IRVINE : Rally Marks the Release of Mandela

As students and faculty members walked across campus at noon, the subtle sounds of drums beating and voices singing could be heard in the background. It was a tape recording of South African music which marked the beginning of a rally by UC Irvine students to celebrate the release of Nelson R. Mandela in South Africa.

“On Feb. 11, 1990, the (prison) gates opened and there emerged a man, Nelson Mandela,” said the rally’s organizer, Harry Mashele, a physics major from the black township of Soweto. “He is an embodiment of hope. He stands for everything I believe in. It’s indescribable.”

About 300 students, faculty and administration officials gathered in front of the administration building Tuesday to hear speakers and sing a song considered the black South African national anthem. After the students passed out flyers with the words to the anthem, many others held their fists in the air while they sang. Sitting on the steps before two flag poles, some of the students brought their lunches and many skipped class.

Led by Mashele, they chanted “ Amandla ,” a Zulu word which means “power to the people.” As he yelled out other African words, the crowd responded with cheers and the word amandla .

During the rally, students bought T-shirts that read, “Welcome home comrade Mandela” and signed freedom scrolls that will be sent to Mandela in South Africa next month.

Among the speakers were campus faculty members, administrators, and Irvine’s Mayor Larry Agran.

Mashele told the crowd, “Apartheid is not limited to the doors of South Africa. As long as it remains in South Africa, no African country can totally be free. I still cannot vote in my own country. I do not think it is such an awful sin to be black in my own country. It pains me so much to see where we are.”

Mashele asked the students to support Mandela’s cause and to help end apartheid.

“Africa, you shall overcome,” Mashele said to an cheering crowd. “We are unstoppable. We will give it whatever it takes to liberalize South Africa.”

Also speaking at the rally was Aliko Songolo, associate professor of French at UCI. He is from Zaire.

“I felt excited, elated and the sense of joy (at Mandela’s release). Especially seeing him with his head held high and walking tall,” Songolo said.

Songolo proposed that the university set a special day honoring Mandela.

“Feb. 11 is a significant date. It’s historic and it happened during Black History Month,” he said.

Lynnette Darrell, a UCI senior, said, “We’re here to show our support. We’re glad he’s finally been released.”

Standing with her was junior Arnetta White, who said, “We also don’t want the world to think that everything is all right in South Africa since he has been released.”

Other sponsors of the rally were the Campus Coalition for Human Rights, the African-American Students Union, Amnesty International, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority.

Thomas Parham, director of the campus Career Planning and Placement Center, said, “My sense of jubilation is contrasted by feelings of disappointment. You can take pride of his release but not enough has been changed in South Africa.”