In her own words: Nelson Mandela's granddaughter speaks out about Harry and Meghan

[BeautifulJust]

I don't usually post in the Royal Family topic or comment about Harry and Meghan, but I think this makes very interesting reading for those on either side of the fence or none:

It is time to tell the truth about Harry, Meghan and my grandfather – Nelson Mandela
It is true that I feel terribly disappointed whenever the Mandela name or face is used for commercial purposes without any benefit to the vision he stood for
Ndileka Mandela
6 hours ago
www.independent.co.uk/voices/prince-harry-meghan-markle-nelson-mandela-b2270406.html

Please read her article in The Independent before commenting, rather than just commenting on the headline I have quoted above. TIA.

I registered and read most of it. Thanks for posting this.

Can you post a link? I find it shocking that she was quoted so falsely. Respected outlets reprinted the quotes. Is the Australian a rag? If so it’s weird they were so widely referenced. If not, then wild that they could have just made up these quotes?

So Meghan didn't tell someone south africans were dancing in the streets after her marriage to Harry?

The quotes were about their new Netflix adventure, not about that.

She says, for example:
I was shocked. Because it was false...I was misquoted...I want to set the record straight.

'Is the Australian a rag?'

No - centre right broadsheet.

Ndileka Mandela is a social activist, former ICU nurse and the head of a rural upliftment organisation the Thembekile Mandela Foundation in South Africa.

She has much of interest to say, but at the very least she deserves the opportunity to set the record straight when she has been so publicly and grossly misrepresented and used in this way.

As she says, 'I was misquoted, leading to global news coverage that weaponised my name – and the name of my grandfather, the late anti-apartheid activist and first president of South Africa, Nelson Mandela – to target a woman of colour.'

If we - as readers, watchers and listeners to the news - are fed complete falsehoods claiming to be facts then I want to know that and I find myself wondering about the motives behind it.

You don't need to register to read the article. Hit the "I'll try later" button (which is just under the register button) and the whole article appears.

Thank you edme.

I've just clicked on the link in my OP and it took me straight to the full article now, without the free registration box popping up at all.

The most important part of the article is how the Royal Family are the world's biggest landowner and are still involved in removing wealth from African nations to richer countries. It also highlights the inequalities in SA where whites make up 8% of the population but control 90% of the wealth.

Slightly disingenuous though - while it may be 'Crown Land', it's not as if the monarch could sell it. Profits from 'Crown Land' in say, Canada, largely go to provincial governments.

You don’t. There is an option to register or “try later”. If you click on try later it lets you read the article.

Sorry, I see someone beat me to it.

It’s a Murdoch newspaper. Australia now has very concentrated media ownership - which is a worry.

So it's the complete opposite of what the press would have us believe - she has been misquoted and has the utmost respect for H&M. I have selected a portion hope it is "fair use" in copyright terms.

But it pales in comparison to how my grandfather’s name was misused to attack a woman of colour who was, effectively, hounded out of the British royal family.

How could such a thing happen? I believe it’s because of the symbolic significance of Harry and Meghan’s subversive dissent from the royal status quo, which has exposed to sunlight many problems with the institution of the Crown which otherwise would remain unknown.

I believe it’s because despite our real victories against apartheid, colonialism and slavery – in some ways, the mindset behind these crimes – is alive and well in some of our most powerful institutions.

The same voices that want to impugn Harry and Meghan want to silence the rest of us who are still fighting for the values my grandfather stood for: for them, speaking of the realities of Britain’s role in the trans-Atlantic slave trade is taboo; the scale of atrocities committed by the British empire is to be expunged from historical memory; admitting the ongoing challenges of institutional racism should be banned from schools and universities.

What are they so afraid of? They are afraid that the more we speak out, inspired by the indomitable spirit of my grandfather, the more the persistent legacies of colonialism, slavery and apartheid hidden within the crony laws of predatory capitalism and broken democracies will be exposed.