“We must not keep quiet like the rest of the world.” Intimate moments with Siyabulela Mandela Part II

BY SIMONE J. SMITH

It was an incredible experience to have met and interacted with such a compelling, knowledgeable young man. Last edition, I had the pleasure of introducing Siyabulela Mandela, the grandson of the great Nelson Mandela to the Toronto Caribbean community. In our time together, he shared with me the importance of overstanding our mission. Our mission. To speak out against the global injustices we are currently witnessing. He says it a lot more eloquently then I do, so I present to you the words of our next formidable leader Siyabulela Mandela.

“I hope for many it draws inspiration, it calls us, and reminds us of the sacrifices that were made, so we can enjoy the freedoms we are enjoying. Calling us into action to speak and find a voice. To see this! To be reminded of the struggles that our people experienced during the Colonial era. This makes me see that we have a lot to do in building a sound foundation.”

 “That is why for me, it invokes Frantz Fanon in 1955 in his book Black Skin, White Mask. He argued that each generation must discover its own vision, fulfil it or betray it with relative complicity. For me, it makes me understand that in the generation of Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Winnie Madikizela Mandela, and all the great leaders who have raged a struggle against injustice. They choose not to betray. They choose to discover what the mission of their own time was, and they choose not to betray it, but to fulfil it. It is a clear call to us, in this generation to ask ourselves, what is our mission?”

 “Our mission should be to build upon the foundation laid by these great giants of history. To build upon the foundation that was left for us. To defend the gains and freedoms they have fought for us, to defend human rights like they have done in their time. To take and continue the struggle in spaces where injustices are exercised against a particular group, we must speak against that.”

 “It makes me not want to keep quiet, where is rile state, apartheid state, wages up against the people of Palestine. It makes me not want to keep quiet.”

 “It makes me want to say our people went through apartheid, so therefore we must not keep quiet like the rest of the world is doing when the Palestines are being killed on a daily basis, because they are Palestines. When the Israeli State exercise apartheid against the people of Palestine.”

 “It makes me not want to keep quiet! Exhibitions like this remind me that when the people in Brazil are waging a struggle. We must not keep quiet. We must stand with our brothers and sisters in Brazil. We must stand with our brothers and sisters in Venezuela. We must stand with our brothers and sisters in Hong Kong, as they stand up and wage a struggle to defend their own freedom, their own fundamental human rights.”

“It makes me say the world has to stand up and speak against injustices that are perpetrated by leaders such as Donald Trump in the United States, where they speak and they preach division, rather then the unity that Dr Martin Luther King was speaking of in his address, ‘I have a Dream,’ in the late 1960’s.

“It makes me want to say the world needs to stand up. We have a collective responsibility to build upon the foundation that was laid by our forefathers.”

‘But as things stand, we have betrayed that mission. We have betrayed or mission as young people. We have betrayed our mission in this generation. So long as we are quiet when the Israeli State practices apartheid against the people of Palestine, we have betrayed our mission. As long as we are quiet on the issue that is happening in Hong Kong, the human rights violation issues in Hong Kong, we are betraying our mission. So long as we are quiet about the situation in Brazil, in Venezuela, even in the United States. We are betraying our own mission.”

“So long as we are quiet, when the rights of the immigrants are being violated. When nations are talking about building walls, instead of building bridges, we are betraying our mission. It makes us understand that we are actually going against ideals that leaders like Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Winnie Madikizela Mandela and all the greatest women, and men; ordinary women and men, who laid down their lives for the freedoms that we are enjoying today.”

“So that is what this exhibition is for me. It is a reminder to the world that we have a long way to go and we need to continue that struggle.”