Rename Frederick Street Mandela Avenue

THE EDITOR: I have just completed viewing a two-hour documentary entitled Mandela. It was a beautiful and emotional experience as it dealt with the life of Nelson Mandela from his earliest childhood to his being sworn in as the first real President of South Africa. Of course those of us who are and have been “Mandela Watchers” for a long time and are familiar with his writings, and writings about him, are aware of his many tribulations on the way to the presidency.

However seeing the film brought out some realities which one cannot readily recognise in the written word. For example, the film shows the early African warriors fighting with spears against Europeans armed with guns. It is to the credit of the genius of the African military leaders that the Africans were successful. And it is that same military genius that in the 1980s the ANC decided to use to rid the country of the minority white regime. Among the first to volunteer for military training in the Sudan and Libya was none other than the great man himself. Unfortunately upon his return to South Africa he was arrested and charged with “Leaving South Africa without permission of the Government.” Of course treason charges followed later. It was great to see at the presidential inauguration leaders from more than 100 countries from all over the world. Among the leaders paying homage to Mandela were Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and Cuban President Fidel Castro. I wondered at the fact that President Mandela was proud to call these two men his friends at the same time as President George Bush regard those two men as his enemies and enemies of the American people.

While looking at the film, I also recalled sadly the number of times both Clive Nunez and I tried to get both the PNM Government and the Port-of-Spain City Council to honour Mr Mandela by re-naming Frederick Street, Port-of-Spain, Nelson Mandela Avenue. All our pleas over the years have fallen on deaf ears. Imagine Mr Mandela has been honoured with street names in many boroughs in London, England and in many other cities in Britain. The same applies to cities in Australia, India, Canada and several states in the USA and in Europe. Mr Mandela has similarly been honoured in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, France, Holland, other European countries and even in Morocco. He has been similarly honoured in North African countries like Egypt, Sudan, Libya etc, West African countries like Nigeria, Ghana. If I am not mistaken the great man has similarly been honoured by the Government of Jamaica. For my part I have no idea why the TV station chose to air that documentary today July 24, but I suspect that it is because the great man celebrated his 85th birthday recently with a massive international birthday party which even former President Bill Clinton among other world leaders attended. It would be a great 85th birthday present to Mr Mandela if the Port-of-Spain City Council were to name Nelson Mandela Avenue with effect from September 1, 2003. Indeed it would even be a great Emancipation present.

ATTA K O KUJIFI
Champs Fleurs