On the 28th of September, Nobel Prize Laureate for Literature, Abdulrazak Gurnah, delivered the 22nd Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture, a convening of international import that brings together global leaders to explore solutions to challenges facing humanity.
Being the flagship event of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, the Lecture was well-attended by notable personalities such as the Board of Trustees of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, incoming Chairman of the Foundation, Minister Naledi Pandor, former Minister Trevor Manuel, friend of the Foundation, Ms Maria Ramos, and other dignitaries.
The Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture returning to the University of the Witwatersrand is significant in that Nelson Mandela studied Law at Wits. Although he did not finish his studies at Wits, he made lifelong friends and comrades such as Ruth First, Ahmed Kathrada, Ismael Meer and George Bizos to name a few.
In his opening address, the outgoing Chairman of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, Prof Njabulo Ndebele, shared about his time with the Foundation from being one of the founding Trustees of the organisation over 20 years ago, witnessing the shutting down of Madiba’s personal office in 2010, to grieving his passing in 2013. Prof Ndebele’s leadership was lauded by Mrs Graca Machel as being of great moral authority, discernment and impact.
Prof Ndebele remarked on how we have normalised war in many parts of the world - in Ukraine, South Sudan, Yemen, Ethiopia, Somalia and Palestine to name a few. All of this calamity drives human migration, as it has always done. At the same time, however, we have not normalised the migrants fleeing these wars as human. Instead, we categorise migrants as problematic, greedy and extractive; we respond with xenophobia. Instead of expanding our notions of who belongs to us and realising our shared humanity, we respond with fear and build higher and higher barriers to migration.
Gurnah’s work in his books focuses on what it means to live in this kind of world. Particularly, it explores the kinds of damage inflicted on colonised people and the rootedness of human migration in history and in modern society. His address focused on the power of literature, of telling the truth, in realising our shared humanity.
Gurnah began by reflecting on the jubilee of the 1960s in Zanzibar, where Gurnah was born, and other parts of Africa. The decolonisation movement seemed to be reaching its zenith and African solidarity was at a high. In Zanzibar, they boycotted South African goods such as orange juice, jams and certain fruits in protest against Apartheid.
“Decolonisation made the world smaller,” reflected Gurnah, it produced a certain consciousness of a shared experience and a shared humanity. “Images of the Birmingham riots could have easily been footage of riots in Soweto,” he mused.
Those who ask “‘what is the point of literature’ will not be satisfied with the answer,” said the Nobel Prize Laureate. He explored how literature is vital to the human spirit. But more than that, literature and words preserve truthfulness across time in the face of injustice. And even further, literature creates profound opportunities for solidarity, especially amongst oppressed peoples.
Gurnah reflected on how the solidarity of the '60s was at the state level, through sanctions and official boycotts. However, it appears that contemporary solidarity primarily exists among everyday individuals who, after reading something, become more aware of shared experiences related to oppression and the shortcomings of various states in fostering human well-being. Modern solidarity is expressed, said Gurnah, through language such as the term “Global South,” a term that heightens our sense of a shared humanity, of belonging, and stimulates our desire for solidarity across borders.
The Lecture was closed off with a short dialogue between the incoming CEO of the Foundation, Dr Mbongiseni Buthelezi, and Mr Abdulrazak Gurnah where they fleshed out the efficacy of words in the face of oppression, and how words are often “all we have” in struggle.
Gurnah used the example of the genocide being committed by Israel in Palestine to demonstrate this. The cessation of the genocide “lies in the hands of those supplying the weapons (the USA),” Gurnah stated, and most people do not have the power to make them stop arming Israel’s genocide. In such a situation, “words are all we have.” Telling the truth is all we can do and it matters that we indeed do.
As a demonstration of the prevailing ties of solidarity across Africa, the Tanzanian national anthem was played. In the early 1960s, Tanzania adopted Enoch Sontonga’s “Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrica” as their national anthem, directly translated into Kiswahili. In closing, guests were then given a performance by “The Soil.” We are grateful to all our sponsors and partners for making the 22nd Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture a resounding success.