By Sandra Whitehead

July/August 2023

On May 21, the grandson of anti-Apartheid activist and South Africa’s first president, Nelson Mandela boarded a 16-hour flight from Chicago back to Cape Town, South Africa. He had just wrapped up an intense six-day, six-city U.S. tour to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Nakba. Nakba means  catastrophe in Arabic. It refers to the expulsion of Palestinians from their homeland in 1948.

Nkosi Zwelivelile Mandela is a member of the South African parliament and chief of the Mvezo Traditional Council. His tour was sponsored by the U.S. Palestinian Community Network and the National Alliance Against Racist & Political Repression, a national group that organizes action against unjust treatment of individuals because of race or political beliefs. He visited Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Cleveland, Orange County, San Francisco, and Chicago. Local activists and progressive organizations in each city also contributed to hosting events.

In a message to Islamic Horizons on the morning after his final event in Chicago, Mandela said, “We managed to achieve what we set out to, linking up with the historical anti-apartheid movement, growing international solidarity and meeting with progressive partners. I want to thank the sponsors, USPCN and NAARPR, who have done well. The work of building a strong international solidarity network is an arduous task and cannot be accomplished overnight. It is evident, though, that you have put in much effort over the years and built sound relations across many sectors of society.”

USPCN National Chair Hatem Abudayyeh called it an incredibly successful tour. He shared the goals that were set and met:

• Getting him in front of not only Palestinians and Arabs, but also Black people, Chicanos/Latinos, other oppressed and working-class communities and other historical allies like labor rights, immigrant rights, anti-war/anti-U.S. intervention forces, etc.; 
• Describing to individuals and organizations that had supported the anti-Apartheid movement, South Africans, and his grandfather why they should support Palestinians and the Palestine liberation movement;
• Projecting the politics of anti-settler colonialism, anti-racism, anti-Israeli apartheid 

anti-imperialism (especially U.S. imperialism) and anti-zionism; and 

• Introducing his progressive, leftist, militant politics to audiences who maybe never even knew that Nelson Mandela’s grandson was an activist member of the South African parliament.

Inviting Mandela to Mark the Nakba in the U.S.

A few months ago, Ashley Hudson, founder of Madison for Palestine, contacted Abudayyeh to propose USPCN invite Mandela to the U.S. in honor of the Nakba. Madison for Palestine had developed a connection with Mandela through social media and a Zoom meeting. 

“I said, ‘Hey, this is a long shot, but what do you think about USPCN officially inviting him?’” Hudson recalled.

Meanwhile, a USPCN member who had a remote relationship with a great Palestine support/solidarity organization in South Africa spoke with a leading member of Africa4Palestine about the possibility,” Abudayyeh said. 

The connection coincided with a viral video of Mandela’s speech in Algeria. Abudayyeh believed that even if people didn’t know much about Mandela previously, everyone fell in love with his chant of ‘free, free Palestine … from the river to the sea.’ He did some research and realized Mandela’s political views are very similar to those of Palestinians — anti-colonialist, anti-imperialist, anti-racist, anti-Zionist, and anti-apartheid.

Abudayyeh sent an email to Mandela who responded, “Yeah, I’d love to do this.” 

“Scheduling was very difficult because Chief Mandela is a very busy MP,” Abudayyeh explained after the tour. “When we had some problems reaching him in a timely manner while he was still in South Africa, I found a phone number on a press release from the House of Mandela and just took a chance by calling it. It was his personal cell phone number. He stayed on the phone with me patiently for over half an hour, listening to USPCN’s proposal regarding the tour. He didn’t send me to an assistant, a scheduler, a communications staffer or anyone else. He talked to me directly. We made plans and then I put our agreement on paper for his office to approve. 

“It was incredibly easy because he has no pretensions, no arrogance. He is a brilliant, kind-hearted, political heavyweight who engaged with me and with everyone he met in Chicago with humility, care, and love. And I heard the same from people in other cities as well.”

A Whirlwind Tour

Mandela flew from Cape Town just in time to make it to a Milwaukee dinner engagement on the anniversary of the Nakba, May 15.  Three hours later, he was speaking there at an event that lasted until 10 p.m. The next morning, he was on to the next stop. 

Some nights, Mandela had virtual meetings in Cape Town, fulfilling his responsibilities as a parliamentarian, said Hudson, who was part of a small group touring with him.

At every stop, Mandela repeated the message his grandfather delivered in a 1997 speech reaffirming his support of the Palestinians: “Our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of Palestinians.” He called for supporters of Palestinians in the U.S. to support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement and lobby for “an end to U.S. aid to apartheid Israel.”

Having visited occupied Palestine himself in 2017, Mandela told a Milwaukee audience “the apartheid in Palestine is worse than anything we experienced (in South Africa).

“This day marks our call to end the occupation of historic Palestine. It marks our call for justice for the 750,000 Palestinians displaced as refugees. It marks our call to remember and tell the stories of the 15,000 Palestinians massacred and the 530 villages destroyed from 1947 to 1948 in occupied Palestine. These atrocities, crimes against humanity, genocide and ethnic cleansing continue unabated to this day.”

Before his speech in Minneapolis, Mandela met with George Floyd’s aunt and other local Black liberation activists in George Floyd Square. This was where Floyd was murdered in 2020 by a white police officer. He highlighted the similar experiences of Black Americans and Palestinians. “We demand justice for George Floyd just as we demand justice for the 185 victims of police racism and brutality in the USA that were brutally killed before him,” he declared. “We demand justice for the 37 Palestinians killed in Gaza over the last 10 days.”

Mandela was originally to speak at the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs. However, the day before, the campus event was canceled, allegedly due to an anonymous threat of violence posted on social media. CAIR-MN, the local event host, held the event at its offices in Minneapolis.

Abudayyeh recalled “a number of memorable moments” during Mandela’s visit to Chicago. “Because Chicago is home to some of the top national leaders from the anti-Apartheid movement decades ago, those people attended a private reception for sponsors and community leaders. It was beautiful how they engaged with him, asking personal questions about his family, recalling visits to South Africa, and chanting anti-Apartheid and South African liberation slogans in Xhosa and Zulu.

“His engagement with youth, elders, and people from all different nationalities, was most memorable. I had to be the bad guy and interrupt many times so that everyone got a chance to shake his hand, take pictures and chat for a few seconds. He wouldn’t interrupt anyone or prematurely end any of those conversations himself.”

Lasting Impact

Most impactful was Mandela’s message, Abudayyeh said.  “It is powerful — and very important — for marginalized communities and others to hear such an iconic voice from such an iconic family tell the story of Palestine and compare it to South Africa as astutely as he does. He truly loves the Palestinian people and supports our liberation.

“He said on many occasions in the two days that he was in Chicago that so many leading figures in South Africa — from Desmond Tutu to his grandfather to other important anti-Apartheid fighters — consider Israeli apartheid to be even more brutal than South African Apartheid ever was.”

Much like his grandfather, Mandela’s charisma and passion for the Palestinian struggle is drawing attention from those familiar with the Nakba as well as those who are just learning about it. Former Wisconsin Democratic legislator Sandy Pasch and a member of Jewish Voices for Peace Action, JVP’s political arm, said, “The fact I didn’t know about it for much of my life is a shame.” She attended Mandela’s Milwaukee talk because she wants to learn about and bear witness to the ongoing Nakba.”

Reflecting on the tour, Hudson said, “This tour is important because it will be in the history books for generations to come. Long after we’re gone, those who fight for liberation can look back and know that support for the liberation of Palestine is more significant and widespread than we’re made to believe.”

Sandra Whitehead, an author, educator and journalist based in Milwaukee, is the lead reporter for the Wisconsin Muslim Journal.

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