CENTRAL NEWS
The freedom of Nelson Mandela had become the quest of humankind. In a piece dedicated by the freedom fighter to the World report on violence and health, Nelson Mandela foresaw the footsteps of chaos and war which would unfold and explained that this violence is one which reproduces itself through daily, individual suffering:
“The twentieth century will be remembered as a century marked by violence. It burdens us with its legacy of mass destruction, of violence inflicted on a scale never seen and never possible before in human history. But this legacy – the result of new technology in the service of ideologies of hate – is not the only one we carry, nor that we must face up to.
Less visible, but even more widespread, is the legacy of day-to-day, individual suffering. It is the pain of children who are abused by people who should protect them, women injured or humiliated by violent partners, elderly
persons maltreated by their caregivers, youths who are bullied by other youths, and people of all ages who inflict violence on themselves.
This suffering – and there are many more examples that I could give – is a legacy that reproduces itself, as new generations learn from the violence of generations past, as victims learn from victimizers, and as the social conditions that nurture violence are allowed to continue. No country, no city, no community is immune. But neither are we powerless against it.
Violence thrives in the absence of democracy, respect for human rights and good governance. We often talk about how a ‘‘culture of violence’’ can take root. This is indeed true – as a South African who has lived through apartheid and is living through its aftermath, I have seen and experienced it. It is also true that patterns of violence are more pervasive and widespread in societies where the authorities endorse the use of violence through their own actions. In many societies, violence is so dominant that it thwarts hopes of economic and social development. We cannot let that continue.”
