The HyperTexts

Nelson Mandela Poems, Quotes and Epigrams
South African Apartheid Freedom Poetry
A Tribute to Nelson Mandela by Muhammad Ali
Nelson Mandela and the Elders on Palestine and Peace in the Middle East

 

Nelson Mandela stands steadfastly for justice and opposes hatred, racism, ethnic cleansing and genocide.
If you are a student, teacher, educator, peace activist or just someone who cares and wants to help, please
click this link How Can We End Ethnic Cleansing and Genocide Forever? and do what you can to
make the world a safer, happier place for children of all races and creeds.



Mandela!
by Michael R. Burch

Nelson Mandela,
warrior of peace,
stare down the tyrant,
speak for the least.

Mandela!

Give greed no foothold
to clamber upon
the bent backs of children
and make them its pawn.

Mandela!

Let the virtue of justice
redeem crimson lands
till the dove glides to rest
in albescent sands.

Mandela!



Into the Heartland
by Michael R. Burch

Nelson Mandela,
friend of mankind,
speak for the voiceless,
bear forth the blind
into the heartland
where compassion reigns
and courts dispense peace
till each freed man regains
his sense of self worth
and dignity.
Let us emulate you,
till all men are born free,
Mandela!



The following are sayings of Nelson Mandela that I have re-cast as poems. I have followed his own words with a tribute to him written by the great American boxer, Muhammad Ali, who unabashedly calls Mandela his hero.  I am also including an important letter Mandela wrote about the prospects for peace in Palestine, shortly before the 9-11 attacks, along with a link to an article which discusses the opinions of Nelson Mandela and other Elders of the human race about what it will take to achieve Peace in the Middle East. People who don't believe guns and bombs will bring peace should carefully consider what men like Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, Jimmy Carter, Albert Einstein, Mohandas Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. have to say about achieving peace through justice. Now, here are the words of a great man of peace and justice, Nelson Mandela:



Our greatest fear is not that we are inadequate,
but that we are powerful beyond measure.

It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us.
We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant,
gorgeous, handsome, talented and fabulous?

Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.

Your playing small does not serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking
so that other people won't feel insecure around you.
 
We were born to make manifest the glory of God within us.
It is not just in some; it is in everyone.

And, as we let our own light shine, we consciously give
other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our fear,
our presence automatically liberates others.



I have walked that long road to freedom.
I have tried not to falter;
I have made missteps along the way.
But I have discovered the secret
that, after climbing a great hill,
one only finds that there are many more hills to climb.
I have taken a moment here to rest,
to steal a view of the glorious vista that surrounds me,
to look back on the distance I have come.
But I can only rest for a moment,
for with freedom comes responsibilities,
and I dare not linger,
for my long walk is not ended.



If you talk to a man
in a language he understands,
that goes to his head.
If you talk to him
in his own language,
that goes to his heart.



Let freedom reign.
The sun never set
on so glorious a human achievement.



Let there be work,
bread, water and salt
for all.



There is no easy walk to freedom anywhere,
and many of us will have to pass
through the valley of the shadow of death
again and again
before we reach the mountaintop of our desires.



I am not a saint,
unless you think of a saint
as a sinner who keeps on trying.



There is nothing like returning
to a place that remains unchanged
to find the ways
in which you yourself have altered.



Money won't create success,
the freedom to make it will.



Only free men can negotiate;
prisoners cannot enter into contracts.
Your freedom and mine
cannot be separated.



The greatest glory in living
lies not in never falling,
but in rising every time we fall.



There can be no keener revelation
of a society's soul
than the way in which it treats its children.



We must use time wisely
and forever realize
that the time is always ripe
to do right.



A good head and a good heart
are always a formidable combination.



If there are dreams
about a beautiful South Africa,
there are also roads
that lead to their goal.
Two of these roads
could be named Goodness
and Forgiveness.



When the water starts boiling
it is foolish to turn off the heat.



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.



NELSON MANDELA
by Muhammad Ali

Nelson Mandela is my hero. His story has come to symbolize the struggle against the apartheid machine in South Africa. Apartheid, the terrible, and often violent, institutionalized racism that for so long held South African society in its grip, was not an easy policy to fight against—especially since he was oppressed within the system. Mandela understands what it means to fight against enormous odds; he went to prison for nearly three decades for his work, because he knew there was no alternative. He believes that every human being is of equal value.

Mandela is my hero because he survived many years of life as a subject of colonialism. As a child in Africa, Mandela was a victim of the European colonial project in that involved "civilizing" indigenous folks by silencing African lifeways in favor of so-called Eurocentric high culture. Perhaps finding his Xhosa name, Rolihlahla, too cumbersome or primitive, a teacher assigned him the decidedly more English "Nelson" when he was a student at a British colonial boarding school.

Mandela is my hero because he embraces all people like brothers and sisters. He is one of the greatest civil rights leaders in world history. Mandela is my hero because his spirit cannot be crushed. Imprisoned for his political views in the early 1960s, Mandela refused to compromise his position, which was equality and justice for all people. He sacrificed his own freedom for the self-determination of all South Africans. He is courageous and uncompromising.

Mandela is my hero because is a man of great personal honor, strength, and integrity, but he was always fighting for something greater than himself, and that was the freedom of an entire nation. It is painful to imagine that this man, who radiates so much love, who espoused so many truths, could have spent so much of his life in prison.

Mandela is my hero because he triumphed over injustice, and not in a small way. Almost unimaginable just a few years before, Nelson Mandela became the first democratically-elected president of South Africa in 1994 and served in that position for five years.

More than anyone in the world, Mandela embodies the hopes and dreams of a true, lasting justice and equality, not just for South Africans but for all people. It is Mandela—through his unselfish and constant presence on the international stage raising awareness about AIDS, peace, debt relief, the environment—who most inspires us to think responsibly of our fellow man and of our planet.

Nelson Mandela has always inspired me to think beyond myself, to think of people in the wider world as part of a common humanity. I am blessed by his friendship. I love him for what he has accomplished, for what he has been through, for his journey forward. He remains a hallmark of what it really means to give of oneself selflessly—which is, indeed, a gift for us all.




Nelson Mandela Memo on Palestine
MEMO
March 28, 2001

To: Thomas L. Friedman (columnist for the New York Times)
From: Nelson Mandela (former President of South Africa)

Dear Thomas,

I know that you and I long for peace in the Middle East, but before you continue to talk about necessary conditions from an Israeli perspective, you need to know what's on my mind. Where to begin? How about 1964. Let me quote my own words during my trial. They are true today as they were then:

"I have fought against white domination and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die."

Today the world, black and white, recognise that apartheid has no future. In South Africa it has been ended by our own decisive mass action in order to build peace and security. That mass campaign of defiance and other actions could only culminate in the establishment of democracy.

Perhaps it is strange for you to observe the situation in Palestine or more specifically, the structure of political and cultural relationships between Palestinians and Israelis, as an apartheid system. This is because you incorrectly think that the problem of Palestine began in 1967. This was demonstrated in your recent column "Bush's First Memo" in the New York Times on March 27, 2001.

You seem to be surprised to hear that there are still problems of 1948 to be solved, the most important component of which is the right to return of Palestinian refugees.

The Palestinian-Israeli conflict is not just an issue of military occupation and Israel is not a country that was established "normally" and happened to occupy another country in 1967. Palestinians are not struggling for a "state" but for freedom, liberation and equality, just like we were struggling for freedom in South Africa.

In the last few years, and especially during the reign of the Labour Party, Israel showed that it was not even willing to return what it occupied in 1967; that settlements remain, Jerusalem would be under exclusive Israeli sovereignty, and Palestinians would not have an independent state, but would be under Israeli economic domination with Israeli control of borders, land, air, water and sea.

Israel was not thinking of a "state" but of "separation". The value of separation is measured in terms of the ability of Israel to keep the Jewish state Jewish, and not to have a Palestinian minority that could have the opportunity to become a majority at some time in the future. If this takes place, it would force Israel to either become a secular democratic or bi-national state, or to turn into a state of apartheid not only de facto, but also de jure.

Thomas, if you follow the polls in Israel for the last 30 or 40 years, you clearly find a vulgar racism that includes a third of the population who openly declare themselves to be racist. This racism is of the nature of "I hate Arabs" and "I wish Arabs would be dead". If you also follow the judicial system in Israel you will see there is discrimination against Palestinians, and if you further consider the 1967 occupied territories you will find there are already two judicial systems in operation that represent two different approaches to human life: one for Palestinian life and the other for Jewish life. Additionally there are two different approaches to property and to land. Palestinian property is not recognised as private property because it can be confiscated.

As to the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, there is an additional factor. The so-called "Palestinian autonomous areas" are bantustans. These are restricted entities within the power structure of the Israeli apartheid system.

The Palestinian state cannot be the by-product of the Jewish state, just in order to keep the Jewish purity of Israel. Israel's racial discrimination is daily life of most Palestinians. Since Israel is a Jewish state, Israeli Jews are able to accrue special rights which non-Jews cannot do. Palestinian Arabs have no place in a "Jewish" state.

Apartheid is a crime against humanity. Israel has deprived millions of Palestinians of their liberty and property. It has perpetuated a system of gross racial discrimination and inequality. It has systematically incarcerated and tortured thousands of Palestinians, contrary to the rules of international law. It has, in particular, waged a war against a civilian population, in particular children.

The responses made by South Africa to human rights abuses emanating from the removal policies and apartheid policies respectively, shed light on what Israeli society must necessarily go through before one can speak of a just and lasting peace in the Middle East and an end to its apartheid policies.

Thomas, I'm not abandoning Mideast diplomacy. But I'm not going to indulge you the way your supporters do. If you want peace and democracy, I will support you. If you want formal apartheid, we will not support you. If you want to support racial discrimination and ethnic cleansing, we will oppose you. When you figure out what you're about, give me a call.

Nelson Mandela

[This memo was written in 2001, shortly before the 9-11 attacks. Several of the men who engineered the attacks, including Osama bin Laden, said that they were motivated by the suffering of the Palestinians. Why have the governments of Israel and the United States colluded to cause millions of completely innocent Palestinian women and children to suffer so terribly, for more than sixty years, while hypocritically trumpeting the glories of "democracy" to the rest of the world? If the world would only listen to men like Nelson Mandela, and follow their lead, world peace might become possible in our lifetimes. But if the most powerful nation on earth is going to pay lip service to its ideals, while perpetuating the suffering of so many innocents, we will necessarily remain doomed to never-ending cycles of violence and retribution, because Muslim men will never accept that Muslim women and children can be treated like slaves or feudal serfs. If we want peace, we have to understand that we cannot mistreat other men's women and children. Every time Jews and Christians try to make Muslims the "exception" to this universal rule, which is only common sense, all hell is bound to break loose, eventually, as it did on 9-11.—MRB]



"I have come to join you today to add our own voice to the universal call for Palestinian self-determination and statehood. We would be beneath our own reason for existence as government and as a nation, if the resolution of the problems of the Middle East did not feature prominently on our agenda."—Nelson Mandela, "The International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People", Pretoria, South Africa, December 4th 1997

"When in 1977, the United Nations passed the resolution inaugurating the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian people, it was asserting the recognition that injustice and gross human rights violations were being perpetrated in Palestine. In the same period, the UN took a strong stand against apartheid; and over the years, an international consensus was built, which helped to bring an end to this iniquitous system. But we know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians."—Nelson Mandela, "The International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People", Pretoria, South Africa, December 4th 1997


If you are interested in following in the footsteps of Nelson Mandela, and believe peace must be achieved through justice rather than violence, please read this short article:  The Path to Peace in the Middle East. You can also learn more about what is really happening in the Middle East and how those events led to 9-11 and two fruitless, unwinnable wars, by exploring our Nakba Index.

The HyperTexts