Harry Belafonte

It is with a great sense of privilege that I come here today to this celebration and this acknowledgement.

My relationship with South Africa, and indeed all of Africa, has been long and rewarding. I have worked, as millions of us have, for the freedom of this continent. And yet my commitment has been greatest of all to South Africa. And the promise of South Africa. In the days of apartheid, we created a core of people among the leaders and people of America, and in particular the African-American community, who worked and struggled side-by-side with this country for its liberation and entrance into democracy. Our struggles were related then, as they are related now.

Over the past years, I have come to know Unicef, the United Nations Children’s Fund, and they invited me to become a Goodwill Ambassador. It is in this capacity that I have come to this continent many times serving the needs of the African people and in particular the children of Africa. The work with Unicef has been enduring and consistent and I am honoured to still be in its service. I can imagine no better partnership than between Unicef and the Nelson Mandela Institute to strengthen our ability to work for lives of dignity for the children of this continent, and particularly the children of South Africa.

My work today is about uniting generations for justice. I am working with young people who have been trapped in the abyss of poverty. In the United States, where I come from, we are facing very difficult times. When children are not educated, when children are deprived, they become missionaries of violence. They turn to those sources for survival that often take them outside the boundaries of civil society. And yet still they struggle for their humanity.

We are focused greatly on Africa and the African Diaspora, knowing that some of the great thinkers and leaders of our time have prophesied that there can be really no healing in Africa until we have bridged the gap between Africa and the African Diaspora. We recognise children universally, from all walks of life and all cultures and from all races. But there is that special place where Africa and the members of the Diaspora have suffered untold cruelty, where the struggle to revive ourselves from that experience has been daunting, and will only be healed when we begin to come together to know that our struggle is a common one.

A great leader by the name of Paul Robeson, an American who loved Africa, who taught many of us, who came from poverty and who did not have the opportunity for formal education, said that no matter how much we do, at the end of our time, those generations that come behind us will always think that we did not do enough. But, he says in the final analysis, what young people must understand is that each generation must be responsible for itself. Just as Tambo, Sisulu, Mandela and so many in this country took charge of their young years, just as Dr King, Malcolm X and many of us did in our young years, so must the children here in South Africa, this continent, and the whole world. They must reach into their history. Where we have faltered or stumbled, we must hand to them the torch, hand to them the baton. And as we hand it on, we must walk with them in solidarity. We do not hand over a burden. We hand over this gift – to be able to carry out the struggle for total and absolute freedom, to create a world that is finally driven by peace and not war. Despite our struggles and set-backs, Robeson reminds us of all that can be achieved when young people are given the opportunity to master their own destiny.

Each time, across the 80 years that I have lived, I have committed myself time and time again to the struggle, believing that this time would be the final blow against oppression. We lived long enough to realise that oppression and our oppressors are relentless. They appear when we least expect it. Rather than crushing our spirits it just intensifies our commitment to not letting ourselves be crushed. But we must be careful and mindful of one another. We must let people know that injustice will not prevail – it cannot, in the final analysis, conquer.

The only thing that will guarantee our future is a strong, powerful commitment to the youth. And we must defend their right to a humanising education – that goes beyond the coldness of mathematics and sciences and medical research. That is only one aspect of the learning process. The most important part of the learning process is a commitment to the humanities – because even in this year with our so-called modern technologies we do not know about one another as a people. No matter how much math and science we know, we will never be able to conquer the tragedies of the human experience. We must insist that we teach young people, and they in turn teach us, about our own humanity. It is precisely this which gravitates me at this time so fully to the University of Fort Hare.

I had the pleasure of meeting with the vice-chancellor and a group of leaders and students at this university last night. And what a magnificent moment. What a rewarding moment to hear those leaders of this institution, men and women and indeed the students themselves who are so deeply committed to a very avant garde curriculum – a future committed to the study of human affairs while embracing the hard sciences. It was very, very gratifying to hear the vice-chancellor say, “We are concerned with our humanity and we will not surrender that no matter who chooses to identify with any other priorities of humankind. It is us who must make the difference.”

To the young people here, the future of the world is in your hands. Do not let those who dictate policy be your only guide. Let your heart, your thoughts, your consciousness, your capacity to dream and to inspire be the single most important ingredient in the journey you must take, and toward seeing the responsibilities you must undertake in that journey.
Thank you again for inviting me here to this auspicious occasion. The connection between ourselves and the Nelson Mandela Institute has been established by history. Today is a continuation and a new beginning of a close relationship into the future.

Harry Belafonte
Extract from speech at the occasion of the launch of the Nelson Mandela Institute, August 2007