Mandela Celebrates His 90th Birthday
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PermalinkBy ALAN COWELL
Published: July 19, 2008
LONDON — There was a time, not all that long ago, when he was the invisible man whose name was a battle cry, his appearance known to most people only from an out-of-date photograph, a hidden hero on a prison island off the coast of Africa.Skip to next paragraph
Enlarge This ImagePool photograph by Themba Hadebe
Nelson Mandela with his grandchildren at his home in Qunu, South Africa, on Friday.Multimedia
Audio: Back Story With The Times’s Bill Keller (mp3)But as he celebrated his 90th birthday Friday, Nelson Mandela was anything but invisible, a figure of reverence whose nine decades have been marked and observed at a huge rock concert in London’s Hyde Park, a gala dinner for his children’s charity in the august, chandeliered Long Room at Lord’s cricket ground and a host of tributes.His birthday Friday was supposed to be a quiet affair in his ancestral village of Qunu in the southeast of his country — with a mere 500 of his closest friends in attendance, and a wry self-deprecation.
“We are honored that you wish to celebrate the birthday of a retired old man, who no longer has power or influence,” he said in a public radio message, according to news reports.
Friday was also the 10th anniversary of his marriage to Graca Machel, the widow of Samora Machel, a revolutionary leader and former president of Mozambique. He divorced Winnie Mandela in 1996.
Part of Mr. Mandela has always seemed to be public property, owned initially by foes of apartheid rule in South Africa and now a kind of universal talisman of integrity and dignity — a name to bring a flush of moral ardor to the most jaded celebrity visages.
Where his name once resonated around the segregated black townships of apartheid South Africa, chanted by the rebellious youths who challenged white rule, it now seems to head a list of encounters with notables sought by rock stars and politicians. He has apparently enjoyed a degree of mutual admiration: in 1997, for instance, he referred to the British pop group the Spice Girls as his “heroes” when he met them.
In his presence, even the most battle-scarred and cynical of politicians seem to feel they are wafted to the high ground wrought by Mr. Mandela’s 27 years in prison. His stature and charisma have given him entrée from the White House in Washington to 10 Downing Street in London.
Remarkably, it is now 18 years since Mr. Mandela was released from jail, 14 years since he triumphed in his country’s first democratic elections, eight since he left office and four since he formally withdrew from public life. But, contrary to his disclaimer of power and influence in his birthday message, he is still seen as a guarantor of his country’s remarkable transition from a segregated to a majority-ruled society.
F. W. de Klerk, the last white president of South Africa who negotiated the transition with Mr. Mandela and shared a Nobel Peace Prize with him in 1993, hailed Mr. Mandela’s role in molding “our widely diverse communities into an emerging multi-cultural nation.”
He has lent his name to the struggle against HIV/AIDS. The rock concert in Hyde Park, using Mr. Mandela’s Robben Island prison number of 46664, was devoted to the effort to combat the epidemic that has been the scourge of Africa.
Mr. Mandela also entered the bitter dispute over the electoral, social and economic crises of Zimbabwe, saying there had been a “tragic failure of leadership” there.
As he ages, there are fears among some South Africans that, as the Mail and Guardian newspaper put it, his legacy is under threat from his successor, Thabo Mbeki.
Mr. Mbeki’s critics have accused him of being far more divisive than Mr. Mandela and of overseeing a massive centralization of the power of the ruling African National Congress.
“Mandela is 90,” the Mail and Guardian said in its online edition Friday (http://www.mg.co.za). “But the sweet celebration of a life of leadership, service and generosity is mixed with the sour taste of a legacy being polluted in front of the old man’s tired eyes.”
It went on: “ Where Mandela united, Mbeki has divided. His willingness to forgive and be reconciled with his former persecutors in the interests of South Africa is in sharp contrast with the “politics of total takeover” that has gripped the ruling party.”
It is thus with a certain wistfulness that some South Africans contemplate a post-Mandela era.
“Mandela can’t come to our rescue any more. But his example can,” the newspaper said
Mandela Rocks!.Yeaa!
I dont think Mandela is very happy ( Mandela or anybody else born in South Afrika) seeing the nest of AIDS, crime ( the highest rate of rape in the world) and poverty that his country has became.
Has “become?” It’s always had high crime and social problems…
At least there is no more apartheid.
Really the awerage crimes and rape rate in South Africa higher than in Zimbabve or Nigeria?
Or at least in Harlem or Brooklin in New-York at night?
You guys open your eyes…
Happy birthday mandela, he made a difference in south africa.
In which way do you mean he made a difference ?
“Open” my “eyes” about what?
And yes, the crime rate is significantly higher in SA than almost anywhere in the world…
Even in Harlem. But then again, parts of Harlem are again becoming upscale and posh real estate…
In fact, a big problem in NYC is the Russian mob…
In fact, a big problem in NYC is the Russian mob…
Touche 
Nelson Mandelas ex-wife Winnie Madikizela-Mandela did her share to increase the crime rate in South Africa as well…
About what was, is and will going on in others africans states…
The utter ethnical terror, corrupt and mass famine that kills much more people per month than died in SA fo years.
And yes, the crime rate is significantly higher in SA than almost anywhere in the world…
Higher than even in N Korea or Saddams Iraq?
Even in Harlem. But then again, parts of Harlem are again becoming upscale and posh real estate…
Oh common , and nobody rapes and kills the peoples here at night?
And what about Brooklin?Is this a best place for living today too?
In fact, a big problem in NYC is the Russian mob…
So why the NYC police simly not finish this mob?
Believe me , no one russian will against to execute those"Russian mod" ( indeed the mixture of caucasian, chechens, tadgikistans and even jewish criminals around all former USSR) that so kindly is called by YOUR mass medias as “Russian”.
May be this multy-national cruel mod shares the money with NYC Police bosses , that they do nothing except demagogy about “Russian mafia”?
Tell us more about it please…
Well, in 1988 the suspicion came up that she was involved in kidnapping, rape, torture and murder by members of the Mandela United Football Club who acted as bodyguards for her. She was charged in January 1989 and was found guilty in 1991 of the kidnapping of four teenagers, one of these boys was killed by her bodyguard who testified that she ordered him to punish the kid. She was convicted to six years in prison but the sentence was changed in a fine after her appeal. Later she became an assistant secretary of art, culture, science and technology but got discharged after 11 months due to reproaches of corruption.
Interesting… the initial article makes of course no mention of the terrorist bombings which put Mandela in prison in the first place. In his elevation to living sainthood, his rather unsavoury activities (understatement of the year) and those of his ex-wife appear to have been completely forgotten.
Great, misus Mandella, while her husband play a role of democrat and peace-loving activist, she make a bloody money on their countrymans ( i suspect the teenagers were black, right?)
They must have been “peaceloving” bombs that Mandela was involved with blowing people up in a “peaceloving” way then…
Um, I believe Mandela didn’t target people in his short guerrilla career, but was attacking symbolic economic targets of the regime. The people targeting came later. And no side is innocent in that conflict. The Apartheid gov’t also tortured and murdered and acted like a generally lawless state…
Which is why he divorced her fat ass…
In any case. Mandela, unlike the tinpot corrupt fascist dolts like Mugabe, was a man of his word. He served one term and at least had the pretense of building a democracy – along with a charisma and intelligence that his successors obviously lack.
I only wish there were more leaders like him…He certainly wasn’t perfect, but he could have been far, far worse…