Review: WELCOME NELSON viewed as FIRST STEP TO FREEDOM
e TV 11 FEBRUARY 2010
PRODUCED AND DIRECTED BY CRAIG MATTHEW
The pre-release press splurb was very mischievous.
Footage of Mandela:
“being taken completely by surprise at his release.”
HUH?
“tragically identifying with his white warders in what must be one of the most acute cases of Stockholm Syndrome in history.”
HUH?
In 1980 Craig Matthew had a MAJOR international scoop when he leopard crawled through the undergrowth with his huge camera to film apartheid style demolition/forced removal tactics (Guguletu/Khayelitsha?) after a tip-off at 2 am. Those around at that time would be aware how extremely life threatening this activity was. It is to Craig’s eternal credit that he tackled this task with gusto. I shared a communal house with him and 3 others, situated in Kennilworth, a ‘coloured’ area on the ‘un’ side of Harfield Village in Cape Town. It was a lively time of political and philosophical discussion.
With Craig’s journalistic nose for being in the right spot at the right time, I had a good sense that I was about to watch something authentic and well centred. I was not disappointed.
Underlying footage of the immense historical import of this event, is an interview with Mandela, cross referenced with an interview with a cameraman at the event, Chris Everson. The interview with Mandela shows him to be an extremely astute politician, in spite of the fact that he had been insufficiently prepared for his release (the political expedience was obvious) and that he had known very little of the type of impact his release would have. In this sense Mandela, being the compassionate gentleman that his is, was thinking that he would need to bid farewell to his prison warders when he left. The frenzy of the day made sure this was never going to happen. Mandela mentions this fact IN CONTRAST to the smallness of his everydayness within the confines of prison, in relation to his sense of intimidation at having to face the WORLD at a press conference. This hardly has anything to do with ‘Stockholm Syndrome’ - after 27 years in prison!!?? The document points out that the Nationalist Party manipulated a media coup in releasing the first photograph of Nelson Mandela in 27 years, standing next to F.W.. de Klerk. Well, given that they had to face the dissolution as an illegitimate ruling party, it is little wonder that they had to try and save face. And what a monolithic Afrikaner face that was! F.W. de Klerk while just breaking short of being patronising, never the less comes across as a lotto announcer placidly trying to convince somebody of their win. In hindsight it becomes clear that P.W. knew he was doing EXACTLY that: the ANC (elite) have not won the country - they have won the lotto. Yet, as we now face the paternalism of the ANC, the paternalism of the Nationalist party was hardly any different. Apartheid kept an entire nation shackled to the past, in a vain attempt to promote the interests of a few. Thus, when apartheid came tumbling down, an entire world rushed IN. EVERYBODY had to suddenly make a huge paradigm shift. 20 years later, and many are still struggling. Mandela also makes the point that the Nationalist party had not given him enough time to prepare for his release and NOT that he was ‘taken completely by surprise’. Funny how meanings can be misread!
In the interesting cross reference interview with Chris Everson, we get insights into the media frenzy plus rapid, almost glib ‘reminders’ of what it was like under apartheid. I say ‘almost glib’ because the following 20 years have flown by so rapidly and it seems as if we are being spin doctored into thinking that ‘apartheid wasn’t that bad’. However, many of us are now wondering: where/how HAS IT SINCE gone so wrong? I wonder how many South Africans fully appreciate the immense diplomatic task that faced Nelson Mandela on his release? Quite clearly it wasn’t just a case of ‘now you can rule’!
The documentary quite chillingly shows that at exactly the same time as Mandela was being released, the Grand Parade in Cape Town was fraught with thronging masses, and apartheid-style control mechanisms (still evidenced today by the ANC). If anybody needed any proof of the REVOLUTIONARY pressure that had long since exceeded boiling point, the dense aggregation and events at the Grand Parade bear testimony. Chris Everson makes the point that the media and the international press undoubtedly played a huge part in freeing this country. It goes without saying that the black population of this country provided the REASON! It was also interesting to note that the throng of international journalists were almost 100% white.
Make NO mistake, those times were fraught with a peculiar insanity. The tensions, that hatred - 20 years later and we still have a long, long way to go. This is said not to undermine the ENORMOUS strides this country has made, nor to disrespect the fact that for the first time in South African history, the entire nation is FREE.
helgé janssen