Nelson Mandela se houding teenoor die kommunisme

Abstract

Die doel van dié artikel is om wyle oudpres. Nelson Mandela se houding teenoor die kommunisme, wat 'n wit vlek in die geskiedenis vorm, uit te lig en die mitevorming rondom die saak op 'n akademiese wyse af te breek. Die doel is pertinent nie om sy beeld af te breek nie; slegs om 'n versweë aspek van sy lewe te belig. Om dit te bereik is grotendeels staat gemaak op Mandela se eie geskrifte in die jare vyftig, voor hy tot lewenslange gevangenisstraf gevonnis is, asook twee belangrike geskrifte uit die jare sewentig, waarvan een die onlangs gepubliseerde, geheime outobiografie is wat hy op Robbeneiland geskryf het. Daar is ook staat gemaak op die nuutste bevindings van akademiese historici rakende Mandela se relatief kortstondige lidmaatskap van die SA Kommunistiese Party. Die gevolgtrekkings is kortliks dat Mandela in die laat vyftigs en vroeë sestigs 'n senior lid van die SAKP was, en dat hy dit toe om taktiese redes en met toestemming van die party laat vaar het. Verder was hy reeds in die vroeë jare vyftig 'n onkritiese aanhanger van die Marxisme-Leninisme, en hy het dié geloof minstens tot die laat jare sewentig gehou. In die loop van die jare tagtig, en veral ná sy vrylating in 1990, het hy klaarblyklik ingesien dat hy sy geloof moet wysig.

The purpose of this article is to highlight the late President Nelson Mandela's attitude towards communism, which forms a white spot in history, and to break down the myths surrounding this debate in an academic manner. The aim is not to break down his image; it is merely to throw light on a somewhat veiled aspect of his life. To do this, use was made of Mandela's own writings in the 1950s, before he was sentenced to life imprisonment, as well as two important documents written in the seventies. One is the recently published secret autobiography which he wrote on Robben Island. Use was also made of the most recent research by historians on Mandela's relatively short-lived membership of the SA Communist Party. The conclusions reached are that Mandela was indeed a senior member of the SACP in the late fifties and early sixties, and that he then let his adherence to this ideology lapse for tactical reasons and with permission of the Party. Furthermore, it is clear that as early as the 1950s he was an uncritical supporter of Marxism-Leninism, a belief which he retained at least until the late seventies. During the course of the eighties, and especially after his release in 1990, he apparently realised it was expedient to change his outlook on communism.