Mandela

February 28, 2022

qphotonyc

This was the month when we honor and learn more about Black History. It was also a month when we must’ve heard the word “sanctions” a million times. But what possible connection can there be between economic sanctions against Russia for invading its neighbor country, Ukraine, and Black History? An answer was to be found in an off Broadway production of Mandela on West 54th Street. Upstairs, at the American Theater of Actors, a talented cast performed a two act dramatic bio of the title character, Nelson Mandela. The legendary leader of South Africa‘s anti-apartheid movement was brutally incarcerated by the racist regime for nearly thirty years, many of them spent in solitary confinement. During those years an armed struggle continued against the fascist government within the country’s borders, and an international boycott outside of them: economic sanctions. Those two campaigns ultimately brought down the apartheid government and led to Mandela’s eventual election as President of South Africa.

Cast members of Mandela.

The play began by drawing a direct comparison between the struggle for Civil Rights in the USA and in South Africa. Both gained momentum in the Sixties, when calls for Justice were met on two continents with official, and unofficial, acts of violence. Here we saw police use vicious dogs, fire hoses, and KKK murders to answer those calls. In apartheid South Africa, activists who defied ‘pass laws’ were straight up executed en masse by cops. Mandela and some of his comrades were incarcerated for long sentences of up to life in the Minority-rule regime’s ultimately futile attempt to maintain their system of Injustice. In both struggles, Whites were the oppressors of Blacks, an historical fact that many White people still deny or try to sugar coat, even today. The recent bans on teaching our country’s real history and so-called “Critical Race Theory” are just the latest forms of that oppression.

N.Y. State Senator Cordell Cleare and Writer John Ruiz Miranda.

A couple of things stood out for this viewer. One, we were surprised and delighted to see Inwood’s own Lamine Thiame onstage in the role of Walter Sislulu, one of Mandela’s fellow prisoners. His towering presence and fluid movement filled us with uptown pride. Another was a scene reprising Mandela’s triumphant visit to New York City. An introduction was made for some Senator whose name we didn’t catch who then came onstage and delivered a speech while the character Mandela, played by Robert Greene, stood by looking on. Caught up in the suspension of disbelief, we just assumed she was an actor playing the role of a Senator. It took a sec before it dawned on us she really was a New York State Senator playing herself. When we spoke with Cordelle Cleare after the show, we learned that she’d actually been present at that ceremony in 1990 when Mayor Dinkins presented the Key to the City to Nelson Mandela. Life, art, something, something.

Unfortunately, the play’s run ended yesterday so you can’t still catch this gem right now. But we wouldn’t be too surprised if this show reappears down the road. It’s a good choice for an annual Black History month run here, and we can well imagine a tour bringing it to student audiences all over the country – and even internationally – during the other eleven. Maybe even to Broadway, although we found the performance space here, where nobody’s more than a few rows away from the action onstage, ideal. Here at the Gazette we’re hoping they do bring it back at some point in the future. It’s an important story that deserves to be told, and this play tells it very well.

***

“Many people have been skeptical of our capacity to realize the ideal of a rainbow nation. It is true that South Africa was often brought to the brink of destruction because of differences. But let us re-affirm this one thing here today; it is not our diversity which divides us; it is not our ethnicity, or religion or culture that divides us. Since we have achieved our freedom, there can only be one division amongst us: between those who cherish democracy and those who do not.”

~Nelson Mandela