Among our “vintage” posters is one showing Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Winnie Madikizela-Mandela hugging one another. The legend below is, “Love and faithfulness will meet; righteousness and peace will embrace.” The picture was taken in 1987.
Well, in view of the revelations about Madikizela-Mandela’s gang of body guards, which victimized her political opponents and innocent neighbors at just about the same time she was hugging Tutu, the whole thing now seems quite ironic! Which is Madikizela-Mandela supposed to represent: “love”, “faithfulness”, “righteousness”, or “peace”? Furthermore, how would Archibishop Tutu feel about us continuing to sell this poster?

We’d welcome thoughts about this issue, of course. My musings about it go in the direction of, “YOUCH!!” Embracing the struggle (as both Tutu and Madikizela-Mandela did — to give both of them the credit they deserve) involves taking incredible risks. There’s the obvious risks they took over and over again, speaking and acting against apartheid in South Africa. But then there’s the risk of trusting one another, too. I’ve read about Tutu’s anguish and sense of betrayal as the story of the Mandela United Football Team emerged, and how he struggled to put together that information with the Winnie he thought he knew and loved.

Tutu is surely not the first activist to be disappointed and disillusioned by the actions of his/her comrades in the struggle. I’ve certainly had my share of disappointments, too — though none nearly as dramatic, embarassing, and public as that of Tutu with Madikizela-Mandela. Should Tutu have had suspicions? Should he have been a better judge of character? Should I have been, in my own choices of comrades? And yet, how can any of us possibly know in advance, with 100% accuracy, who we won’t regret embracing in the struggle?

Clearly, the risk of being wrong can’t stand in the way of embracing the struggle at all. And it’s in that spirit that I suggested we put the poster on our web site, in spite of the embarassment factor for Archbishop Tutu and those of us who participated in the anti-apartheid struggle in the 1980s. It’s a cautionary lesson, indeed — and a tribute to two very brave people.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 17th, 2007 @ 9:45 am on the category Organizing, Posters.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.