Is Mandela Black Jesus?

Nelson Mandela was a South African nationalist, but his South Africa was really an idea or a vision of universal humanity as much as of a country, writes ELVIS MBOYA, THE SOUTHERN TIMES’ EAST AFRICA CORRESPONDENT, whilst exploring the debate of this man whom some intellectuals now compare to the founder of Christianity Jesus Christ.

Mandela’s legendary words during his Rivonia Trial at the Pretoria Supreme Court on 20 April 1964, remain a living testimony to the life he lived: “During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people. 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 will live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for. If needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.”

In the wake of Mandela’s death his earthly life continues to intrigue intellectuals, world leaders and masses alike. While thinkers portray him as the rarest of psychological gemstones, a self-actualised human being, a spiritual leader, a statesman who goes down in history as someone who scaled the summit of mental prowess only compared to Jesus, critics argue otherwise. 

In a recent gallant move, The Daily Telegraph’s Peter Osborne and BBC presenter Evan Davis both agree that there are very few human beings who can be compared to Jesus Christ, saying that Mandela is one. “This is because he was a spiritual leader as much as a statesman. His colossal moral strength enabled him to embark on new and unimaginable forms of action. He could lead through the strength of example alone.”

Osborne, The Daily Telegraph’s chief political commentator, argues that just like Jesus who lived two thousand years ago, Mandela sacrificed his life for humanity and performed miracle in our lifetime. “There were many dreadful events in the 20th century, and a handful of miracles. One of those miracles was the South African transition from an Apartheid state to a diverse, multicultural and democratic republic.

“It took just two or three years to sweep away white rule and install a new kind of government. Most revolutions of this sort are unbelievably violent and horrible. They feature mass executions, torture, expropriation and massacres.”

PANTHEON OF VIRTUE

Most politicians, including those in democratic countries like United States and Western Europe, Osborne says, only inspire their followers by appealing to their basest instincts. Mandela appealed to the noblest and most splendid part of our fallen nature. 

He gave an example of the French Revolution of 1789, the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, and Chairman Mao’s communist regime in China, saying “It could have been far worse in South Africa, because it was not just the case (as it was in France, Russia and China) of a revolution by the starving masses against a corrupt elite.”
“Even though Mandela was a South African, he did belong to all of us. This is because he taught a universal message. He refused to represent simply a clan, a sect, a tribe, a class, a race or even a single religion. He embraced humanity, rather than excluded it. He sought moral rather than physical power.

“Mandela was a South African, but he embraced all facets of his magnificent humanity. This epic generosity of spirit is rare in the history of political action. Just think of the 20th century and the bloodthirsty monsters it created: Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Idi Amin, Milosevic, and Saddam Hussein. And the list goes on.” 

Osborne is not alone. BBC presenter Evan Davis recently told listeners that Mandela should be ranked alongside Jesus in “the pantheon of virtue.” The BBC radio program included former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, who emphatically dismissed the notion of Mandela being on par with Jesus.

PSYCHOLOGICAL DEMIGOD

And while contributing to Mandela’s biography “From freedom to the future”, former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Anan and former US president Bill Clinton exalts the man they fondly refers to as ‘Madiba’. Annan said: “People often ask me what difference one person can make in the face of injustice, conflict, human rights violations, mass poverty, and disease. I answer by citing the courage, tenacity, dignity and magnanimity of Nelson Mandela.”

Clinton continued: “Mandela’s enduring legacy is that, under a crushing burden of oppression, he saw through difference, discrimination and destruction to embrace our common humanity. Thanks to his life and work, the rest of us are closer to embracing it too.”

However, British journalist, Dominic Lawson argued otherwise, imploring people to stop comparing Mandela with Jesus. According to him, Mandela’s achievements in the face of adversity, he wrote, notwithstanding, psychology will remember him for a less mainstream reason.

Like a select few before him, he said, Mandela will go down in history as someone who may have scaled the summit of mental prowess – a term psychologist Abraham Maslow referred to in the 1940s as ‘self-actualised’.

According to Maslow’s theory, humans face a number of challenges in life, from the most basic needs such as food and sleep, to safety, love, esteem, and ultimately self-actualisation. Only once a person’s circumstances and attitude have allowed them to pass one of the lower stages can they ascend to the next.

For Maslow and the generations of humanistic psychologists who followed in his tradition, the self-actualised individual is someone who transcends all lower needs to achieve a state of complete personal and intellectual fulfilment.

Most of us never reach the top of Maslow’s pyramid – instead we spend our lives thrashing it out in the lower tiers, searching for love, money, or social status; or if we are less fortunate, simply struggling to survive. The pinnacle is a privileged and lonely place, not that the self-actualised person who reaches it will mind.

SAVIOR TO HUMANITY
These fortunate few according to the theory are cast as psychological demigods: fully secure at all lower levels while also being compassionate, creative, in complete control of their impulses, comfortable in solitude, socially harmonious, naturally powerful, beyond needing the approval of others, and highly aware of their own thoughts and the world beyond. And, just as Mandela did in prison, the self-actualised person is thought to find meaning and purpose from life under even the most grievous suffering.

Lawson argues that Mandela wasn’t the only famous figure to be regarded as self-actualised. Other examples have included Gandhi, Beethoven, Mother Teresa, and Eleanor Roosevelt.

At the height of slavery and apartheid, black conscious leaders Marcus Garvey, MalcolmX and Steve Biko, and pioneer musicians Bob Marley and Tupac Shakur spewed thought provoking rhetorics, soul searched for ‘black Jesus’ who understands black peoples’ plight to heal the wounds inflicted by white oppression and domination and restore black sanity and pride.

In their speechifyings, they sensationally argued that white missionaries used the ‘white authored bible’ to spread the gospel of ‘white Jesus’ and while Africans closed their eyes for prayers, the preachers grabbed African riches and turned the owners into centuries of slavery. Sadly, none of the activists lived to see the living ‘black Jesus’ who performed miracle in living memory and sacrificed his life to free the spirit of South Africans, Africans and universal humanity.

Osborne said that historians will debate forever why everything went so wonderfully right in South Africa that changed the world. But they will all agree on the role of one extraordinary man (Nelson Mandela). “Mandela saved humanity from slipping to torturous path, a ‘Jesus’ who lived amongst us in human flesh in our lifetime.”

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