Mandela, Mulroney shared a common bond
They may have come from very different backgrounds, but Nelson Mandela and Brian Mulroney forged a bond that lasted beyond their time in office, writes MARK KENNEDY.
Nelson Mandela found an ally
in then-prime minister Brian Mulroney and the two struck up a friendship that went beyond their political service,
On June 18, 1990, exactly 127 days after he walked out of the gates of a South African prison, Nelson Mandela entered Canada’s House of Commons to thunderous cheers and applause.
He was led into the chamber by then-prime minister Brian Mulroney, whose leadership on the international stage against South African apartheid had been impressive.
It was one of the most memorable occasions ever to occur in the Commons, as both Mandela and Mulroney delivered speeches to a packed house.
“A historic moment is in sight,” said Mandela, as he thanked Mulroney and Canadians from all walks of life for supporting South Africa’s blacks.
“It will not be long now before we, as South Africans, stand up to proclaim that the apartheid fountainhead of racism throughout the world is no more and that political power has passed into the hands of the whole people.”
“Never should racism in our country, from whatever quarter, raise its ugly head again. All of us as South Africans, both black and white, must build a common sense of nationhood in which all ideas of vengeance and retribution are impermissible.”
In his speech, Mulroney told Mandela the world was “remarkably fortunate” to have a person of such “rare qualities” leading the movement for equality in South Africa.
“To emerge from prison after so long in incarceration and to retain an understanding of the concerns of your jailers is truly extraordinary,” said Mulroney.
“To resume your life and your leadership with neither bitterness nor malice is a powerful compliment to the strength of your character and to the soundness of your values.”
More than two decades later — with the death of Mandela, at age 95 — it’s clear that Canada played a significant role in the international sanctions campaign in the years leading up to his release from prison.
And moreover, Mulroney never forgot the role played by Mandela in ending apartheid.
“Surrounded by his family, the beacon that was Nelson Mandela slowly faded to eternal peace in a Johannesburg hospital last night,” Mulroney said in a written statement Thursday.
“A precious light has gone out in the world. Let us remember though, that nothing can extinguish the flame of freedom he lit in South Africa. Nothing will dim the power of his message of tolerance, of integrity, and statesmanship.”
Over the years, Mandela and Mulroney became friends.
Theirs is a story of two men and two life experiences — one a black African lawyer who had been the imprisoned leader of an oppressed people, the other a white Canadian politician from a paper mill town on Quebec’s north shore whose personal sense of morality was deeply offended by the systemic racism in South Africa.
“Canada was a leader within the Commonwealth, and a leader in the West,” says Bernard Wood, who played a key role at the time.
Wood was head of the independent North-South Institute when Mulroney called on him in the fall of 1985 to reach out to other Commonwealth nations as his “personal representative” on how to impose sanctions on South Africa.
“It was very much driven by Mulroney’s personal convictions,” says Wood.
“He was passionate about this. He said to me, ‘ Every day, I wake up at 24 Sussex and I look across the street to the South African High Commission. And every day I get angry.’”
Starting in 1985, Mulroney spearheaded an aggressive Canadian push within the Commonwealth for sanctions to pressure the white South African government to end apartheid and release Mandela from the prison where he had been locked up for a quarter century.
That put him at odds with thenBritish prime minister Margaret Thatcher, who wrote to Mulroney: “Like you, I loathe apartheid and want to see it abolished at the earliest possible moment.”
But Thatcher steadfastly opposed sanctions because she insisted they were “counterproductive.”
Britain, with significant economic ties to South Africa, would be hurt by sanctions. She also argued that South Africans themselves would be harmed by further sanctions and that many blacks would lose their jobs, leaving their children to go starving — a consequence she described as “immoral.”
But Mulroney wasn’t buying it. He saw a nation where five million whites dominated 24 million blacks who did not have the right to vote and where racism was endemic.
“The very notion of South Africa’s apartheid was anathema to me, and while I was under no illusions about Canada’s economic strength in the world, I also knew that Canada’s role was not unimportant,” he later wrote in his memoirs.
“I viewed apartheid with the same degree of disgust that I attached to the Nazis — the authors of the most odious offence in modern history.”
“I was resolved from the moment I became prime minister that any government I headed would speak and act in the finest traditions of Canada.”
Mulroney and Thatcher had fierce internal debates, but Mulroney and his external affairs minister, Joe Clark, stuck to their guns on sanctions.
After a particularly critical August 1986 meeting in London that left an isolated Britain on the sidelines, Canada moved with other Commonwealth nations on 11 additional sanctions such as bans on new air links, new investment in South Africa and promotion of tourism to the country.
At the time, Canada was receiving no support from the United States administration, where President Ronald Reagan — in the dying years of the Cold War — also opposed sanctions and feared that Mandela and other leaders of the African National Congress were communists.
History now shows just how wrong Reagan was, and how Mulroney’s instincts were right.
Once released from prison, Mandela rejected vengeance, ended apartheid as national leader, and was transformed into a global icon for peace and tolerance.
But in the 1980s, when he needed foreign friends the most, it was Mulroney’s Canadian government who led the way. Mandela never forgot it. The day after his release from prison in 1990, he spoke with Mulroney on the telephone.
“We regard you as one of our great friends because of the solid support we have received from you and Canada over the years,” he told Mulroney, according to the Canadian prime minister’s memoirs.
“When I was in jail, having friends like you in Canada gave me more joy and support than I can say.”
Mandela said he wanted to return the favour by choosing Canada’s Parliament as the first legislature to make a speech.
“Mr. Mandela, you can count on me getting a plane over there real fast,” Mulroney replied.
Eventually, the two men forged a friendship that grew even stronger after they both left politics. On his annual business trips to South Africa, Mulroney made a point of visiting Mandela. In 2004, the aging South African sent Mulroney a letter.
“You provided strong and principled leadership in the battle against apartheid,” he wrote.
“This was not a popular position in all quarters, but South Africans today acknowledge the importance of your contribution to our eventual liberation and success.”