The passing on of South Africa`s former President Nelson Mandela has triggered a serious debate around the world, especially on social media platforms, as to whether he was a hero or a villain.
Some say that he betrayed the African struggle pointing out that he was a stooge of the west, while others saying he managed to reconcile the black man and the white man.
Said one person on facebook: “I’m failing to find what exactly to celebrate in, of Nelson Mandela, that he was imprisoned for 27 years by the apartheid system that continues today, if informally?”
Daughter to legendary musician Oliver Mutukudzi, Selmor Mutukudzi said Mandela`s death must not be taken as sad.
“Come on people, Mandela’s passing is not sad…he was 94,” she said.
Another person said: “They are celebrating that he (Mandela) perpetuated the manipulation of the black South Africans by the white man who pushed them (blacks) to the peripherals of the economic system.
“Now that they had the power from 1994, why is it the mere blacks are still marginalised in all spheres despite having the guidance of the “great” leader like how you are putting it…. right now in south Africa, 86 percent of land is owned largely by whites who are not even a third of the around 46 or 47 million people.”
A Malawian who is studying at a University in South Africa had this to about the passing on of Mandela.
“I have quite little to celebrate. the hardest time in my life is right now when lm studying in south Africa at a very racist university and in a city full of marginalisation and discrimination based on first race, then culture and of course nationality.”
On the other hand, others said Mandela is a world hero and he is worth celebrating.
America’s first black president Barack Obama mourned Nelson Mandela as a “profoundly good” man who “took history in his hands and bent the arc of the moral universe towards justice.”
“Prisoner to a president, he transformed South Africa and “moved all of us.”
“He achieved more than could be expected of any man.”
“Today he’s gone home and we’ve lost one of the most influential, courageous and profoundly good human beings that any of us will share time with on this Earth.
“He no longer belongs to us; he belongs to the ages.”
“I will never forget my friend Madiba,” Bill Clinton said in a tweet, accompanied by a photo of him and Mandela together.
“History will remember Nelson Mandela as a champion for human dignity and freedom, for peace and reconciliation,” Clinton, who was president when Mandela took power, said in a longer statement.
Jimmy Carter said that Mandela’s passion for “freedom and justice created new hope for generations of oppressed people worldwide.”
“Because of him, South Africa is today one of the world’s leading democracies,” Carter said in a statement.
George H.W. Bush said he had watched in wonder as Mandela forgave his captors following 26 years in jail — “setting a powerful example of redemption and grace for us all.”
“He was a man of tremendous moral courage, who changed the course of history in his country,” Bush senior said.
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