Nelson Mandela’s strongest supporter in Scotland tells Graham Martin that the South African's true legacy is his ability to inspire ordinary people
Nelson Mandela’s legacy has been much talked about and picked over since the former South African president passed away last December.
In the great outpouring of tributes which followed his death, it seemed as if he was being elevated into secular sainthood.
Former enemies and representatives of states and countries which had branded the ANC leader a terrorist, or which had given succour to the apartheid regime during its brutal 40 year existence, lined up to confirm the canonisation.
All past misdeeds forgotten, all slurs swept away, all guilty consciences wiped clean in the rush to pay tribute.
A life remembered – but a legacy respected? Not according to one of Mandela’s comrades in arms – the man who helped bring him to Scotland and who helped forge one link in the chain of international protest which played a part in toppling the rotting apartheid edifice.
Mandela’s legacy is about ordinary people getting together and realising they have the power to change things though collective action
Brian Filling was an anti-apartheid activist in the sixties and is now the honorary consul for South Africa in Scotland.
While he was moved by the genuine tributes to Mandela from ordinary people throughout the world, he was sceptical about the motives of some who rushed to honour him.
He said: “I heard Obama’s speech – fair enough. Bit did he apologise for the US government’s backing of the apartheid regime?”
The founding chair of the Scottish Committee of the Anti-Apartheid Movement in 1976, Filling remained as chair until its dissolution in 1994 and is now chair of the successor organisation, Action for Southern Africa Scotland.
He got to know Mandela well in the years following his release from Robben Island in 1990, meeting him in Pretoria post-release and then chairing and introducing a massive rally in Glasgow’s George Square in 1993 (pictured above with Filling to the right of Mandela). This visit was Mandela’s opportunity to say thank you to Glasgow and the eight other UK cities which had offered him their freedom – even while the apartheid regime still held him in chains.
Filling was awarded the National Order of the Companions of O.R. Tambo in 2012 for his outstanding solidarity work – the highest honour which can be bestowed upon non-South Africans by the Republic of South Africa.
“I was appointed as the liaison to the ANC and was involved in bringing him to the UK – I stayed in the same hotel as him when he came to Glasgow and I spent some time with him,” said Filling.
“We were worried about him having to spend so much time meeting all these people and we were anxious to not be seen to be wasting his time – but he took an interest in everyone he met, even astonishing the delegation from Aberdeen by saying ‘thank you so much for coming down from the Granite City in this awful weather’. His presence was incredible.”
The question of Mandela’s real legacy has become more focused for Filling in the run-up to this year’s Mandela Day on 18 July.
The day was established on Mandela’s birthday in 2009 following a UN resolution. Its objective is to inspire people to take action to help change the world for the better and build a global movement for good.
Ultimately it seeks to empower communities everywhere. Individuals and organisations are asked to give 67 minutes of voluntary activity to mark the 67 years of public service given by Mandela.
This is the first Mandela day since he died and Filling says it is through events like this that his legacy can best be served.
“Mandela’s legacy is about ordinary people getting together and realising they have the power to change things though collective action,” says Filling.
“He had a deep understanding of the political process, but don’t forget this was a tough, tough guy.
“Reluctantly, he was prepared to back armed struggle and this is often forgotten about in the rush to neuter his radical past. He also managed to be the president of his country till he was 80.
“The struggle created a different sort of person, and it was not just him alone – the struggle created many like him.”
It is this that continues to inspire people today and which people across Scotland are honouring by giving up 67 minutes of their time to good causes this Mandela Day.
| About Mandela Day | The Glasgow effect |
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Every year, the Nelson Mandela Foundation calls on people to devote 67 minutes to helping others, as a way to mark the day. For 67 years Nelson Mandela devoted his life to the service of humanity — as a human rights lawyer, a prisoner of conscience, an international peacemaker and the first democratically elected president of a free South Africa. In November 2009, the UN General Assembly declared 18 July Nelson Mandela International Day in recognition of the former South African president’s contribution to the culture of peace and freedom. Mandela Day is not meant as a public holiday, but as a day to honour the legacy of Nelson Mandela and his values, through volunteering and community service. The first Mandela Day was held on Mandela’s 91st birthday in 2009. It included exhibitions, volunteer events and a concert at Radio City Music Hall organised by 46664 concerts and the Nelson Mandela Foundation. This year’s Mandela Day is the first since Mandela died on 5 December 2013. In Glasgow it is being celebrated with a concert at Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum featuring South African jazz legend Hugh Masekela, Johanneburg vocal band Complete and award-winning Jazz harmonica and keyboard player Adam Glasser. |  Despite being so distant from Robben Island, Glasgow played an important role in the campaign to free Mandela. The city became the first in the world to offer Mandela the Freedom of the City in 1981, something Mandela later said he heard about in jail. The move was highly controversial at the time, when many still considered Mandela a terrorist, and led to an increase in awareness of the South African’s plight worldwide. Glasgow’s Lord Provost Michael Kelly launched a declaration for the release of Mandela a year later, which was signed by 2,500 other city leaders from 56 countries around the world and gained the support of the United Nations. And in 1986, as the movement started to gain momentum around the world, Glasgow changed the name of St George’s Place in the city centre to Nelson Mandela Place. The gesture was all the more significant as it was the address of the city’s South African consulate general. “Scotland, along with all the people that campaigned against apartheid internationally, was important to Mandela,” said Brian Filling. “He said that he found it quite overwhelming that here he was 6,000 miles away being given freedom of the city when he couldn’t get freedom in his own country. “He and his comrades showed that ordinary people have it within themselves to change the world if they work together.” |
Nelson Mandela International Day (or Mandela Day) is an annual international day in honour of Nelson Mandela, celebrated each 18 July (on Mandela’s birthday).
