The Post-Colonial Perspectives on Violence in Nelson Mandela’s A Long Walk to Freedom
MSC. Sukaina Hussein Abbas
College of Arts
English Department
Al-Mustaqbal University
15/2/2025
Abstract
This article seeks to offer a correct description to post-colonial critical theory, and to explain how this theory applies in reality as well as biography. It demonstrates how post-colonial philosophy applies in the autobiography of the famous leader of South Africa, Nelson Mandela. Thus, it demonstrates the significance of Mandela's biography A Long Walk to Freedom, which emphasizes the post-colonial era in South Africa and their fight for independence. The forms of violence he describes in his biography are exhibited in this paper. It talks about the first kind of violence, which is violence against families. Therefore, Mandela's family violation and the government's attempt to sever ties within African culture through family dissolution serve as symbols of this brutality. Second, this study demonstrates how Southern Africans have used physical violence against the government in an effort to achieve equality, freedom, and an end to the racism and prejudice that have plagued them for so long. Finally, this essay illustrates the third form of violence in Mandela's history, which is economic violence, which is employed to harm colonists in an effort to get attention.
Keywords: racism, violence, freedom, Nelson Mandela, South Africa, post-colonial, and discrimination.
The Violence Types in Nelson Mandela's A Long Walk to Freedom
One of the most important theories in the modern era is post-colonial critical theory. As is well known, many nations, particularly those in the third world, were colonized. The era that follows colonialism is known as post-colonialism. The events that took place in those nations throughout the post-colonial era and the colonialists' perspectives on the colonized people were reflected in this idea. Therefore, A Long Walk to Freedom an autobiography by South African statesman Nelson Mandela serves as the finest illustration of this argument. Mandela explains his need for freedom in this biography. His autobiography therefore reflects the political, social, cultural, and personal facets of his life.
Literature Review or Background
According to Thomas de Monchaux, Nelson Mandela is a remarkable leader and influencer who is undoubtedly comparable to the great American leader Abraham Lincoln if comparison is to be made. Both of them gave their everything to their country, working to establish democracy there in order to combat racism, brutality, and regionalism. (de Monchaux, 1994, p.278).
Nelson Mandela's name is synonymous with the idea of freedom from South Africa's apartheid system, as Arvind Kumar Yadav shows. According to Yadav, Mandela didn't begin this fight until he was twenty-three, and it lasted for the most of his life. (Yadav, 2007,p.52).
What does post-colonial precisely means?
It is obvious that the word "post-colonialism" refers to a time frame that follows the end of colonialism. The conclusion of the great European colonial empires is a noteworthy fact in and of itself. The fact that so many people now live in a world impacted by decolonization is one reason for using the term post-colonialism. Since there are many complexities surrounding a proper definition of post-colonial, Stephen Slemon argues that there are many different definitions of the term. He claims that the concept of post-colonial is not important when it is used in relation to the historical post-independence of a state that has been colonized once. Instead, the significance of the post-colonialist concept begins when the colonizers take possession of the colonized people's territory and culture; it begins when they purchase a nation and take advantage of all of its resources. And it continues, as it so often does in the current neocolonial legacy of international relations. (Williams & Childs, 2014, p.3).
However, Post-colonial theory is reflected in many history, literary, or autobiographical works that elaborate the social, economic, and political status in the colonized area after colonizing it. One of the best examples on post-colonial theory is the autobiography A Long Walk to Freedom of Nelson Mandela, the leader of the post-colonial opposition movement in post-colonial period in South Africa. Mandela's way to freedom was full what the majority consider as violence. Thus, questions raised about Mandela's behavior to gain freedom for his country, and the fundamental question is that does his way to freedom was violence? Or does the aim justifies the mean? However, the following paragraphs will illustrates the answer to this question. Hence, Nelson Mandela's biography elaborate a variety of violence:
Violence against families:
Nelson Mandela's autobiography is titled A Long Walk to Freedom. In addition to focusing on Mandela's life, it depicts South Africa's political, social, educational, and cultural landscape from the 1940s to the 1990s. Mandela's biography so demonstrates his calls for equality, justice, and freedom as well as the fight for South Africans' rights. (Mafela, 2008, p.99). Mandela discusses family relationships and demonstrates the unity of African culture in his discussion of social life. Africans have a strong sense of camaraderie and concern for one another, as Mandela points out in numerous instances. The White men attempted to break the deep bonds that Africans have with their family, friends, and kinsmen, knowing full well that these bonds are strong. "In African culture, the sons and daughters of one's aunts and uncles are considered brothers and sisters, not cousins" (Mandela, 1994, p.10). In order to create family disintegration within African society, white men imprison Winnie Mandela, Mandela's second wife, who is regarded as a strong, courageous Black woman who never gave up advocating for her people's rights. This is one of the cruel (violent) ways that the colonizers impose their full control over the colonized people. Naturally, the close ties among Africans demonstrate some of their cultural values and how they treat one another, rather than reflecting the class status.
Physical violence of the southern African. The twentieth-century political climate in South Africa is reflected in Nelson Mandela's biography. Mandela frequently referred to himself as a "boy" despite being a lawyer. White men continue to call him "boy" in a variety of contexts, including the street, the police, the jailer, and the judge. Racism and disdain for the colonized people are two of the largest post-colonial problems; as a result, "South Africa has also suffered in the sense that the apartheid system has created vast social and economic inequalities. It has concentrated wealth. Property is in the hands of very few people, who are classified white." (Omar, et.al. 1990. P.31). Africans were required to always carry a pass card to prove their identity. If, for whatever reason, they fail to do so, they risk imprisonment and even death, as happened to Mandela's friend when he was younger. When he files a complaint, the judge disregards him, even if he has a medical report to support his claims. Mandela's movement was sparked by a number of factors, including the murder of his buddy.
Africans were denied the right to vote by white men, who were unable to accept this since it meant the end of their supremacy and domination. They also forbid the African National Congress (ANC) from being legally recognized, which is why Mandela and his fellow members founded the ANC in secret to advocate for African rights, including equality, respect, one man, one vote, no pass card, and the right to be heard. The ANC's terrorist acts were carried out to gain attention and have their voices heard, not because they enjoyed violence or intended to frighten others. When Mandela is arrested, he says: "I do not, however, deny that I planned sabotage. I did not plan it in a spirit of recklessness nor because I have any love of violence. I planned it as a result of a calm and sober assessment of the political situation that had arisen after many years of tyranny, exploitation, and oppression of my people by whites." (Mandela, 1994, p.214).
Mandela believes that the path of peace to secure the rights of his people and future generations is a dead end. In order to oppose the whites, he and the ANC members came up with various strategies. First of all, they refrain from using violence and intend to protest in the streets or enter places that are off-limits to Africans, including train stations or public restrooms that are exclusively for white people. As a result, their actions brought them no benefit, and on one occasion, while they were demonstrating in front of the Sharpeville police station on March 21, 1960, police opened fire on them, killing two hundred people because they refused to give the whites the new role of constantly carrying a pass card. But when the nonviolent approach failed, they turned to violence, and as Mandela says: "But the hard facts were that fifty years of nonviolence had brought the African people nothing but more repressive legislations, and fewer and fewer rights…. it could not be denied that our policy to achieve a nonracial state by nonviolence had achieved nothing,"(Mandela, 1994, p.214).
It had taken a lot of violence for them to be free. When the South African students' movement campaigned for their rights in Soweto on June 16, 1976, while Mandela was incarcerated, many people were jailed and many young people, including children, died. In South Africa, the COIN force, which is used to quell revolt, employs indiscriminate force along with anti-African sentiment. Initially, it had the backing of other nations to quell the uprising, but later on, none of those nations backed it as it went too far in killing and apprehending rebels. The actions of the COIN force on June 16, 1976, which resulted in numerous student deaths, were harshly condemned. (Paul et al., 2013, pp.166-170). In the meantime, Mandela surreptitiously sent his people a message from the prison encouraging them to continue their murderous path. Letters from inmates were not permitted to discuss politics, the state of the jail, or other inmates; hence, in Mandela's case, it was never permitted to discuss what is regarded as a driving force for violence (Venter, 2018, p.16). This raises the question of whether Mandela actually supports violence. The answer is unquestionably negative, as he is aware that even if he despises this, he cannot make the government pay attention to the demands of his people unless they rebel and their Lego was "submit or fight" (Mandela, 1994, p.135). However, there was physical violence on both sides (Africans and Whites).
Economical violence. The bus boycott was one of the peaceful forms of protest that Africans sought to use before resorting to violence, as was previously indicated; yet, it was an economic kind of violence and not entirely peaceful. In his book The Souls of Black Folks, W. E. B. Du Bois discussed the issue of the color line, which is how white people keep black people apart from them. In addition to being outright racist, separating races and making judgments about them based only on their color dehumanizes and humiliates them. Of course, if somebody violates these roles, they will be put in jail. Mandela, however, records the Africans' 1948 bus boycott and protests in Orlando Township, Soweto, with the goals of dismantling racism (the color line) and harming the nation's economy so that their voices would be heard. Furthermore, the goal of white people's obsession with Africans is to maintain their superiority and control. White people fear that treating Black people equally will cause them to lose their influence in the nation. As a result, Africans are ignored by white people, which pushes them to resort to physical aggression.
However, the outcome of South Africa's numerous forms of violence is that, from the 1960s through the 1990s, there was a civil war and violence on both sides (Africans and white men). As a result, white people were willing to listen to Africans and grant them their rights, but they were terrified of retaliation. Africans might thus get their freedom by the protracted process of emancipation, and as Ciraj Rassool remarks: "In broad outline, these discursive contours- of a society of 'many cultures' and a history of 'great lives of resistance and reconcilation' –have been emerging and taking shape in almost every sphere of heritage construction and public culture in south Africa," (Rassool, 2000, p.1). Therefore, Africans not only acquire their rights (one man, one vote, no pass card, no discrimination, formal ANC), but they also advance with their history, culture, and tradition. Even though many people have died, they continue to fight the colonizers fiercely, and under the great Nelson Mandela's leadership, their acts of sabotage and violence were necessary to secure their freedom.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Nelson Mandela strongly opposes violence and sabotage, but he also believes that violence must be used to protect the nation's dignity. Mandela believes that every action has a reaction since the white people did not provide him with any other option than to use violence to obtain their independence and rights, despite the fact that the white people's horrible crimes were intolerable. Violence was so varied and came from both sides (the whites and the southern Africans). First, family dissolution in African society is caused by white people's brutality against families. The second is physical aggression, which is symbolized by the planned acts of sabotage by the Africans. Economic violence comes in third. Under Nelson Mandela's leadership, southern African society has finally achieved independence as a result of the protracted route of conflict. Under Nelson Mandela's leadership, southern African society has finally achieved independence as a result of the protracted route of conflict.
References
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