Fight For Your Freedom (II)

There was yet another man who stood up to fight for freedom.  In the sixties, Martin Luther King Jr. bestrode the American landscape like a colossus as he led the Civil Rights Movement which campaigned for the abrogation of laws in the US that relegated the blacks (Negroes) to the status of second class citizens.  King was born in Atlanta, Georgia.  His father was pastor of a Baptist Church, his mother a school teacher.  Originally named Michael, he was renamed Martin when he was about six years old.

          He entered Morehouse College in 1944 and there he met Dr. Benjamin Mays, a scholar who encouraged him to enter the ministry.  After graduating in 1948, King went to Crozer Religious Seminary to undertake post-graduate study.  He received his doctorate in 1955.  Returning to the South of the US, he became a pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama.  King first achieved national renown when he helped mobilize the black boycott of the Montgomery bus system in 1955.  The boycott was organized after Rosa Parks, who passed away in 2006 at over 85 years old, a black woman, refused to give up her seat on the bus to a white man, as local custom dictated – in the segregated South, black people were only permitted to sit at the back of the bus.  The 382-day boycott led the bus company to change its regulations, and the Supreme Court of the United States declared such segregation unconstitutional.

          In 1957, King was active in the organization of the Southern Leadership Christian Conference (SCLC), formed to coordinate civil rights protests against discrimination, and he was elected President.  He advocated non-violent direct action modeled on the methods of Mahatma Gandhi, who led the protests against British rule in India that culminated in India’s independence in 1947.

          In 1963, King led mass protests against discriminatory practices in Birmingham, Alabama, a city with a dubious reputation because of the violent resistance of its white population to desegregation.  The city was dubbed “Bombingham” as attacks against civil rights protesters increased, and King was arrested and jailed for his part in the protests.  Upon his release, he participated in the enormous civil rights march in Washington of August 1963.

          It was here, at this huge demonstration, that King delivered his famous “I have a dream” speech, where he foresaw a day that the promise of freedom and equality for all would become a reality in America.  In 1964, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.  In 1965, he led a campaign to register blacks to vote, which culminated in a march from Selma, Alabama, to Montgomery, Alabama, the state capital.  In 1965, the US Congress passed the Voting Rights Act that outlawed the discriminatory practices that had barred blacks from voting in the South.

          As the black movement for civil rights became increasingly radicalized, King found that the message of peaceful protest was not shared by the younger generation, particularly in northern and West Coast cities.  King began to protest against American involvement in the Vietnam War and the depth of poverty in the US, as well as black civil rights.  However, his crusade on behalf of the poor had only begun when he was assassinated on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee.

          In 1969, his wife, Corretta Scott King, opened the Martin Luther King Jr Center for non-violent Social Change.  Despite being investigated and bugged by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) during his career as a civil rights leader, King is now acknowledged as an American hero, and in 1983, Congress made his birthday, January 15, a national holiday in his honour.  He paid the price for freedom for the blacks in the US and became a beacon of hope for all blacks and freedom fighters around the world.

          You must pay a price to be free.  That is why freedom is not cheap.  Those who got political independence on a platter of gold are wont to squander their golden chances.  Because they never fought to get it, they take it for granted.  Adam and Eve were never children and therefore never grew up through the normal process.  They didn’t understand what it meant to have experiences and challenges of growing up, therefore, someone reasoned that was why they took the glory of God they had for granted and then easily disobeyed him!  That may not be far from the truth.

          Nigeria as a nation never really fought the British to gain political independence.  Any wonder then that today, we are still struggling to find our bearing in all spheres of our national life.  South Africa is different.  They are today very stable and have transited from one government to the other without any incident.  Namibia (formerly Rhodesia) fought for independence.  I still remember the struggles led by their foremost nationalist leader and later first President, Sam Nujoma and his fellow comrades in SWAPO who fought the Boars to a standstill.  In 1990, their courage was saluted as they joined the rest of Africa as an independent nation.

          For nearly half a century, South Sudan were in conflict with their Arab northern countrymen.  The late John Garang led the South black Sudanese to resist the repression of the Arab north.  As I write this chapter, the Republic of South Sudan was born on July 9, 2011 as thousands gathered in the Southern Capital of Juba to receive Africa’s 55^th nation.  John Garang was not on ground to experience the freedom his fought and died for, his countrymen will never forget his sacrifice for their independence.

          When you fight for freedom, you face challenges and these challenges releases your potentials that you thought never existed.  You discover you could plan, strategize and the realities of your organizational abilities come into the full glare of the world.  In adversity, your best becomes obvious.  Therefore, be thankful for every adversity you face in your march towards freedom because if well utilized, they can stand you in good stead to manage your life well.

          What are your dreams and aspirations in life?  Where do you see yourself headed in life?  Those are your visions and they are a part of the freedom your soul longs for.  What are you ready to give up to get there?  There is going to be a fight and you must fight it.  The truth of the matter is this:  you will have few choices in the future if you do not make the necessary sacrifices and pay the needed price today.  Are you looking forward to financial freedom?  What are you doing to increase your streams of income in the nearest future?  Do you want to rest and be at peace as a parent in the future seeing your children established and standing firm in their various vocations?  Then you must brace up to purposeful parenting.  Do you want a virtual queen for a wife?  Then you are not going to just look well but be a king in your character and attitude.  Besides knowledge and understanding in the issue of marriage, you must prepare yourself from within and be a real man.

          I am appalled by the rate of purposelessness in today’s young men.  Many young men at 26 – 30 years of age do not have a single clue as to where they are headed in life.  Without a purpose, you are a finished person.  What are you called to accomplish in life?  You are not just here to complete the number of over 6.6 billion people on this planet.  You are significant and important.  You were crafted for a reason and a cause.  Have you located it?  Time ticks away every second and every day.

          It is very easy to blame the government, institutions and others.  But, let me assure you today that what you become is what you make of your life by yourself!  What do you think about?  Until your thoughts line up to a particular purpose, there will never be any accomplishment in your life.  James Allen says “a man should conceive of a legitimate purpose in his heart, and set out to accomplish it”.  You are supposed to be a creative force.  You are supposed to be somebody higher than where you are now; stronger than a bundle of wavering thoughts and fluctuating sensations.

          You may just be realizing this enormous potential that lies dormant within you which has not been tapped all the while and may be asking “Please help me!”  I have a word for you.  A strong man cannot help a weaker unless the weaker one is willing to be helped.  You must by your own deliberate and conscious efforts develop the strength which you admire in others.  Only you can alter your condition and navigate your way through life for great accomplishments.  That is where Barack Obama emerged from as the first Black President of the United States, overcoming personal obstacles and institutional barriers.  You too can overcome your challenges and get to the topmost place in your life.

          Your way of thinking must change.  If you have to become free, you must first of all be free in your mind.  Your mind is the clearing house where thoughts (both base and high in nature) fight to take residence.  Do you remember the statement that says “as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he?”  When you look at your life, who do you see?  As you stand before a full length mirror, who do you see reflected back to you?  Do you see a weak and a discouraged person?  Do you see someone worth nothing and who will not amount to anything in life?  Is that who you see?  If these represent who you see, then you must change your mind-set.  You must change your thought patterns.

          Do you really love yourself?  If you do, then you will fight to be a free man in the real sense of the word.  You must have what Reverend Martin Luther King Jr called rationale and healthy self-interest.  A great Jewish Rabbi, the late Joshua Leibman, wrote a book some years ago entitled Peace of Mind.  In that book, there is a chapter that had a title called “Love Thyself Properly”.  What he says in that chapter, in substance, is that before you can love other people adequately, you have to love your own self properly.  You do not need to go through life with a deep and haunting emotional conflict.  Part of loving yourself very well is accepting yourself and that will set you really free.

          Your rationale and healthy self-interest will drive you to focus on something in life and look forward to a period of freedom in your life when you can chose where to live, where to go for holidays with your family without restrictions placed on you for lack of finance and the means.  You must not be bound to a shylock of a landlord five to ten years from today.  You should be a landlord yourself.  You shouldn’t be hopping from one bus or taxi to the other in five years’ time.  If you are driving a sloppy, swaging and staggering car now, you should aspire for a sleek car in two to three years from today.  That is possible when you set your face like a flint and do the needful to earn enough money to acquire that pleasure toy you seek.

          I am not suggesting that material acquisition is the definition of success and freedom but they are legitimate and should be a necessary part of your life for comfort.  It should be part of your freedom package but not the ultimate.  There are lots of people today who ride in the best of cars and live in mansions but have turmoil in and around their lives.  You must understand that your life must have the necessary balance between the spiritual, emotional, physical and material realms.  Aspire to be a free person in all ramifications and these do not come cheap.  There are things you must do to get that balance.  If you keep doing what you have been doing, you will remain where you are.  Do you want to get what you’ve never got?  Then you must do what you’ve never done.  Remember the song in Sister Act:

If you want to go somewhere

If you want to be somebody

You better wake up

And pay attention

Fight For Your Freedom

       Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, (the South Africans call him Madiba, meaning “Saviour”) remains an icon of freedom around the world today because of the price he paid for his countrymen and women to be liberated from Apartheid.  For 27 grueling years, this man remained behind bars and refused to be released on conditions by the white Boars who ruled South Africa for many decades and desecrated and dehumanized the blacks.

          Mandela along with other black freedom fighters like William Nkomo, Walter Sisulu and Oliver Tambo stood their grounds until they gained freedom for their people.  During the whole of the 1950s, Mandela was the victim of various forms of repression.  He was banned, arrested and imprisoned.  For much of the latter half of the decade, he was one of the accused in the mammoth Treason Trial, at great cost to his legal practice and his political work.  After the Sharpeville Massacre in 1960, the African National Congress (ANC) with Mandela as one of the leaders was outlawed, and Mandela, still on trial, was detained.

          This man was forced to live apart from his family, moving from place to place to evade detection by the government’s ubiquitous informers and police spies.  He had to adopt a number of disguises, sometimes dressed as a common labourer, at other times as a chauffeur.

          During one of his trials, specifically in the Rivonia Trial for sabotage, Mandela’s statements in court during these trials are classics in the history of the resistance to apartheid, and they have been an inspiration to all who have opposed it.  His statement from the dock in the Rivonia Trial ends with these words:

I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination.  I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities.  It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve.  But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.

          Mandela was sentenced to life imprisonment and started his prison years in the notorious Robben Island Prison, a maximum security prison on a small island 7 kilometers off the coast of Cape Town.  In April 1984, he was transferred to Pollsmoor Prison in Cape Town and in December 1988, he was moved to the Victor Verster Prison near Paarl from where he was eventually released.  While in prison, Mandela flatly rejected offers made by his jailers for remission of sentence in exchange for accepting the Bantustan policy by recognizing the independence of the Transkei and agreeing to settle there.  Again in the 1980s, he rejected an offer of release on condition that he renounces violence.  “Prisoners cannot enter into contracts.  Only free men can negotiate”, he said.

          In a life that symbolizes the triumph of the human spirit over man’s inhumanity to man, Nelson Mandela accepted the 1993 Nobel Prize for Peace on behalf of all South Africans who suffered and sacrificed so much to bring peace to that land.

        In the next write-up, I will pick on another freedom fighter that is worthy of emulation.  Keep your fight for freedom on.  Freedom is never free!

WHAT REALLY IS FREEDOM (II)

... continued from a previous post:

 

          In the pursuit of real freedom, you must master yourself in the specific field you know is your life’s goal.  Armed with a broad understanding in that field and moving towards achieving definite goals you have set; your independence both in choice of what you want and finance becomes a reality.  There is no such thing as luck and chance when it comes to being free.  I have always told people both at formal and informal meetings that it is when preparation meets opportunity that success occurs.  With success comes a level of freedom where you can make choices without consulting someone else.

          I will give you a good illustration to drive this point home.  Let us imagine that while you were browsing through the day’s newspaper, you stumbled on an advertisement for the post of a Civil Engineer in one of the construction firms in your city.  If you never read Civil Engineering in your college years, and acquired a degree in that field, no amount of luck can earn you that job even if you apply.  Why?  You were not prepared for that job because you never read that course in school!

          In life, no amount of luck will take you to the top if you have not adequately prepared to get the freedom that abounds in life.  While we were looking at the life of George Best at the beginning of this chapter, it occurred to me that he enjoyed a measure of freedom in his finances and choices (even though the choices were wrong) because he worked on his football talent and took him to the level he got.

          I will close this piece with the story of Diego Armando Maradona.  He is touted as the Best Footballer of all times.  He debuted in professional football in 1975 and played his farewell match in November of 2001.  Throughout a quarter of a century, Maradona influenced a multitude of people including some of the top footballers today.  Parallel to his brilliant skill, the Argentine soccer player has stirred global controversy of unmatched magnitude.  Regardless of his addiction to cocaine, he failed doping tests and his wile on-pitch actions, Diego Maradona is still regarded as the most skillful footballer of all time.  From a technical point of view, Maradona’s match is yet to be born.  He is a complete master of the ball and keeps it under his control at all times, even while running at full speed.

          Maradona exercised unrestricted freedom and fell headlong into drugs and life generally on the fast lane.  Besides his two daughters (Dalma and Giannina) from his former wife, Claudia Villafane; he has a child out of wedlock by the name of Diego Armando Junior from Christiana Sinagra while other women are suing him for child support.

          The question before you now is this:  what kind of freedom do you want?  Real freedom or freedom for self-indulgence that has no responsibilities attached?  The education and knowledge I am advocating you get on your road to real freedom is to ensure the sustainability of your freedom when you eventually get there.  The next chapter presents us with more reasons why freedom is not free…

What really is Freedom?

          You must have heard of one of the best footballers ever to come out of Northern Ireland.  He was George Best.  George Best was simply a legend.  Forget Pele, Maradona, Keegan, Cruyff, Roberto Baggio, Zinedine Zedane, Lionel Messi or all the Ronaldos; ditch Papilo Kanu Nwankwo or Austin Jay-jay Okocha.  George combined everything these had individually, and more.  He was explosive, on and off the ball, could read the game exceptionally and win games single-handedly.  He could dribble past defenders as though they were standing still, and had the balance and swerve of a ballet dancer.  He could tackle as hard as Nobby Stiles, was two footed and could head as powerfully and accurately as much bigger players.  Most of all, George was total entertainment with a ball on a football pitch, who thrilled fans with often unorthodox moves to either score or set up goals.

          George Best was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland on May 22, 1946.  He played for his country, Northern Ireland and Manchester United.  He scored 178 goals in 466 appearances for his Old Trafford club, Manchester United and scored 10 goals for Northern Ireland in 37 national caps.

          While enjoying such unparallel success on the field of play, George Best himself confessed that whatever he wanted he got.  He indulged in all forms of worldly pleasures – cars, travels and women.  His life degenerated into alcoholism, bankruptcy, a prison sentence for drink-driving and eventually a controversial liver transplant.  Asked what happened to all the money he had earned, Best replied: “I spent a lot of money on booze, birds and fast cars.  The rest I just squandered”.  What did freedom expressed in this manner fetch him?

          His fame and abundant skills indeed fetched him money and got him whatever he wanted.  However, in the twilight of his life leading to his passing away in 2005, George Best was a shadow of himself.  He was a sick man and looked 80 years at the age of 59.  His own father, Dickie, 87 years old, survived him and he died wretched without any virtuous legacy except for eulogies that poured in from virtually everybody who had followed his phenomenal playing career.

          When he passed away, the then British Prime Minister, Tony Blair led tributes to the man he called “probably the most naturally gifted footballer of his generation, one of the greatest footballers the UK has every produced.  Anyone who has seen him as a football fan will never forget it.”  Hiw own Republic of Ireland Prime Minister at the time, Bertie Ahern said “George should be remembered as the very best at what he did.  He was quite simply a  football genius”.  Check out what Sir Bobby Charlton, his former Manchester United team-mate said about him:  “George made an immense contribution to the game, and enriched the lives of everyone that saw him play”.  A minute’s silence was observed at every Premiership football match the weekend of his passing.

          All the success he achieved as a footballer were swallowed up by his unrestricted freedom.  George was the architect of the ill health that killed him.  His indulgence in drugs and alcohol took a heavy toll on his health and the result was death.  Even though his passing was heavily mourned as the entire Irish nation was moved by his death like no other in the life of that nation – the simple fact was that he authored his life to end tragically.

          He thought the freedom money and fame brought him was for him to do whatever pleased him.  He was actually in bondage.  Real freedom emanates from knowing the true meaning of life generally and specifically your own particular purpose for living.  For you to lay claim to freedom, you must start by knowing who you are and what you are supposed to be doing on this earth.  I am not sure George Best ever asked himself this all important question.  If he never asked, it’s possible someone had tried to call his attention to this.  It is also possible that he ignored answering the question because of his warped understanding of what freedom is.  He must have consigned the concept of freedom to mean being at liberty to do whatever you like at any time you want without recourse to the responsibilities such acts were sure to bring.

          George Best had a contemporary in Pele.  Today, Pele is a living legend and a really free man because he knew the responsibilities of freedom and chose the best way to utilize the choices riches and fame brought his way.

          In the boxing world, there are two legends as well.  Mohammed Ali and ‘Iron’ Mike Tyson.  Ali chose responsible freedom while Tyson chose the unrestricted path.  Both are still alive as I write – one is a celebrated icon whining and dining with celebrities and carries with him a grace of notoriety while the other s a struggling man seeking relevance.

          Mike Tyson’s history is pathetic.  At the age of 20, he became a Heavyweight Boxing Champion in 1986.  He was mentored by Italian Manager, Cus D’Amato, who moulded a freakishly sized 12-year-old into a heavyweight contender.  By the time he won the championship, D’Amato had already passed away.  At 22, Tyson’s other longtime associates had either died or been jettisoned as Don King invaded the champion’s life.  But, without trainer Kevin Rooney, who was sacked by Tyson himself, a man who knew the D’Amato formula so well, he began to struggle, culminating in his 1990 loss to James ‘Burster’ Douglas in Tokyo.

          In 1991, one Desiree Washington accused Tyson of rape but people didn’t take the threat seriously, but in February 1992, he was in court and listening to a guilty verdict that ended phase one of his boxing career.  He spent his next three years in jail.  Released in 1995, the former champion returned to the ring.  He reclaimed his championship in a crushing rematch with Frank Bruno.  He was however stopped by Evander Holyfield twice in 1996 and 1997.  Lenox Lewis also demystified him later.

          The fact that this man was not able to control his freedom can be traced to his very unpleasant, lonely and rough background.  At 38, Tyson didn’t know who his father was.  He said: “Sometimes, I don’t know who the hell I am.  My mother said it was Jimmy Kirkpatrick, but my birth certificate says Purcell Tyson.  How embarrassing it was, at 38, to try to get a passport only to find out I don’t know who my father is”.

          Inspite of that, you must realize that it is not what happens to you that matters but what happens in you that counts.  Your background could be rough and hard, but you have a responsibility to turn things around.  The sea could be rough but you can re-direct your sail.  There are many people with very unpleasant foundations but have gone back to lay a better foundation.

          This is how Tyson has passed a verdict on his own life with the following statement:  “I will never be happy.  I believe I’ll die alone.  I would want it that way.  I’ve been a loner all my life with my secrets and pain.  I’m really lost, but I’m trying to find myself.  I’m really a sad, pathetic case.  My whole life has been a waste – I’ve been a failure.”

          He made a statement of fact but he didn’t need to close the chapter on his life.  But that is the frustration that can befall a man who was never prepared for the kind of freedom that people like Tyson got when he became a celebrity.  He could never adjust his personality to the demands of being one of the world’s most famous sportsmen.

          For the avoidance of doubt, there are two major kinds of freedoms.  The first kind which is in common practice is that which you exercise without responsibilities.  I call it playing around with your life while waiting for a sure pay-day.  John C. Maxwell said, if you play today, you will surely pay tomorrow.  It is common sense to pay today so you could play tomorrow.  In other words, your paying today is the responsibility you take to ensure your playing tomorrow which is the real freedom.

          Your real freedom comes when you have properly been schooled to understand and appreciate the virtues of education, acquiring knowledge, developing yourself to reaching your potentials and taking deliberate steps to do what is required in order to achieve your set goals in the light of your ultimate vision.

(.... to be continued)