Mandela’s lessons are ‘about right now’
South African justice forged a lifelong bond with his former cellmate
“Who is Nelson Mandela?”
Standing before a sold-out room as part of the inauguration of the Nelson Mandela Lectureship in Human Rights event, Nelson’s Mandela’s former cellmate South African Justice Dikgang Moseneke asked what was surely a rhetorical question. “Most people in the world who can see and hear know who Nelson Mandela is and what he stood for.” He was a man who fought apartheid oppression, a man who opened the first Black legal firm in South Africa and a man who was imprisoned for 27 years for his political activism. But to Moseneke, who met Mandela in Robben Island prison, he was a father figure and a mentor. Moseneke, now 70, was the former deputy president of the Constitutional Court of South Africa. It was when he was just 15 years old and had been sentenced to 10 years of hard labour for his involvement in the anti-apartheid movement that he met Mandela in prison. It was there that a lifelong bond was forged.
As Moseneke addressed the room discussing Mandela’s many achievements and legacy, he noted that we’re now living in a time where alt-right ideals are emboldened, crimes against humanity are steadily increasing and social inequality is prevalent. Mandela’s teachings remain paramount.
“I wish that such stories only lived in the past, but the lessons he can teach us are not just about the past,” he said. “They’re about right now.” Moseneke spoke of his friend’s ongoing resiliency in times of darkness. Mandela was willing to give up everything for what he believed in — even his life, Moseneke said, noting that Mandela would have turned 100 this year.
He quoted from Mandela’s “I am prepared to die speech” made in April 1964 at the Rivonia trial at which he was found guilty of sabotage and sentenced to life imprisonment.
“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,” he recited.
“Ladies and gentleman we all owe him an enormous debt of gratitude,” Moseneke said.
The event was held at the University of Toronto St. George campus and organized by the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights in partnership with the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy and the Canadian Museum for Human Rights.