kanhutu 

I am Zimbabwean, so inevitably, my knowledge of Nelson Mandela comes to me filtered by comparing him to Robert Mugabe, and that comparison, inevitably again, was coloured by what Robert Mugabe made us believe Nelson Mandela was: someone who had sold out the South African struggle for his personal freedom and veneration in the West. At least, that’s what I believed up until November 14, when those in the know in Zimbabwe, finally decided to put an end to Mugabe’s excesses. I am not here to talk about their motivations, what interests me about that episode is that it midwifed - if you like – my Road to Damascus moment. I finally saw the light and so managed to compare Robert Mugabe and Nelson Mandela on what really mattered: Leadership. 

Forget that I had done a full Leadership Module at undergraduate level that specifically examined Mandela, Gandhi, and Pope John Paul’s leadership styles. Mugabe’s words had still managed to colour my view and I always thought Mandela had failed as a leader. After my Damascene moment however, Barack Obama’s words at the African Union in 2015 now explicate affairs for me. Obama said to the gathered African leaders; “if you are the only person who can lead your country, then you have failed as a leader.” 

Indeed, that it took the military and street protests to force Robert Mugabe to pave way for a successor, with the dangers of an all-consuming civil war had any mistake crept into the military’s planning, is proof enough of failed leadership. These events in Zimbabwe in November made me re-think Mandela. Nelson Mandela suffered more than Robert Mugabe while fighting for freedom: but he did not use this an excuse to hold on to power for power’s sake. More popular than Robert Mugabe though he was, Mandela did not try to install himself as life President. This lack of a sense of entitlement, this selflessness, is what I am now drawn to. I now identify Mandela with his selflessness than with any of the aspersions Robert Mugabe cast on him all along. There are lessons from Mandela to anyone who is ever entrusted with leading their nation. If enough old men start planting trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in, our African polities will have turned the corner. Mandela showed this by example.

Luyanda and I at a Nelson Mandela Event in London.