Author: wenbolingsource: wenboling2020 (id: wenboling2020)
Boling said:
Mandela did the right thing at the right time,
Become an ordinary person selected by the historical process,
Complete the transition from White regime to black regime.
01
In 1486, the Portuguese navigator DIAS led his fleet from Lisbon to the south along the West African coastline. When it reached the junction of the Atlantic Ocean and the Indian Ocean, the strong wind swept up the rough waves, and almost all DIAS’ fleet were buried in the sea.
Eleven years later, da Gama’s fleet had good luck, successfully purchased spices and silk from the East and returned to Portugal through the border of the two oceans, making a windfall.
King John II of Portugal was very happy, so he renamed the junction of the two oceans the Cape of good hope. Since then, the Cape of good hope has become the only way for European fleets to East Asia.
Since it is the only way to go, it is the place that all countries must strive for.
In the 17th century, the Netherlands rose to become a sea horse drawn carriage driver, and the fleet of the Dutch East India Company spread all over the world.
In order to facilitate trade, the Dutch East India Company established a supply camp 50 kilometers north of the Cape of good hope in 1652, allowing the company’s employees to settle here, plant crops and raise livestock according to the company’s orders, and then sell them to the company at the specified price.
Later, groups of Dutch and French Protestants immigrated here and established large colonies. Their descendants gradually formed the African white race – Boer people, but they called themselves Afrikaners.
These white people were originally bankrupt farmers with little culture and skills. After arriving in South Africa, of course, it is impossible to create new tricks. They can only use guns brought by Europe to violently drive out the South African aborigines and seize their land to build farms.
Black Aborigines were either killed or made slaves to white people. Their living environment was the same as that of American Indians.
However, the Boer people’s violent business model was broken by the more powerful British colonists.
After the Napoleonic War, Britain paid the Netherlands 6million pounds to buy the Dutch colony of South Africa, and then began to immigrate on a larger scale. The number of British immigrants soon exceeded that of Boer people. Moreover, Britain declared that the colonial lands were Royal lands and Boer people were not allowed to occupy them at will.
As a result, the Boer people became a second-class race, just because their skin was white and their status was slightly higher than that of the black people.
Coupled with the blows of the two Boer wars, most Boers have completely lost their ancestral power and status. They have changed from colonists in South Africa to “poor whites”. Moreover, due to their previous status, these “poor whites” require about 10 times higher wages than blacks.
For the British colonists, they were all low-level labor anyway. Of course, the cheaper the better. Therefore, the “poor whites” were not as competitive as the blacks in finding jobs.
However, no matter how much trouble the British and Boers make, it is always the internal struggle of the white people. In the face of the suppression of black rights and wrongs, they are likely to unite.
In 1910, the Federation of South Africa was established. Like Canada and Australia, it became a British dominion, with the establishment of parliaments at all levels and the Senate and house of Representatives.
So there is a problem. Blacks are the majority of the population in South Africa, and the combined number of Britons and Boers is less than half of the number of blacks. If black people were given the right to vote, would South Africa be British South Africa or black South Africa?
After consultation and discussion, the British came up with a compromise plan: “the British and Boers unite to jointly suppress the majority of black people in South Africa.”
This plan is similar to the “Manchu Mongolian alliance’s suppression of the 18 provinces in Han territory”, deliberately depriving blacks of social resources, and rapidly improving the political status of poor whites. Rich political and economic resources began to favor them.
According to the decrees of the white government, the apartheid system was gradually established and basically fixed by 1948.
Blacks, who account for the majority of the population, are driven to the specially designated black homes. They cannot move to live at will, enter the city at will, or engage in jobs with better pay. Moreover, they are not legally workers.
In a word, blacks only have the obligation to work and do not enjoy the right to national development. In particular, the article “not a labor practitioner” excludes blacks from the scope of people. The national GDP does not count blacks, the per capita disposable income does not count blacks, and the poor do not count blacks.
Excluding the black workers at the bottom, the government only paid attention to a small number of white people at the top of the pyramid. As a result, since the 1940s, South Africa’s economy has been growing rapidly for decades, the construction of Johannesburg and other cities has been magnificent, and shops are busy on the streets.
If we only look at the white people in big cities, South Africa is no different from developed countries.
But if you leave big cities, you will find that engineers, officials, doctors, businessmen and other high-income groups are basically white. The income of urban blacks is only one fifth of that of whites, and that of rural blacks is one twentieth of that of whites.
The so-called economic miracle of South Africa is the serious polarization between the rich and the poor and the serious racial inequality.
And South Africa’s soaring economy is also watery.
South Africa is very rich in minerals. The annual mineral export volume accounts for more than 70% of the national export volume, especially the gold mine, which accounts for more than half of the world mining volume all the year round. The export volume accounts for 40% of the national total export volume. In 1970, it produced 79% of the world supply.
To sum up, South Africa’s exports are mainly minerals, and gold is the bulk of minerals. It can also be said that gold exports support half of South Africa’s economy.
Most importantly, since 1972, the international gold price has soared, from $46 / ounce to $850 / ounce in 1980.
Therefore, the export of gold and other minerals is the fundamental reason for the economic miracle of South Africa. As for the manufacturing industry in South Africa, it is basically a low-end OEM, which is better than the poor African countries, and far from meeting the name of developed countries.
Such South Africa is only white South Africa, not black South Africa. No matter how developed the economic data are, it has nothing to do with black people.
The buffs in South Africa are full of racial contradictions and class contradictions.
Under the appearance of South Africa’s economic miracle, the black resistance movement has become higher and higher. It is the black resistance movement in South Africa that has pushed Mandela to the forefront.
02
Mandela was born into the tribal chieftain family of South Africa.
At the age of 9, Mandela’s father died of tuberculosis. He was brought up by the Regent of the Tambu nationality. He told him the historical stories of South Africa, family legends and traditional religions every day. Mandela recalled his childhood and was most impressed by “customs, religious ceremonies and taboos.”
In 1938, Mandela was admitted to the University of helburg to study literature.
Literature is a subject of speculative nature, and it is easy to indulge in fantasies when studying. So when reading and thinking, Mandela smoothed out the history of South Africa, figured out the contradictions between blacks and whites, and naturally participated in the political activities of the school.
When he was a junior, Mandela, who had become a student leader, participated in a boycott of the school’s election of student representatives, which provoked great anger from the school, and Mandela was forced to stop his studies.
Mandela’s Regent Guardian went to heilborg university to persuade him not to make a mistake with the University and continue his study.
Mandela: “I will not admit my mistake if I am killed.”
The Regent said, it’s OK not to read. Then you go home and get a wife and have children, ready to inherit the chieftain status?
Mandela had seen the world and was unwilling to return to the countryside. He refused to return to the throne, turned to Johannesburg, saw the gate in the black mine, and studied law in the white law firm. Finally, he joined the African National Congress in 1944 and joined the cause of black resistance.
In the decades since the ANC participated in the cause of resistance, Mandela’s political line has undergone three major turns. These three turns are not exactly the same, at least they have nothing to do with each other.
But what is certain is that every political turn of Mandela has accurately stepped on the pulse of the times.
4. In the 1950s, the fledgling Mandela was a little green and unsophisticated. He always thought that the situation in the world was out of our generation. He was eager to carry the flag alone. Therefore, he did not agree to unite with other races and groups to fight against the rule of the white people.
Political groups in Johannesburg held a meeting to prepare for an anti apartheid strike. However, Mandela resolutely opposed the strike because it was not led by the ANC. He wanted to defend the leadership of the ANC. As a result, the strike was held as scheduled.
At the “African National Congress” meeting in 1951, Mandela took the stage to speak and continued to oppose the racial United Front in South Africa. As a result, his views were unanimously rejected.
After these two attacks, Mandela may have really accepted the idea of the United Front, or he may have been forced by reality to change his strategy. Anyway, Mandela drew a line with his former self, completely overturned the views he had insisted on for many years, and began to support the racial united front.
This was his first political turn.
In 1960, the South African government declared the “ANC” an illegal organization. The Executive Committee of the ANC decided that all leaders except Mandela would work underground and would not be exposed if necessary. As a result, Mandela became the only leader of the ANC with normal activities, and the outside world also regarded Mandela as a representative of the ANC.
There is no doubt that this dangerous work has also accumulated a great reputation for Mandela.
Mandela, who was pushed to the front stage, felt that since the South African government had torn its face, the “ANC” could not continue the non violent struggle and must change its strategy to overthrow the South African government with armed violence.
After discussion, the ANC executive committee agreed with Mandela’s opinion, and established the armed organization “national spear” and appointed Mandela as the commander of the national spear.
It can be said that Mandela’s identity in the black resistance movement in South Africa, especially like Stalin during the Bolshevik revolution and Mao Zedong who opened up the Jinggangshan base during the Chinese revolution.
They are all men with guns.
At that time, the “spear of nations” had four kinds of struggle plans: destruction of infrastructure, guerrilla warfare, terrorist activities, and a thorough revolutionary war.
However, different from the other two, Mandela thought that the latter three schemes were too violent and not conducive to alleviating the racial and class contradictions in South Africa, so he chose the simplest scheme of “destroying infrastructure”.
Mandela hopes to destroy railways, bridges, reservoirs, streets and other facilities, let foreign capital flee south Africa, put pressure on the South African government, and then accept their opinions to build a racial equal South Africa.
It can also be seen from here that Mandela’s personal political inclination is actually moderate. This also foreshadowed Mandela’s third political turn and his ruling thinking after he was elected president.
But Mandela’s imagination is beautiful, but the reality is cruel.
He led the spear of nations to destroy it dozens of times and found that it had no effect, because the South African government did not care, nor did foreign capital. It was just a few petty thieves who destroyed it and repaired it again.
So Mandela decided to upgrade the plan of armed struggle. Instead of destroying it, he changed it into guerrilla war.
This was Mandela’s second political turn.
At the beginning of 1962, Mandela went abroad secretly, visited Britain, Ethiopia, Tunisia and other countries, received a sponsorship of 5000 pounds, and participated in several months of military training in Algeria. He was ready to go back to South Africa to fight guerrillas with his money and skills.
At that time, the anti colonial tide in the third world was rising. All the colonized countries were resisting the white rule, and almost all the armed resistance organizations had the shadow of the Soviet Union behind them.
So there is also a saying that Mandela actually joined the Communist Party of South Africa and was a member of the Central Committee when he was preparing for guerrilla warfare. However, Mandela did not admit about joining the party, and we should not speculate.
However, Mandela was unlucky. In the same year, when he returned to China to show his strength, he was arrested by the South African government and sentenced to five years’ imprisonment for “sedition” and “illegal going abroad”. Two years later, he was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Since then, Mandela has been in prison for 28 years, which was in 1990.
Mandela actually had a good time in prison.
He can read and study, meditate on gardening, and communicate with the outside world. Therefore, Mandela is not isolated from the world. His views and ideas can still be transmitted to the outside world. The longer he is in prison, the higher his reputation and the thicker his resistance buff.
By 1989, the black resistance movement had been going on for decades, and it was raging in South Africa. Coupled with the demonstration of the opening of the Berlin Wall in Germany, apartheid in South Africa, as a national policy, faced very serious moral pressure.
Most importantly, the international gold price plummeted in the 1980s, from 850 US dollars per ounce in 1980 to 300 US dollars per ounce in 1985, and then returned to 350 US dollars per ounce in 1989.
The roller coaster rise and fall of the international gold price has completely pulled down the fig leaf of South Africa’s “developed countries” and plunged the South African economy into long-term low growth or even negative growth.
In this economic environment, whites are not doing well, and blacks are even worse. If racial segregation is not abolished to alleviate contradictions, the spark in South Africa will soon be suppressed.
So the new president of South Africa, daiclark, first unconditionally released ANC prisoners except Mandela, and then unconditionally released Mandela in february1990, and legalized all banned political parties.
After his release from prison, Mandela began his third political turn.
He gave up the guerrilla war and opposed the racial confrontation of “driving white people into the sea and retaliating against white people”. Instead, he advocated “making South Africa a country without color, race or religious belief.”
Mandela’s political slogan, in short, is reconciliation. The previous colonization and war are over. From now on, we will start anew.
As for the armed struggle of the “national spear”, Mandela has repeatedly stressed that the “national spear” is a forced action under the condition that peaceful means have lost their legitimacy, and non violence is still the basic tradition of the “ANC”.
This was Mandela’s third political turn, and it was this turn that made Mandela a “great man” in the world
03
Why was Mandela regarded as a great man by the world?
Because Mandela met the demands of almost all countries.
Faced with the surging black resistance movement, the white colonists in South Africa knew very well that the general trend of abolishing apartheid was irreversible. What they were most worried about was that they would be liquidated by blacks after the abolition of apartheid. What they wanted most was to protect property and vested interests.
Mandela’s reconciliation policy provides such an opportunity.
Reconciliation means no liquidation, and reconciliation means peaceful coexistence. Then the white people’s greatest fear and hope are gone. It is impossible for them not to support Mandela’s reconciliation policy.
For hundreds of years, white people have colonized the world and enslaved the people of backward countries. It can be said that colonization is the original sin of white countries. So can Mandela reconcile with the white colonists in South Africa and other colonized countries reconcile with the white colonists?
Whether other colonized countries are willing to reconcile or not, at least Mandela has provided a sample, which is worth vigorously promoting and trying to spread to the whole world.
In addition, shortly after Mandela was released from prison, the Soviet Union disintegrated and drastic changes took place in Eastern Europe. In order to establish world hegemony, the capitalist countries led by the United States must put on a warm veil, wash away their sins and dress themselves up with a high sounding.
So Mandela’s reconciliation policy has met the demands of all white countries in the world.
For countries that were once colonized, Mandela’s significance does not lie in reconciliation, but in that he has been the leader of the resistance movement in South Africa for decades. On this level, they can also find common ground.
Even if he does not support Mandela, at least there is no reason to oppose him.
As a result, in the course of history, Mandela became the favorite of the world. As soon as he was released from prison, he visited Zambia, Libya, Algeria, Britain, France, the United States, Cuba, India, Australia, Japan and other countries, gaining popularity.
After returning to China, he used his own status and reputation to persuade black resistance organizations not to use violence, to unite and negotiate with the government, and to strive for the end of racial segregation and the liberation of blacks.
Both sides please and neither side offends. Mandela naturally became a popular figure and was elected the first black president of South Africa in 1994.
04
Since it is racial reconciliation, Mandela cannot use the power of state power to deprive the white people in South Africa of their vested interests. This is the ruling line he has chosen and cannot be violated. This kind of thing is basically carried out at the folk level, and the effect is limited.
However, the black people have successfully resisted and become the masters of South Africa. They will always share the fruits of victory.
What should I do?
Mandela overthrew the comprehensive nationalization plan that he had insisted on, and demanded to establish a mixed economy with both public and private interests on the basis of not scaring away whites and blacks, so Mandela launched a compromise “black economic revitalization” plan.
The so-called “black economic revitalization” program actually requires white people to make profits to black people, mainly including the following:
Government departments give priority to purchasing the products of black companies based on the number of shares held by black people in the company, the number of black executives in the company, the skills training received by black people, etc.
The quota of business licenses is skewed to blacks. The reference standards are still the number of shares held by blacks in the company, the number of black executives in the company, skills training received by blacks, etc., which are implemented in broadcasting, telecommunications, entertainment and other industries.
We will promote the privatization of state-owned enterprises, stipulate that blacks must hold more than 25% of the shares in the process of privatization, encourage privatized enterprises to recruit black employees, and provide financial support to black entrepreneurs.
Through the operation of “black economic revitalization”, a large number of black people have entered manufacturing, communication, mining and other industries, and have a certain economic foundation in South Africa. In addition, many black people have become government employees, engineers and other high-income occupations.
If we do not consider the overall economic situation of South Africa and the quality of practitioners in the economic field, but only consider the changes in the racial status of blacks, there is no doubt that Mandela’s policy is successful.
A race that has been colonized and enslaved for hundreds of years can seize the opportunity of the times, leap from the enslaved to an important force in the national economy, and master a part of the political and economic voice. It can never be said to be unsuccessful.
Some people always say that South Africa is a developed country and has been turned into a backward country by blacks.
However, the problem is that developed countries are developed countries with white people. They are developed countries without black people who account for the majority of the population. No matter how developed this country is, it is also a country with colonists. It has nothing to do with black people.
If black people are included, South Africa is not a developed country in the first place. Black people have a part of the political and economic discourse power, just returning South Africa to its original position.
Of course, the “black economic revitalization” program is politically successful, and its failure cannot be concealed.
First, the education level of black people is generally not high. Some people can’t even turn on the computer, so they go to work in the office. As a result, the work efficiency of enterprises and governments is lower than that of white governments with high education level.
Second, during the privatization and share transfer of state-owned enterprises, as in the restructuring of state-owned enterprises in China, some powerful and influential black people took advantage of informal means such as power rent-seeking and low-cost purchase to obtain a large number of shares, and became the emerging powerful class in South Africa.
Those government officials who did not go to the sea also took advantage of their power to commit corruption, such as the embezzlement of 120 Rand by the prison director, the embezzlement of millions of Rand by social welfare officials of retiree subsidies, and the collective embezzlement of more than 10 billion rand of utilities.
People hate this kind of thing in any country, but objectively speaking, similar things will happen more or less in every country during the transformation.
It’s just that some countries can correct it and others can’t. In fact, we don’t have to be too harsh about backward countries like South Africa.
After all, not every country has the opportunity to decide its own destiny. Backward countries in backward areas are born to survive in the cracks.
05
I have reviewed the history of South Africa and Mandela’s life. Now I can sum it up.
Now the whole world says that Mandela is a great man. This title should also be distinguished.
As the leader of the black resistance movement, he has improved the status of black people through lifelong struggle, so that black people enslaved by white people can be upright. Then for black people in South Africa, Mandela is a real great man.
However, in the world, Mandela has neither great talent nor legendary experience. Even his political line has three major turns. The white countries like him because of the reconciliation policy, and the colonial countries do not hate him because of the resistance to colonialism. In fact, the title “great man” has moisture.
In the final analysis, he just did the right thing and said the right words at the right time, and became an ordinary person selected by the historical process.
From the perspective of anti colonial theory, the liquidation of white people is the historical mission of black South Africans, but without a brilliant leader and a well-organized political party to lead, the liquidation will only turn into chaos.
Without Mandela, South Africa is likely to have a long-term ethnic vendetta. If it is serious, foreign troops may intervene.
For tens of millions of ordinary white and black people in South Africa, this may not be a good result.
So at that time point in the 1990s, Mandela’s mission as president of South Africa was not to create an innovative South Africa, but the transition from the White regime to the black regime.
From this point of view, Mandela has completed his mission, and the future has nothing to do with him.
reference material:
Mandela and the economic mountains of South Africa
Mandela and the glorious years of South Africa zhangfeifei
On Mandela’s national reconciliation policy Zhang Yijun
Was South Africa really a developed country? Guoyemin
Nelson Mandela, the first black president of South Africa, xuweizhong
Comments on “black economic revitalization” in South Africa during Mandela’s period huangyupei
From Mandela to Mbeki: the consolidation of democracy in South Africa he Wenping