I always chuckle with I see this photo of me and Nelson Mandela. The photo was taken as a souvenir for tourists when they get off the cable car at Table Mountain in Cape Town, South Africa. The photo is fake but my deep admiration for Mandela is real. The passing of this great leader pushed me to visit my photo album of my 2001 South Africa visit and the memories always come rushing back–the visit to Mandela’s cell at Robbin Island, the warmth of the South African people, talking with children on the schoolyard, the political discussions in the coffee houses, the hustle of Johannesburg, the dance of the Zula warriors…I reflected on all the work I was a part of during the anti-apartheid movement and felt like a citizen in this new country. I had done my small part of bring the racist regime down but as my eyes confirmed, the dreams of the black masses remain unfulfilled. Amandla awetu! The power shall be ours!
Who can stop the genocide in Gaza?
If the ultimate goals are peace and sovereign respect, new thinking is mandatory to re-imagine how we get there.We are past the one year anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel. To mark the deadly occasion, Vice-President Kamala Harris planted a pomegranate tree at her home and President Joe Biden lit a candle at the White House. The initial calls for a ceasefire now seem woefully inadequate and definitely ineffective. It’s time to light some fire under Congress.
