What Kenya at 50 can learn from the legacy of Mandela

 

A woman cheers during a memorial service for former South African president Nelson Mandela. Photo/AFP 

By Canute Waswa

In Summary

• Mandela was determined to set a precedent for all who followed him, not only in South Africa but across the continent.

Two significant events have happened this last week. The first was Kenya getting into a celebratory mood as she marks 50 years of independence. The second has been the passing on of Nelson Mandela, an icon of liberation and the founding father of a free South Africa.

Mandela was on stage as president and leader of the people of South Africa for five years (1994-1999). Fourteen years later, the standing applause still echoes throughout the world.

Mandela co-founded South Africa’s first black law firm in 1952, providing legal representation to Africans for the first time. He helped start the African National Congress Youth League, which led the civil disobedience and strikes against apartheid in the 1940s and 1950s.

During his time in jail, he managed to keep pushing his equality agenda. And then through bouts of prostate cancer and tuberculosis, he continued to represent the societal change that comes from radical thought and risk taking.

Here some worthy lessons that Mandela has for us as we celebrate Kenya@50.

Play for the long run

Mandela had posterity in mind— how will they view what we’ve done?

Prison gave him the ability to take the long view. It had to, there was no other view possible. And Mandela was thinking in terms of decades, not days and weeks.

He knew history was on his side, that the result was inevitable; it was just a question of how soon. “Things will be better in the long run,” he sometimes said. He always played for the long run.

Today, Kenya’s challenges have become more complex than they were 50 years ago. But, Kenya is blessed with rich human and material resources. We can turn around Kenya’s economy within a few years and make it one of the fastest growing in Africa.

Corruption and poor governance by past regimes put us on the wrong trajectory, but we cannot make that an excuse for not doing anything.

The 50-year reflection should restore our confidence to rectify the situation and put Kenya on the path of prosperity. If Kenyans can shine in other countries, why can’t we make our country shine in the world?

 

Know your enemy

As far back as the 1960s, Mandela began studying Afrikaan, the language of the white South Africans who created apartheid.

His comrades in the ANC teased him about it, but he wanted to understand the Afrikaner’s worldview; he knew that one day he would be fighting them or negotiating with them, and either way, his destiny was tied to theirs.