Sentiments Of A Great Man

As a follow up after the death of my hero, Lucky Dube, i wish to present a short journey through some of Dube’s songs and what he sang about. I don’t know yet what I can do to pay maximum tribute befitting this African legend, but for the moment I will borrow a piece of him which a came across from another site.

I sincerely hope that we all have learnt something from his senseless killing as Africans and that this will be our wake up call to respect each others lives and care some more about each other. That we are now warned and aware that our actions can lead to dire consequences. Not only what we do, but also what we say, should be to build each other and our Continent, not to kill or put our brothers and sisters down .We are the African.

We can not afford to continue losing these kinds of personalities. We must all take responsibility, lest our heroes die in vain.

His life was not for nothing, that we can celebrate.
His efforts were not for nothing, that we can appreciate.
His death was for nothing, that he did not deserve.
By Njoro

Lucky Dube was born on August 3 1964, with almost nothing in his favour: alcohol led to the break-up of his family, he lived with a succession of uncles and aunts, and he grew up amid hunger and poverty. More than three decades later, he is the most successful recording artist in Africa, but he has never forgotten his origins. In fact, it is his understanding of suffering that enables him to create the songs that have the power to move the world.

Serious Reggae Business marks the 10th anniversary of Lucky’s career as a reggae artist, and a year in which he was named the world’s best-selling African recording artist at the World Music Awards. The album also sends a signal to the world that Lucky Dube does not want to rest on his laurels, but rather wants to move forward by adding new influences and new technologies to his music. So, while this is largely a compilation album, it is not a greatest-hits album.

“Greatest hits are done when people are dead or when they cannot make music any more, when they don’t have any more ideas,” says Lucky. “This is not the end of everything — there’s still more to come.” He adds, with typical modestly: “Maybe I’m still going to have some hits in the future.”

Feel Irie

Lucky is best known for his stirring reggae anthems, but many of his songs explore the personal demons — in reality often senseless fears — that haunt many people and have as much impact on their lives as do the political events around them.

“The idea behind my music is I write the music about people’s fears, people’s joys, people’s dreams and everything. Feel Irie talks more about people’s fears and my fears as well, because it says there that no man can hide from his fears. Since they’re part of him, they’ll always know where to find him.”

Together as One

This is the song that Lucky acknowledges broke the “political virginity” of the state-run South African Broadcasting Corporation. The title track includes the line: “Too many people hate apartheid, why do you like it”. The first instincts at the SABC were to ban the album, but it was persuaded to reconsider its decision, and an anti-apartheid song received airplay for the first time.

“Together As One was a difficult one. Dave Segal was there and Richard Siluma was there, and when I mentioned the word apartheid — because they didn’t know the song before we did it here so they just heard me singing in the song, “Too many people hate apartheid” — they immediately stopped the tape and they said you can’t say that, you can’t say apartheid. That was what was happening at that time; you couldn’t mention that word in a song, and so we stopped and talked for a while. But eventually we thought, yes, this is what I wanted to say and this is it”.

“That was at a time when South Africa was changing, and we did not have as much trouble as we expected. The SABC wanted books and things, wanting to know where I come from, how I think, and things like that, just checking me out basically. And after that they played the song.”

Slave

Lucky’s third reggae album, Slave, was one of the great success stories of South African music, going triple gold in three months, and having sold more than half-a-million copies to date. Although the theme of Slave is the impact that alcohol has on people’s lives, the refrain “I’m just a slave, a legal slave” caught the imagination of the music-buying public.

“I’ve seen a lot of families breaking up because of drinking; I’m a victim of that. So it was just my way of trying to warn people against it, but then people read into songs, which is why maybe we write songs for people and not for ourselves. So they read that ‘legal slave’ part into the song, which I didn’t have a problem with because a song is meant for the people. That is cool, I’m happy with it, because it means that they are listening to the song, they are not just dancing to the song.”

Prisoner

If Slave changed Lucky’s life, Prisoner changed the South African recording industry. In five days, the album sold no less than 100 000 copies, and another 120 000 in the next three weeks. Ironically, in the week of its release, eight of South Africa’s longest-serving political prisoners were released from jail, a major step in South Africa’s slow road to democracy. As so many times before, Lucky had unintentionally tapped into the national spirit of freedom hungry South Africans. Yet, he has never regarded his songs as political messages.

“They are all dealing with true and real-life experiences in our day-to-day lives. That’s what they deal with: social issues, even though some people see them as political things.”

Reggae Strong for Peace

In 1991, with South Africa in the grips of political violence, the country’s top reggae acts, led by Lucky Dube, decided to play for peace. The result was the Reggae Strong for Peace concert on May 2 1991, with 14 acts performing at an all-day festival, and coming together at the end to perform a theme song written by Lucky.

“It was kind of difficult to write a song like that which was going to be sung by a lot of different people. I don’t just write a song from nowhere; I mean there’s got to be something that triggers it off. That’s maybe why I have a problem writing a song for some other guy, because I write a song about something that has happened to me or to someone next to me, something that I know about, something that I’ve seen, something that I’ve experienced.

“With the Reggae Strong for Peace song, that was like maybe all my experiences in life and so I had to take it and give my experiences to other people to sing. It was a difficult one, but it was cool.”

“The music must go with the message. Even though I’m a reggae singer, it doesn’t mean that I understand or write only reggae and nothing else. I do write other forms of music, and so thought if I did Remember Me or My Son I’m Sorry in a very groovy type of thing, maybe the message wouldn’t go to the people as it did in a ballad. It’s slow and it’s an easy-listening type of thing, so people can listen to it very easily and get the message. The music goes with the lyrics. It’s got to balance.”

My Son I’m Sorry

A few months before he put together this album, Lucky was reunited with his son, whom he had barely seen in 10 years. His former wife had refused to let him see the boy, but as strenuously as Lucky worked to push his career to new heights, so hard did he work at trying to earn the love of his son. One of the results was this song:

“I was maybe, what, about 21 or 22. I had a son at that time but we had problems between me and the mother, and so eventually I was not allowed even to go near this guy and we would see each other, like, from a distance. I didn’t want to stay away, because I have experienced that, being without a father. I didn’t want him to be without me. But the only way I thought I could talk to him in a way was through my song. I was trying to reach this guy and say, ‘I’m sorry, I wish you could understand, I wish I could talk to you, I wish I could tell you what happened.”

Remember Me

Lucky never knew his own father, but in the same way he reached forward to make contact with his son, he reached back to “talk” to his father — as well as to other children in his situation — in yet another intensely personal song.

“My music is about me, my music is me. It talks about my fears, my joys and everything. Remember Me talks about my father. I don’t know him, I’ve never seen him, maybe I saw him for two or three seconds one year, I can’t remember, but I basically don’t know him. I wrote that song not necessarily for me, but for all the children that would be in the same situation as me, because I know there are a lot of children out there who don’t know their fathers, who have never seen their fathers.”

I Want to Know What Love Is

This is a song that the whole world came to know through the work of other artists, but Lucky has breathed new life into it with his unique vocal treatment. But why this song? How does it fit into Lucky’s reggae showcase?

“South Africa needs a lot of love at the moment, and so we put that song in there just to make people aware that there is something we need here that we don’t have — we need love, and there are a lot of question marks as to what love is.”

House of Exile

On the House of Exile album, Lucky once again tapped into the national mood of the time as political prisoners were emerging from the jails and South Africa’s exiles began returning home. But there was one “exile” in particular who inspired the song.

“We all have suffered as black people or whatever, oppressed and all that, but no one has suffered like Nelson Mandela. Even though we were oppressed and everything was happening to us, at the end of the day we would all go back home to our children, wives, and everything, all our loved ones there. But he did not have that. He was just locked up there somewhere. “It doesn’t matter whether you are poor or suffering or whatever, as long as you’ve got people around you that love you, people that care for you, it’s OK, but he didn’t have that. He was in that house of exile. And as the song says, in the night we dream of Romeo and Juliet; all he dreams about is the freedom of the nation”.

Peace Perfect Peace

The Reggae Strong for Peace concert did not only mark Lucky’s first attempt to write a song for a large group of acts, but also one of the few occasions on which he performed other artists’ songs. Once again, though, it was the right song at the right time.

“We still need to maybe even educate people about peace, because we talk about it, politicians sign peace treaties which mean nothing to the people — it’s just something between the politicians, but they don’t actually talk to the people about peace, they don’t teach people about peace. I don’t think signing a treaty means anything to a guy in the street. So I think it’s every musician’s duty to try to teach people or educate people about peace.”

Victims

In 1993, Lucky captured the bitterness of a nation at war with itself on his album Victims. Lines such as “still licking wounds from brutality, still licking wounds from humiliation” were among the most heartfelt and angry Lucky had written. Critics described it as a “peace cry”. But when it was suggested Lucky had become a politician, he rejected the idea out of hand.

“I don’t know much about politics, you know, but I know about truth. I wanted to be a politician myself some time, but I just didn’t know much about corruption. Maybe that’s why I’m a musician, because I can just do what I do and just tell the truth. But if you tell the truth, they say you’re a politician.”

Nevertheless, the album quickly entered the Billboard world music charts, and set the stage for his most extensive world tour yet and the first documentary video on his life, The Man, The Music.

I’ve Got You Babe

Sometimes, Lucky Dube does sing about the simpler things in life, like love and happiness. “That’s what maybe keeps the world going,” he quips. “Man and woman.” He has no concern that people might confuse the song with an earlier hit by a 1960s duo, pointing out that “there’s a song I know that was written in 1923, called I Love You“.

It’s Not Easy

“That is me that the song is talking about, but at the same time it’s talking about a helluva lot of people out there who have also been in the same situation as I have been in the song. We all have these dreams in life, but sometimes they never come true, you know. Sometimes they just don’t become what you thought they would be and that was my situation.”

Different Colours One People

Lucky detests racism so much, he even rejects tribal identities that people try to use to categorise him, saying:

“I am just a human being. People would ask me if I’m a Zulu or a Swazi or whatever. I’m not that. God did not make Swazis, God did not make Xhosas or Zulus; God made people.” It was inevitable that he would keep putting that ideal into songs.

“I was touring Australia. They had a human rights association, and they had a campaign that they were doing there. It was called Different Colours One People, trying to get people in Australia together and just showing their different cultures and all the differences that they have there. I liked that title because it was exactly the same here in South Africa and that’s what inspired the song.”

Natural Man

Natural Man is also an intro to the next song on the album, but it does say something about the way Lucky sees himself. He is one of the most clean-living artists in reggae, and rejects even ganja, insisting that there is no real spiritual basis to its use in Rastafarianism.

“My grandfather used to smoke ganja, but not as a spiritual thing, not as a reggae or Rasta thing. He didn’t know anything about Rasta or reggae. The only reason he was smoking ganja was because at that time the only smokable thing was this ganja, before white people came with cigarettes and cigars and whatever smokable things we have today.

“That’s not to say it had some healing power or spiritual power to it. It was just a herb that people got freely and they started smoking that. It’s something that started in Africa, totally innocently, not as a Rasta or a reggae thing.”

Back to My Roots

In reggae language, getting back to your roots usually means getting back to Mother Africa, but for Lucky it has an entirely different meaning. After all, he is already deeply grounded in his African roots.

“Reggae music is what I originally wanted to do before I started doing mbaqanga music, but at that time I could not get a contract from a record company as a reggae singer, because reggae was not happening in South Africa. I had to start as an mbaqanga singer and then move on.

“So when I recorded reggae music for the first time, I was saying yes, I’m back to what I originally wanted to do, I’m back to my roots. I’m reggae. I’m reggae. There’s a song I wrote some years ago saying the bed I sleep on is a reggae bed, so even though I do other projects on the side, I’ll always be reggae.”

Was that not worth reading?

Njoro

Sweet Sleep, Sweet Prince!

It’s a dark day for reggae fans world over following the death of yet another son of Jah. Lucky Dube is well know in Africa and the world for his songs which always carry powerfull message of love, unity, peace and righteous living. His death follows that of another great messenger, Joseph Hill (culture) who dead last year.

Lucky was instrumental in the fight against apartheid in South Africa and racisism in the world. Ironically he went down by the same violence he sang against in his song “Victims”.

Personally Lucky Dube is a hero to me, his music has been not only inspirational in my life but also a source of harmony when i need peace. His death is a personal blow. His space in reggea world can never be filled.

“The killers of Lucky Dube might have ended his life with a couple of bullets. But they have failed to kill his spirit. He will live on through his music in our memory and heritage. We will always listen to his eternal voice through his music.”

Rest In Peace Soldier, You Will Never Be Forgotten!!

JAH GIVETH, JAH TAKETH!! RESPECT!

Njoro

Link to Lucky Dube’s Official Website

Hero Of The Month: Nelson Mandela!

He has dedicated his life in fighting for justice to all and equal rights, the great Nelson Mandela.

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (born 18 July 191 is a former President of South Africa, the first to be elected in fully representative democratic elections. Before his presidency, Mandela was an anti-apartheid activist and leader of the African National Congress. He spent 26 years in prison, much of it in a cell on Robben Island, for spearheading the struggle against apartheid that began after the Second World War. He had been sentenced to life imprisonment in June 1964 and was not released until February 1990.

Among opponents of apartheid in South Africa and internationally, he became a symbol of freedom and equality while the apartheid government and nations sympathetic to it condemned him and the ANC as communists and terrorists.

Following his release from prison in 1990, his switch to a policy of reconciliation and negotiation helped lead the transition to multi-racial democracy in South Africa. Since the end of apartheid, he has been widely praised, even among white South Africans and former opponents.

Birth and lineage

He was born in the small village of Mvezo in the district of Mthatha, the Transkei capital. His great-grandfather was Ngubengcuka (died 1832), the Inkosi Enkhulu or King of the Thembu people, who were eventually subjected to British colonial rule. One of the king’s sons, named Mandela, became Nelson’s grandfather and the source of his surname. However, being only the Inkosi’s child by a morganatic wife of the Ixhiba clan (the so-called “Left-Hand House”), the descendants of his branch of the royal family were not eligible to succeed to the Thembu throne.

His father, Gadla Henry Mphakanyiswa (1880 – 1928), was nonetheless designated chief of the town of Mvezo. Upon alienating the colonial authorities, however, he was deprived of his position, and moved his family to Qunu. Gadla remained, however, a member of the Inkosi’s Privy Council, and was instrumental in the ascension to the Thembu throne of Jongintaba Dalindyebo, who would later return this favour by informally adopting Mandela upon Gadla’s death.

Mandela’s father had four wives, with whom he fathered a total of thirteen children (four boys and nine girls). Mandela was born to Gadla’s third wife (’third’ by a complex royal ranking system), Nosekeni Fanny, daughter of Nkedama of the Mpemvu Xhosa clan, the dynastic Right Hand House, in whose umzi or homestead Mandela spent much of his childhood. His given name Rolihlahla means “to pull a branch of a tree”, or more colloquially, “troublemaker”.

Education

At seven years of age, Rolihlahla Mandela became the first member of his family to attend a school, where he was given the name “Nelson,” after the British admiral Horatio Nelson, by a
Methodist teacher who found his native name difficult to pronounce.

His father died of tuberculosis when Rolihlahla was nine, and the Regent, Jongintaba, became his guardian. Mandela attended a Wesleyan mission school next door to the palace of the Regent.

Following Thembu custom, he was initiated at age sixteen, and attended Clarkebury Boarding Institute. He completed his Junior Certificate in two years, instead of the usual three. Destined to inherit his father’s position as a privy councillor, in 1937 Mandela moved to Healdtown, the Wesleyan college in Fort Beaufort which most Thembu royalty attended.

Aged nineteen, he took an interest in boxing and running. After matriculating, he started to study for a B.A. at the Fort Hare University, where he met Oliver Tambo, and the two became lifelong friends and colleagues. He also became close friends with his kinsman, Kaiser (”K.D.”) Matanzima who, however, as royal scion of the Thembu Right Hand House, was destined for the throne of Transkei, a role that later led him to embrace Bantustan policies which made he and Mandela political enemies. At the end of Nelson’s first year, he became involved in a boycott by the Students’ Representative Council against the university policies, and was asked to leave Fort Hare.

Later, while imprisoned, Mandela studied for a Bachelor of Laws from the University of London External Programme.

Move to Johannesburg

Shortly after leaving Fort Hare, Jongintaba announced to Mandela and Justice (the Regent’s own son and heir to the throne) that he had arranged marriages for both of them. Both young men were displeased by this and rather than marry, they elected to flee the comforts of the Regent’s estate to go to Johannesburg.

Upon his arrival, Mandela initially found employment as a guard at a mine. However, this was quickly terminated after the employer learned that Mandela was the Regent’s runaway adopted son. He later started work as an articled clerk at a law firm thanks to connections with his friend, lawyer Walter Sisulu. While working there, he completed his B.A. degree at the University of South Africa via correspondence, after which he started with his law studies at the University of Witwatersrand. During this time Mandela lived in Alexandra township, north of Johannesburg.

Political activity

After the 1948 election victory of the Afrikaner-dominated National Party with its apartheid policy of racial segregation, Mandela was prominent in the ANC’s 1952 Defiance Campaign and the 1955 Congress of the People, whose adoption of the Freedom Charter provided the fundamental program of the anti-apartheid cause.

During this time, Mandela and fellow lawyer Oliver Tambo operated the law firm of Mandela and Tambo, providing free or low-cost legal counsel to many blacks who would otherwise have been without representation.

Mandela’s approach was influenced by Mahatma Gandhi, who inspired him and succeeding generations of South African anti-apartheid activists. Indeed, Mandela took part in the 29 January - 30 January 2007 conference in New Delhi which marked the 100th anniversary of Gandhi’s introduction of satyagraha in South Africa.

Initially committed to non-violent mass struggle, Mandela was arrested with 150 others on 5 December 1956 and charged with treason. The marathon Treason Trial of 1956-61 followed, and all were acquitted.From152-59 the ANC experienced disruption as a new class of Black activists (Africanists) emerged in the townships demanding more drastic steps against the National Party regime.

The ANC leadership of Albert Luthuli, Oliver Tambo and Walter Sisulu felt not only that events were moving too fast, but also that their leadership was challenged. They consequently bolstered their position by alliances with small White, Coloured and Indian political parties in an attempt to appear to have a wider appeal than the Africanists.

In 1961, Mandela became the leader of the ANC’s armed wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe (translated as Spear of the Nation, also abbreviated as MK), which he co-founded. He coordinated a sabotage campaign against military and government targets, and made plans for a possible guerrilla war if sabotage failed to end apartheid.

A few decades later, MK did wage a guerrilla war against the regime, especially during the 1980s, in which many civilians were killed. Mandela also raised funds for MK abroad, and arranged for paramilitary training, visiting various African governments.

Mandela explains the move to embark on armed struggle as a last resort, when increasing repression and violence from the state convinced him that many years of non-violent protest against apartheid had achieved nothing and could not succeed.

Mandela later admitted that the ANC, in its struggle against apartheid, also violated human rights, and has sharply criticized attempts by parts of his party to remove statements supporting this fact from the reports of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Arrest and Rivonia trial

On 5 August 1962 Mandela was arrested after living on the run for seventeen months, and was imprisoned in the Johannesburg Fort. The arrest was allegedly made possible because the CIA tipped off the police as to Mandela’s whereabouts and disguise. Three days later, the charges of leading workers to strike in 1961 and leaving the country illegally were read to him during a court appearance. On 25 October 1962, Mandela was sentenced to five years in prison. Two years later on 11 June 1964, a verdict had been reached concerning his previous engagement in the African National Congress (ANC).

While Mandela was imprisoned, police arrested prominent ANC leaders on 11 July 1963, at Liliesleaf Farm, Rivonia, north of Johannesburg. Mandela was brought in, and at the Rivonia Trial, Mandela, Ahmed Kathrada, Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki, Andrew Mlangeni, Raymond Mhlaba, Elias Motsoaledi, Walter Mkwayi (who escaped during trial), Arthur Goldreich (who escaped from prison before trial), Denis Goldberg and Lionel “Rusty” Bernstein were charged by the chief prosecutor Dr. Percy Yutar, the deputy attorney-general of the Transvaal, with the capital crimes of sabotage (which Mandela admitted) and crimes which were equivalent to treason, but easier for the government to prove.

The second charge accused the defendants of plotting a foreign invasion of South Africa, which Mandela denied.In his statement from the dock at the opening of the defence case in the trial on 20 April 1964 at Pretoria Supreme Court, Mandela laid out the clarity of reasoning in the ANC’s choice to use violence as a tactic. His statement revealed how the ANC had used peaceful means to resist apartheid for years until the Sharpeville Massacre.

That event coupled with the referendum establishing the Republic of South Africa and the declaration of a state of emergency along with the banning of the ANC made it clear that their only choice was to resist through acts of sabotage. Doing otherwise would have been tantamount to unconditional surrender.

Mandela went on to explain how they developed the Manifesto of Umkhonto we Sizwe on 16 December 1961 intent on exposing the failure of the National Party’s policies after the economy would be threatened by foreigners’ unwillingness to risk investing in the country. He closed his statement with these words:

“During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to the struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.”

All except Rusty Bernstein were found guilty, but they escaped the gallows and were sentenced to life imprisonment on 12 June 1964. Charges included involvement in planning armed action, in particular four charges of sabotage, which Mandela admitted to, and a conspiracy to help other countries invade South Africa, which Mandela denied.

Imprisonment

Nelson Mandela was imprisoned on Robben Island where he remained for the next eighteen of his twenty-seven years in prison.

On the island, he and others performed hard labour in a lime quarry. Prison conditions were very basic. Prisoners were segregated by race, with black prisoners receiving the fewest rations. Political prisoners were kept separate from ordinary criminals and received fewer privileges.

Mandela describes how, as a D-group prisoner (the lowest classification) he was allowed one visitor and one letter every six months. Letters, when they came, were often delayed for long periods and made unreadable by the prison censors.

Whilst in prison Mandela undertook study with the University of London by correspondence through its External Programme and received the degree of Bachelor of Laws. He was subsequently nominated for the position of Chancellor of the University of London in the 1981 election, but lost to Princess Anne.

In his 1981 memoir Inside BOSS secret agent Gordon Winter describes his involvement in a plot to rescue Mandela from prison in 1969: this plot was infiltrated by Winter on behalf of South African intelligence, who wanted Mandela to escape so as to be able to shoot him during recapture. The plot was foiled by British Intelligence.

In March 1982 Mandela was moved from Robben Island to Pollsmoor Prison, along with other senior ANC leaders Walter Sisulu, Andrew Mlangeni, Ahmed Kathrada and Raymond Mhlaba. It was speculated that this was to remove the influence of these senior leaders on the new generation of young black activists imprisoned on Robben Island, the so-called “Mandela University”. However, National Party minister Kobie Coetzee says that the move was to enable discreet contact between them and the South African government

In February 1985 President P.W. Botha offered Mandela conditional release in return for renouncing armed struggle. Coetzee and other ministers had advised Botha against this, saying that Mandela would never commit his organisation to giving up the armed struggle in exchange for personal freedom.

Mandela indeed spurned the offer, releasing a statement via his daughter Zindzi saying:

“What freedom am I being offered while the organisation of the people remains banned? Only free men can negotiate. A prisoner cannot enter into contracts.”

Throughout Mandela’s imprisonment, local and international pressure mounted on the South African government to release him, under the resounding slogan Free Nelson Mandela!

In 1989, South Africa reached a crossroads when Botha suffered a stroke and was replaced as president by Frederik Willem de Klerk. De Klerk announced Mandela’s release in February 1990.
Release

On 2 February 1990, State President F.W. de Klerk unbanned the ANC and other anti-apartheid organisations, and announced that Mandela would shortly be released from prison. Mandela was released from Victor Verster Prison in Paarl on 11 February 1990. The event was broadcast live all over the world.

On the day of his release, Mandela made a speech to the nation. He declared his commitment to peace and reconciliation with the country’s white minority, but made it clear that the ANC’s armed struggle was not yet over:

“Our resort to the armed struggle in 1960 with the formation of the military wing of the ANC (Umkhonto we Sizwe) was a purely defensive action against the violence of apartheid. The factors which necessitated the armed struggle still exist today. We have no option but to continue. We express the hope that a climate conducive to a negotiated settlement would be created soon, so that there may no longer be the need for the armed struggle.”

He also said his main focus was to bring peace to the black majority and give them the right to vote in both national and local elections.

Negotiations

Following his release from prison, Mandela returned to the leadership of the ANC and, between 1990 and 1994, led the party in the multi-party negotiations that led to the country’s first multi-racial elections.

In 1991, the ANC held its first national conference in South Africa after its unbanning, electing Mandela as President of the organization. His old friend and colleague Oliver Tambo, who had led the organization in exile during Mandela’s imprisonment, became National Chairperson.

Mandela’s leadership through the negotiations, as well as his relationship with President F.W. de Klerk, was recognised when they were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993.
Following the assassination of senior ANC leader Chris Hani in April 1993, there were renewed fears that the country would erupt in violence. Mandela addressed the nation appealing for calm, in a speech regarded as ‘presidential’ even though he was not yet president of the country at that time:

“Tonight I am reaching out to every single South African, black and white, from the very depths of my being. A white man, full of prejudice and hate, came to our country and committed a deed so foul that our whole nation now teeters on the brink of disaster. A white woman, of Afrikaner origin, risked her life so that we may know, and bring to justice, this assassin. The cold-blooded murder of Chris Hani has sent shock waves throughout the country and the world. …Now is the time for all South Africans to stand together against those who, from any quarter, wish to destroy what Chris Hani gave his life for – the freedom of all of us.”

While some riots did follow the assassination, the negotiators were galvanised into action, and soon agreed that democratic elections should take place on 27 april 1994, just over a year after Hani’s assassination.

Policy of reconciliation

As President from May 1994 until June 1999, Mandela presided over the transition from minority rule and apartheid, winning international respect for his advocacy of national and international reconciliation.

Invasion of Lesotho

In South Africa’s first post-apartheid military operation, Mandela ordered troops into Lesotho in September 1998 to protect the government of Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili. This came after a disputed election prompted fierce opposition threatening the unstable government.

Marriage and family

Mandela has been married three times, has fathered six children, has twenty grandchildren, and a growing number of great-grandchildren. His grandson is Chief Mandla Mandela.

Mandela’s first marriage was to Evelyn Ntoko. Couple had two sons, Madiba Thembekile (Thembi) (born 1946) and Makgatho (born 1950), and two daughters, both named Makaziwe (known as Maki; born 1947 and 1953). Their first daughter died aged nine months, and they named their second daughter in her honour.

The couple broke up in 1957 after 13 years, divorcing under the multiple strains of his constant absences, devotion to revolutionary agitation, and the fact she was a Jehovah’s Witness, a religion which requires political neutrality. Thembi was killed in a car crash in 1969 at the age of 25, while Mandela was imprisoned on Robben Island. All their children were educated at the Waterford Kamhlaba. Evelyn Mase died in 2004.

Second marriage

Mandela’s second wife was, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela.They had two daughters, Zenani (Zeni), born 4 February 1958, and Zindziswa (Zindzi), born 1960. Later, Winnie would be deeply torn by family discord which mirrored the country’s political strife; while her husband was serving a life sentence on the Robben Island prison, her father became the agriculture minister in the Transkei. The marriage ended in separation (April 1992) and divorce (March 1996), fuelled by political estrangement.

Their daughter, Zenani, was married to Prince Thumbumuzi Dlamini in 1973, elder brother of King Mswati III of Swaziland. As a member by marriage of a reigning foreign dynasty, she was able to visit her father during his South African imprisonment while other family members were denied access. The Dlamini couple lives and run a business in Boston.

One of their sons, Prince Cedza Dlamini (born 1976), educated in the United States, has followed in his grandfather’s footsteps as an international advocate for human rights and humanitarian aid.

Thumbumuzi and Mswati’s sister, Princess Mantfombi Dlamini, is the chief consort to King Goodwill Zwelithini of KwaZulu-Natal, who “reigns but does not rule” over South Africa’s largest ethnic group under the auspices of South Africa’s government. One of Queen Mantfombi’s sons is expected to eventually succeed Goodwill as monarch of the Zulus, whose Inkatha Party leader, Mangosuthu Buthelezi, was the rival of Mandela during much of his presidency.

Third marriage

Mandela himself was re-married in 1998, on his 80th birthday, to Graça Machel née Simbine, widow of Samora Machel, the former Mozambican president and ANC ally killed in an air crash 12 years earlier.

Mandela still maintains a home at Qunu in the realm of his royal nephew (second cousin thrice-removed in Western reckoning), whose university expenses he defrayed and whose privy councillor he remains.

Retirement

Mandela became the oldest elected President of South Africa when he took office at the age of 77 in 1994. He decided not to stand for a second term as President, and instead retired in 1999, to be succeeded by Thabo Mbeki.

Iraq invasion views

In 2003 Mandela criticised the foreign policy of the George W. Bush administration in a number of speeches. Criticizing the lack of UN involvement in the decision to begin the War in Iraq, he said, “It is a tragedy, what is happening, what Bush is doing. But Bush is now undermining the United Nations”. Mandela stated he would support action against Iraq only if it is ordered by the UN. Mandela also insinuated that Bush may have been motivated by racism in not following the UN and its secretary-general Kofi Annan on the issue of the war.

“Is it because the secretary-general of the United Nations is now a black man? They never did that when secretary-generals were white”.

“What I am condemning is that one power, with a president who has no foresight, who cannot think properly, now wants to plunge the world into a holocaust.”

“If there is a country that has committed unspeakable atrocities in the world, it is the United States of America. They don’t care.”

Orders and decorations

Mandela has received many South African, foreign and international honours, including the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993, the Order of Merit and the Order of St. John from Queen Elizabeth II and the Presidential Medal of Freedom from George W. Bush.

In July 2004, the city of Johannesburg bestowed its highest honour on Mandela by granting him the freedom of the city at a ceremony in Orlando, Soweto.

In 2001, he was the first living person to be made an honorary Canadian citizen. While in Canada, he was also made an honorary Companion of the Order of Canada, one of the few foreigners to receive Canada’s highest honour.

In 1990 he received the Bharat Ratna Award from the government of India.

In 1992 he was awarded the Atatürk Peace Award by Turkey. He refused the award citing human rights violations committed by Turkey at the time, but later accepted the award in 1999.

Marianne Williamson quotation

The following famous text by Marianne Williamson is often claimed to have been spoken by Mandela at his inauguration as President of South Africa. This is an urban myth; there is no record of Mandela ever having spoken these words in public:

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us, it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

Re-edited and published by Njoro.

Hero Of The Month, Bob Marley.

Bob Marley is and allways has been and will be a hero by that he dedicated his musical, entertainment and political abilities to the uplifting of the black man, the African.
No matter how hard the going got tough the “Toff Gong” was always going and did to the last minute. Harrasment, up to threatening his life did not stop this black soul from declaring, demanding and teaching for the benefit of the oppresssed black. His people, Jah people.

Bob Marley was born Robert “Nesta” Marley on February 6, 1945 and died at the tender age of 36 on May 11, 1981, too soon. He was a Jamaican singer, songwriter, guitarist, and political activist. He is the most widely known performer of reggae music, and is famous for popularising the genre outside Jamaica. A faithful Rastafari, Marley is regarded by many as a prophet of the religion.

Marley is best known for his reggae songs, which include the hits “I Shot the Sheriff”, “No Woman, No Cry”, “Three Little Birds”, “Exodus”, “Could You Be Loved”, “Jammin”, “Redemption Song”, and “One Love”. His posthumous compilation album Legend (1984) is the best-selling reggae album ever, with sales of more than 12 million copies.

Early life and career

Marley was born in the small village of Nine Mile in the Saint Ann Parish, Jamaica. His father, Norval Sinclair Marley born in 1895, was a white (light) Jamaican of English descent, with parents from Sussex. Norval was a Marine officer and captain, as well as a plantation overseer, when he married Cedella Booker, then an eighteen-year-old black Jamaican country girl. Norval provided financial support for his wife and child, but seldom saw them, as he was often away on trips. The Marley family did not accept this son nor his mother because at the time they were “too dark”. Marley was ten years old when his father died of a heart attack in 1955 at age 60.

Marley suffered racial prejudice as a youth, because of his mixed racial origins, and faced questions about his own racial identity throughout his life. He was too light to be black and too dark to be white. He once reflected.

“I don’t have prejudice against myself. My father was a white and my mother was black. Them call me half-caste or whatever. Me don’t dip on nobody’s side. Me don’t dip on the black man’s side nor the white man’s side. Me dip on God’s side, the one who create me and cause me to come from black and white”

Marley and his mother moved to Kingston’s Trenchtown slum after Norval’s death. He was forced to learn self-defense, as he became the target of bullying because of his racial makeup and small stature (5′4″ or 163 cm tall). He gained a reputation for his physical strength, which earned him the nickname “Tuff Gong”.

Marley became friends with Neville “Bunny” Livingston (later known as Bunny Wailer), with whom he started to play music. He left school at the age of 14 and started as an apprentice at a local welder’s shop. In his free time, he and Livingston made music with Joe Higgs, a local singer and devout Rastafari who is regarded by many as Marley’s mentor. It was at a jam session with Higgs and Livingston that Marley met Peter McIntosh (later known as Peter Tosh), who had similar musical ambitions.

In 1962, Marley recorded his first two singles, “Judge Not” and “One Cup of Coffee”, with local music producer Leslie Kong. These songs, released on the Beverley’s label under the pseudonym of Bobby Martell, attracted little attention. The songs were later re-released on the album Songs of Freedom, a posthumous collection of Marley’s songs.

Musical career

The Wailers

In 1963, Bob Marley, Bunny Livingston, Peter McIntosh, Junior Braithwaite, Beverley Kelso, and Cherry Smith formed a ska and rocksteady group, calling themselves “The Teenagers”. They later changed their name to “The Wailing Rudeboys”, then to “The Wailing Wailers”, and finally to “The Wailers”. By 1966, Braithwaite, Kelso, and Smith had left The Wailers, leaving the core trio of Marley, Livingston, and McIntosh.

Marley took on the role of leader, singer, and main songwriter. Much of The Wailers’ early work, including their first single Simmer Down, was produced by Coxsone Dodd at Studio One. Simmer Down topped Jamaican Charts in 1964 and established The Wailers as one of the hottest groups in the country. They followed up with songs such as “Soul Rebel” and “400 Years”.

In 1966, Marley married Rita Anderson, and moved near his mother’s residence in Wilmington, Delaware for a few months. Upon returning to Jamaica, Marley became a member of the Rastafari movement, and started to wear his trademark dreadlocks.

The dreadlocks surprisingly as it may sound originate from the Kenyan freedom fighters, the Mau Mau, and it was from them that the Rastafaris adopted this trademark, recognising themselves and associating themselves with this movement.

After a conflict with Dodd, Marley and his band teamed up with Lee “Scratch” Perry and his studio band, The Upsetters. Although the alliance lasted less than a year, they recorded what many consider The Wailers’ finest work. Marley and Perry split after a dispute regarding the assignment of recording rights, but they would remain friends and work together again.

The Wailers’ first album, Catch A Fire, was released worldwide in 1973, and sold well. It was followed a year later by Burnin’, which included the songs “Get Up, Stand Up” and “I Shot The Sheriff”. Eric Clapton made a hit cover of “I Shot the Sheriff” in 1974, raising Marley’s international profile.

The Wailers broke up in 1974 with each of the three main members going on to pursue solo careers. The reason for the breakup is shrouded in conjecture; some believe that there were disagreements amongst Livingston, McIntosh, and Marley concerning performances, while others claim that Livingston and McIntosh simply preferred solo work. McIntosh began recording under the name Peter Tosh, and Livingston continued as Bunny Wailer.

Bob Marley & The Wailers

Despite the breakup, Marley continued recording as “Bob Marley & The Wailers”. His new backing band included brothers Carlton and Aston “Family Man” Barrett on drums and bass respectively, Junior Marvin and Al Anderson on lead guitar, Tyrone Downie and Earl “Wya” Lindo on keyboards, and Alvin “Seeco” Patterson on percussion. The “I Threes”, consisting of Judy Mowatt, Marcia Griffiths, and Marley’s wife, Rita, provided backing vocals.

In 1975, Marley had his international breakthrough with his first hit outside Jamaica, “No Woman, No Cry” from the Natty Dread album. This was followed by his breakthrough album in the US, Rastaman Vibration (1976), which spent four weeks on the Billboard charts Top Ten.

In December 1976, two days before “Smile Jamaica”, a free concert organized by the Jamaican Prime Minister Michael Manley in an attempt to ease tension between two warring political groups, Marley, his wife, and manager Don Taylor were wounded in an assault by unknown gunmen inside Marley’s home. Taylor and Marley’s wife sustained serious injuries, but later made full recoveries. Bob Marley received only minor injuries in the chest and arm. The shooting was thought to have been politically motivated, as many felt the concert was really a support rally for Manley. Nonetheless, the concert proceeded, and an injured Marley performed as scheduled.

Marley left Jamaica at the end of 1976 for England, where he recorded his Exodus and Kaya albums. Exodus stayed on the British album charts for 56 consecutive weeks. It included four UK hit singles: “Exodus”, “Waiting In Vain”, “Jamming”, “One Love”, and a rendition of Curtis Mayfield’s hit, “People Get Ready”. It was here that he was arrested and received a conviction for possession of a small quantity of cannabis while traveling in London.

Main article: One Love Peace Concert

In 1978, Marley performed at another political concert in Jamaica, the One Love Peace Concert, again in an effort to calm warring parties. Near the end of the performance, by Marley’s request, Manley and his political rival, Edward Seaga, joined each other on stage and shook hands.

Survival, a defiant and politically charged album, was released in 1979. Tracks such as “Zimbabwe”, “Africa Unite”, “Wake Up and Live”, and “Survival” reflected Marley’s support for the struggles of Africans. In early 1980, he was invited to perform at the April 17 celebration of Zimbabwe’s Independence Day.

Uprising (1980) was Bob Marley’s final studio album, and is one of his most religious productions, including “Redemption Song” and “Forever Loving Jah”. It was in “Redemption Song” that Marley sang the famous lyric,

“ Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery
None but ourselves can free our minds… ”

Confrontation, released posthumously in 1983, contained unreleased material recorded during Marley’s lifetime, including the hit “Buffalo Soldier” and new mixes of singles previously only available in Jamaica.

Later years

Cancer diagnosis

In July 1977, Marley was found to have malignant melanoma in a football wound on his right hallux (big toe). Marley refused amputation, citing worries that the operation would affect his dancing, as well as the Rastafari belief that the body must be “whole”:

“ Rasta no abide amputation. I don’t allow a man to be dismantled. ”
was Bob’s explanation in the biography Catch a Fire.

Marley may have seen medical doctors as samfai (tricksters, deceivers). True to this belief Marley went against all surgical possibilities and sought out other means that would not break his religious beliefs. He also refused to register a will, based on the Rastafari belief that writing a will is acknowledging death as inevitable, thus disregarding the everlasting character of life.

Bob is also said to have predicted (prophesied) his own death earlier, to come to pass at around his age of late 30s.

Collapse and treatment

The cancer then spread to Marley’s brain, lungs, liver, and stomach. After playing two shows at Madison Square Garden as part of his fall 1980 Uprising Tour, he collapsed while jogging in NYC’s Central Park. The remainder of the tour was subsequently cancelled.

Bob Marley played his final concert at the Stanley Theater in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on September 23, 1980. The live version of “Redemption Song” on Songs of Freedom was recorded at this show. Marley afterwards sought medical help from Munich specialist Josef Issels, but his cancer had already progressed to the terminal stage.

Death and posthumous reputation

While flying home from Germany to Jamaica for his final days, Marley became ill, and landed in Miami for immediate medical attention. He died at Cedars of Lebanon Hospital in Miami, Florida on the morning of May 11, 1981 at the age of 36. His final words to his son Ziggy were “Money can’t buy life.” Marley received a state funeral in Jamaica, which combined elements of Ethiopian Orthodoxy and Rastafari tradition. He was buried in a crypt near his birthplace with his Gibson Les Paul, a soccer ball, a marijuana bud, a ring that he wore every day that was given to him by the Prince Asfa Wossen of Ethiopia (eldest son of HIM), and a Bible. A month before his death, he was awarded the Jamaican Order of Merit.

Bob Marley’s music has continuously grown in popularity in the years since his death, providing a stream of revenue for his estate and affording him a mythical status in 20th century music history. He remains enormously popular and well-known all over the world, particularly so in Africa. Marley was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994. Time magazine chose Bob Marley & The Wailers’ Exodus as the greatest album of the 20th century.

In 2001, the same year that Marley was posthumously awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, a feature-length documentary about his life, Rebel Music, was nominated for Best Long Form Music Video documentary at the Grammys. It won various other awards. With contributions from Rita, the Wailers, and Marley’s lovers and children, it also tells much of the story in his own words.

In Summer 2006, the City of New York renamed a portion of Church Avenue from Ramsen Avenue to East 98th Street in the East Flatbush Section of Brooklyn Bob Marley Blvd.

Religion

Bob Marley was a member of the Rastafari movement, whose culture was a key element in the development of reggae. Bob Marley became the leading proponent of the Rastafari, taking their music out of the socially deprived areas of Jamaica and onto the international music scene.

Now considered a “Rasta” legend, Marley’s adoption of the characteristic Rastafari dreadlocks and famous use of cannabis as a sacred sacrament in the late sixties were an integral part of his persona. He is said to have entered every performance proclaiming the divinity of Jah Rastafari.

Many of Marley’s songs contained Biblical references, sometimes using wordplay to fuse activism and religion, as in “Revolution” and “Revelation”:

“ Revelation reveals the truth … ”
“ It takes a revolution to make a solution … ”

Children

Bob Marley had 13 children: three with his wife Rita, two adopted from Rita’s previous relationships, and the remaining eight with separate women. His children are, in order of birth:

Imani Carole, born May 22, 1963, to Cheryl Murray;
Sharon, born November 23, 1964, to Rita in previous relationship;
Cedella Marley born August 23, 1967, to Rita;
David “Ziggy”, born October 17, 1968, to Rita;
Stephen, born April 20, 1972, to Rita;
Robert “Robbie”, born May 16, 1972, to Pat Williams;
Rohan, born May 19, 1972, to Janet Hunt;
Karen, born 1973 to Janet Bowen;
Stephanie, born August 17, 1974; according to Cedella Booker she was the daughter of Rita and a man called Ital with whom Rita had an affair; nonetheless she was acknowledged as Bob’s daughter;
Julian, born June 4, 1975, to Lucy Pounder;
Ky-Mani, born February 26, 1976, to Anita Belnavis;
Damian, born July 21, 1978, to Cindy Breakspeare;
Makeda, born May 30, 1981, to Yvette Crichton;

Awards and honors

Marley’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame1976.
June 1978: Awarded the Peace Medal of the Third World from the United Nations
February 1981: Awarded Jamaica’s third highest honor, the Jamaican Order of Merit
March 1994: Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
1999: Album of the Century for Exodus (Time Magazine)
February 2001: A star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
February 2001: Awarded Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award
2004: Rolling Stone Magazine ranked him #11 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.
“One Love” named song of the millennium by The BBC
Voted as one of the greatest lyricists of all time by a BBC poll.

In all his songs, his work and his message Bob Marley fought for the rights of the black man,peace and reunion of the African continent.

Bob believed in the equality of the human race, not color, not tribe but I-manity (humanity), was his theme.

By his voice he remains a hero forever.

Picked from the Wikipedia, modified by I and I ManNjoro. Irie.