{"id":970,"date":"2013-12-05T22:20:37","date_gmt":"2013-12-06T03:20:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/?p=970"},"modified":"2013-12-05T22:20:37","modified_gmt":"2013-12-06T03:20:37","slug":"mandela-no-saint","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2013\/12\/mandela-no-saint.html","title":{"rendered":"Mandela no Saint"},"content":{"rendered":"

Given that the entire planet seems to be of one voice in both mourning the loss of Nelson Mandela and celebrating his life, most will find it inconceivable that anyone would think to so much as suggest that Mandela was anything less than the saint that his admirers are working tirelessly to depict him as. \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

But truth is truth and Mandela was no saint. <\/span><\/p>\n

Mandela was a proponent of \u201cdemocratic socialism\u201d who, along with the South African Communist Party, unleashed a torrent of violence against his political opponents that included the bombing of government sites. He was convicted of \u201csabotage\u201d and attempting to overthrow the government\u2014charges to which he openly confessed at his trial. \u00a0And in spite of having been released from prison in 1990 after serving 27 years and eventually becoming South Africa\u2019s first black president, he remained on the United States Terror Watch list until as recently as 2008.\u00a0 The late Margaret Thatcher characterized Mandela\u2019s African National Congress as a \u201ctypical terrorist organization.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Ilana Mercer is a writer and former resident of South Africa who knows all too well about Mandela and his legacy.\u00a0 One of her books, Into the Cannibal\u2019s Pot: Lessons for America from Post-Apartheid South Africa, <\/i>includes a chapter chock full of interesting, but inconvenient, facts regarding the man who is now being lauded as never before.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Mercer informs us that long before apartheid came crumbling down, the government of South Africa offered to release Mandela from jail as long as he promised to renounce violence.\u00a0 Mandela, though, \u201crefused to do any such thing [.]\u201d\u00a0 Mercer adds that Mandela\u2019s \u201cTV smile has won out over his political philosophy, founded as it is on energetic income redistribution in the neo-Marxist tradition, on \u2018land reform\u2019 in the same tradition, and on ethnic animosity toward the Afrikaner.\u201d\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

In 1992, two years after <\/i>Mandela was set free, he was videoed at an event surrounded by members of the South African Communist Party, his own African National Congress (ANC), and \u201cthe ANC\u2019s terrorist arm, the Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), which Mandela led.\u201d\u00a0 Courtesy of YouTube, all with eyes to see could now witness \u201cMandela\u2019s fist\u2026clenched in a black power salute\u201d as the members of MK sang their anthem, a little song according to which they reaffirm their pledge to \u201c\u2018kill them\u2014kill the whites.\u2019\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Mandela remained a socialist to the last, Mercer assures us, even though he cleverly\u2014but transparently\u2014\u201crebranded\u201d it. Mandela\u2019s was a racial <\/i>socialism, a point established beyond doubt by the remarks he made in 1997.\u00a0 Mercer quotes Mandela insisting that \u201cthe future of humanity\u201d cannot be \u201csurrendered to the so-called free market, with government denied the right to intervene [.]\u201d\u00a0 Mandela also declared the need for the \u201cownership and management\u201d of the South African economy to reflect \u201cthe racial composition of our society\u201d and criticized \u201cthe\u2026capitalist system\u201d in South Africa for elevating to \u201cthe highest pedestal the promotion of the material interests of the white minority.\u201d\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

For the conceit of those Westerners who assume that Mandela\u2019s thought is a justified response to the evils of apartheid, Mercer has just the treatment. She reminds us that Mandela and his ANC \u201chad never concealed that they were as tight as thieves with communist and terrorist regimes\u2014Castro, Gaddafi, Arafat, North Korea and Iran\u2019s cankered Khameneis.\u201d\u00a0 Mercer further reminds us that in addition to once cheering, \u201c\u2018Long live Comrade Fidel Castro!\u2019\u201d Mandela referred to Gaddafi as \u201c\u2018my brother leader\u201d and Arafat as \u201c\u2018a comrade in arms.\u2019\u201d\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Moreover, though awarded by President George W. Bush in 2003 with the Medal of Freedom Award, Mercer observes that Mandela couldn\u2019t resist issuing the harshest of indictments against America.\u00a0 \u201c\u2018If there is a country that has committed unspeakable atrocities in the world,\u2019\u201d Mandela said, \u201c\u2019it is the United States of America.\u2019\u201d He added that \u201c\u2018they,\u201d meaning Americans, presumably, \u201cdon\u2019t like human beings.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

And what is Mandela\u2019s legacy to his native South Africa?\u00a0 It is the purpose of Mercer\u2019s book to show that it is nothing to write home about.\u00a0 \u201cSince he [Mandela] came to power in 1994, approximately 300,000 people have been murdered.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cBit by barbaric bit,\u201d she writes, \u201cSouth Africa is being dismantled by official racial socialism, obscene levels of crime\u2014organized and disorganized\u2014AIDS, corruption, and an accreting kleptocracy.\u201d\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Mercer\u2019s book is a rarity inasmuch as it supplies us with a brutally frank account of the real South Africa that Nelson Mandela helped to bequeath to the world. While the rest of the world is busy singing hosannas to Mandela over the next few days, those of us who are interested in truth would be well served to visit it.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Given that the entire planet seems to be of one voice in both mourning the loss of Nelson Mandela and celebrating his life, most will find it inconceivable that anyone would think to so much as suggest that Mandela was anything less than the saint that his admirers are working tirelessly to depict him as.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":399,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nMandela no Saint<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2013\/12\/mandela-no-saint.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mandela no Saint\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Given that the entire planet seems to be of one voice in both mourning the loss of Nelson Mandela and celebrating his life, most will find it inconceivable that anyone would think to so much as suggest that Mandela was anything less than the saint that his admirers are working tirelessly to depict him as.…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2013\/12\/mandela-no-saint.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"At the Intersection of Faith and Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-12-06T03:20:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jack Kerwick\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Mandela no Saint","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2013\/12\/mandela-no-saint.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Mandela no Saint","og_description":"Given that the entire planet seems to be of one voice in both mourning the loss of Nelson Mandela and celebrating his life, most will find it inconceivable that anyone would think to so much as suggest that Mandela was anything less than the saint that his admirers are working tirelessly to depict him as.…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2013\/12\/mandela-no-saint.html","og_site_name":"At the Intersection of Faith and Culture","article_published_time":"2013-12-06T03:20:37+00:00","author":"Jack Kerwick","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2013\/12\/mandela-no-saint.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2013\/12\/mandela-no-saint.html","name":"Mandela no Saint","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/#website"},"datePublished":"2013-12-06T03:20:37+00:00","dateModified":"2013-12-06T03:20:37+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/6832222998cc14717ded1849531201c5"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2013\/12\/mandela-no-saint.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2013\/12\/mandela-no-saint.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2013\/12\/mandela-no-saint.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Mandela no Saint"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/","name":"At the Intersection of Faith and Culture","description":"Beliefnet Voices - 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