Nelson Mandela
Un nero nei tribunali dei bianchi

The figure of Nelson Mandela, symbolic and at the same time emblematic of the experiences of an ethnic minority, a people, a nation, is probably well-known to all my readers, both for its enormous importance and for having been the subject of numerous testimonies and narratives, even in Hollywood cinema.

Indeed, it is one of the most extraordinary personal, moral, and political stories of the 20th century, whose centrality must also be measured in relation to what happened on the African continent over the centuries: in his fight against apartheid, for the freedom and self-determination of African populations, Mandela also - but not only - represents the revenge of the indigenous civilizations against colonialism, as well as the demonstration that African peoples are capable of responding to Western exploitation through a specific vocation for democracy, or at least peaceful coexistence among peoples.

In this lies Mandela's greatness: not only a liberator of his own people from the oppression of the (alleged) "civilization" of colonizers, but also a witness to the possibility of replacing foreign "domination" and "rule" with a Civilization made primarily of coexistence and harmony between majority and minority, ethnic, political, and religious.

The short book I am reviewing here symbolizes more than any other testimony the significance of the South African leader's political activity, capturing in a manner as vivid as it is dramatic, his stance against the colonial institutions that dominated and overwhelmed the native population in 20th-century South Africa: it is a requisition made by Mandela before the judges who tried and sentenced him to prison, where he opposes the judicial system of his own country by defending not only his indomitable freedom, but also that of his people, and - in a universal aspiration - of every people or every minority oppressed by power.

Born from the oratorical art of the then young South African political leader, the book strikes today's Western reader for its classicism: certainly addressing the issue of minority segregation during the apartheid era, but at the same time, almost following in the footsteps of Antigone, it exposes (and fights against) the eternal and indomitable problem of State justice, that is, a judicial apparatus applying its formal rules, the rules of laws established by the majority, to target and legally eliminate any minority opposing it.

In the words of the Greek classics, the battle is waged against a Justice and Sovereign presented as "just", but who are "not just", since their actions, though covered and justified by the apparatus of laws, are in contrast with the deep spirit of a part of the people, as well as with the very material constitution of the country over which they claim sovereign rule. In modern language, they act within a boundary of legitimacy that is neither legitimate nor legitimized.

I confess that as an individual and citizen raised with the certainty that State, Law, and Order constituted, even before being indispensable values, an indomitable necessity for civil living, foundational elements for any civilization worthy of the name, this book represented for me a salutary punch in the stomach: it forced me to reconsider myself, as I hope will also happen to all my readers and the readers of this work.

There are many reasons why this book can speak to the numbed consciences of contemporary people.

It is a book that defends the minority, and above all, a book that pleads for the inalienable rights of Man against any Power intending to limit his indomitable freedom, his ability to act through a dangerously distorted use of public apparatuses, Judiciary and Process first.

It is sometimes read that public institutions are placed to protect Man, to guarantee his development and fundamental rights: practice, however, demonstrates how the tyranny of the majority can result in the enactment of laws aimed at compressing or suppressing the rights of minorities, especially if politically "dangerous", affecting in turn the application of laws by a Judicial Power dangerously allied with the political majority.

The effect, well represented by this book, is that of eliminating minorities, and any differing thought from that of the self-appointed majority, politically and judicially, thereby denying the very premises of the separation of powers, of democracy, and of individual freedom, which constitutes the primary foundation of democracy.

It can thus happen that a Political Leader and the People he represents, disfavored by other power groups claiming (or, very often, asserting they represent) the majority, are deprived of their political rights, the possibility of participating in public life, and the very freedom to express their Thoughts, through the arbitrary creation and application of laws wanted by the power group seeking hegemony and its allies: this is what happened in Mandela's South Africa, but it's what can happen anywhere in the world.

What remedies appear possible against arbitrariness, against abuse of power, against the actions of those who trample on their fellow humans and their values? This book has the merit of not suggesting or enchanting us with easy ways out: Mandela's civil opposition against his oppressors did not prevent him from spending many decades in prison, nor did it prevent the majority against which he fought from maintaining its power. The merit of this book is precisely that of letting us grasp the drama of the minority, the unheeded voice because it is losing and minority in comparison to the spirit of the times, and the spirit of the laws that are ferociously applied to the detriment of the defeated.

At the same time, the publication of this book represents a hope: a hope given to us by the very Truth of History, the only pronouncement with the authentic force of Judgment. Indeed, History itself shows us that the Man defeated by courts claiming to judge in the people's name, but who do so only in the specious name of the majority, will prove to be Invictus - as Eastwood's beautiful film dedicated to Mandela warns us - in the long run, demonstrating with his tenacity, and the tenacity of his heirs, how the Ideas and Spirit of a people cannot be confined behind bars, cannot be deprived of those wings of freedom that will allow them to survive any attempt at oppression.