Quote:The problem is that your accusations are full of holes. You posted that Nelson Mandela plead guilty to 156 acts of terrorism against civilians, when in fact he plead not guilty to the only four charges brought against him in the trial that eventually sent him to prison. None of the four charges included any accusations that he targeted civilians. Mandela later acknowledged that he was involved in acts of sabotage against military and logistical targets, specifically to minimize the chances of collateral civilian casualties.

 

Every one of the ANC attacks you cited earlier, in which civilians were clearly targeted, occurred well after Mandela had been imprisoned. I can find no evidence outside of conspiracy sites (and most of those make circumstantial cases) that he was directing events from prison, especially given the difference in those attacks from the ones for which Mandela was convicted.

 

As for the video of him singing "kill the whites", well I'm skeptical. First of all, there were a few whites allegedly singing about killing themselves, and I found some alternate translations that made the song more figurative and political. Anyway, from what I could see, Mandela wasn't singing, for what that's worth.

 

Finally, put yourself in the place of a black man in South Africa during the 50s - 80s. The oppression was so systemic, so stacked against non-whites. Much more so than the Jim Crow era of our history. At least Dr. King, Thurgood Marshall and the rest of the heroic civil rights fighters had a federal court system to use in their peaceful fight against oppression. That wasn't available in the apartheid system of South Africa. The white minority had a stranglehold on the country. There came a point where violence was the only method that would work.

 

You seem to be a freedom loving individual. Where would you draw the line?

 

I personally draw the line at the actions of Mandela and any of their kind.  Mandela was, truthfully, what I would call a terrorist; however, from what I've read, he made sure buildings were evacuated before he bombed them as well as he could.  So there's that.

 

However, I think that he certainly changed and become a very kind, compassionate, and great man.  I'm a big believer in redemption, and Mandela certainly seemed to have become different.  In my mind, he absolutely deserved his imprisonment, but came out of it a changed man.  Here's a cool quote from Desmond Tutu that captures what I'm saying:

 

Quote:But perhaps more importantly, those 27 years were not wasted. When Mandela went to prison, he was an angry young man, rightly incensed at the travesty and miscarriage of justice that had just happened, that it should be a criminal offence to demand what were but inalienable rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to which General Jan Smuts, one-time prime minister of South Africa, had given assent.

The crucible of suffering he entered was important in his evolution. The prison suffering was a continuation of a harassed existence before his arrest, when he was just always one step ahead of the security police, elusive as the Black Pimpernel, and who did not have the opportunity to enjoy a decent family life with his new young bride, Winnie.

The furnace of affliction burnt away the dross, and he progressively grew in a new spiritual depth. He began to be more patient and understanding of the foibles of others, especially of those of his jailers and the oppressors of his people and their fears of being overwhelmed by the black masses.

This is where he was purified and made to be more compassionate and magnanimous.

 

 

 Terrorist to nonviolent, compassionate rights activist.  Purty cool.

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