I met the real
Super Mario
Kenworthy News Media
Peter Kenworthy meets Mario Masuku
I cannot claim to have met
Nelson Mandela. Or Steve Biko. Or Patrice Lumumba. Or Thomas Sankara. But I
have met Mario Masuku – the former leader of Swaziland’s biggest democratic
movement, PUDEMO, writes Peter Kenworthy of Kenworthy News Media.
Super Mario Bros. is one of
the world’s most popular arcade and computer games – a game that my sons still
love to play in newer versions. A game where the hero – Super Mario – has to
endure all manner of dangers in trying to defeat the main villain or antagonist
King Koopa – a large turtle who rules over the mushroom kingdom, has kidnapped
Princess Peach, can breathe fire and uses black magic.
The Super Mario character
first appeared in 1983 – the same year that Mario Masuku helped form The
People’s United Democratic Movement, to try and ensure that liberation in
Swaziland would lead to democracy, not the absolute monarchy of King Mswati
that Swaziland had become and still is.
While I have never seen the
real Mario literally jump on his enemies, like his computer namesake, he has
nevertheless been incredibly important as an ongoing catalyst for the
liberation movement of Swaziland – always bearing the hardships that come with
being the leader of a liberation movement with calm dignity.
I have seen this myself,
when I had met Mario through my work for the Danish solidarity Movement Afrika Kontakt
(the former Danish Anti-Apartheid movement, now called Global Aktion) and
through the party-to-party project between the Danish Red-Green Alliance party
and PUDEMO.
Democracy and
dictatorship
The first time I really heard of Mario Masuku was
in March 2010. I was part of the Afrika Kontakt delegation in the Danish
parliament who received a democracy award from the former Danish Finance
Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs (and future speaker of the Danish
parliament and future President of the United Nations General Assembly), Mogens
Lykketoft, on behalf on Masuku.
Mario could not be present,
but sent a speech, where he said that he accepted the prize on behalf of all
Swazis who fight and hope for democracy, stability and social justice.
I got to meet Mario in
person for the first time in September 2010, where we presented him with the
physical manifestation of the prize – a gilded megaphone. We talked about the
connection between the struggle for democracy in apartheid-South Africa and in
Swaziland, and how “Swaziland will be liberated by its own citizens, but aided
by solidarity organisations in the way that South Africa won her freedom aided
by the anti-apartheid movement,” as he put it.
Before me and my colleagues
left, we were given a little sample of the “hospitality” that the Swazi regime
usually reserves for PUDEMO members and others who demand democracy, when we
were detained, beaten, interrogated and threatened by Swazi police, who claimed
that our organization were aiding and abetting a “terrorist” organization,
PUDEMO.
A taste of
democracy
In November 2012, representatives of the Red-Green
Alliance met with Mario Masuku and the leadership of PUDEMO and outlined the
prospects for a partnership sponsored by the Danish Institute of Parties and
Democracy (DIPD) – a government-funded institute that “support[s] political
parties and multi-party systems in selected developing countries.”
In June 2013 Mario and I
met with Mogens Lykketoft, who was now speaker of the Danish parliament for
lunch in his office.
“I was very pleased to be
able to meet Mogens Lykketoft,” Masuku told me at the time. “Swaziland is
famous for all the wrong things. For having the highest aids-prevalence in the
world, for nearly 70% of the population having to live on under 1$ a day, and
for being the country in the world that spends most on the military per capita,
even though we have no external enemies.”
In November, I was lucky to
be the person in charge of Mario Masuku’s visit to Denmark through the
DIPD-project. Here we followed the Danish Municipal elections in my own
municipality, Gladsaxe, where we talked to the Mayor and other members of the
City Council and followed the elections closely – amongst other things looking
in on the counting of the ballots and talking to civil servants and voters.
“I am surprised that Danish
political parties are always looking for consensus. The ownership and respect
for the process by the Danish people shows – why can’t we learn from that. We
come from the old British political system where we are always contesting,”
Mario told me.
“The problem of comparing
Denmark and Swaziland is that Denmark is a democracy and Swaziland is a
dictatorship. We cannot copy-paste all from the Danish system,” he added.
Released into
the ‘big prison’
In August 2014 Mario Masuku was yet again imprisoned by King Mswati’s
dictatorial regime, together with Maxwell Dlamini, who was Secretary General of
PUDEMO’s youth league, SWAYOCO, at the time. This time on charges of terrorism
for having shouted “Viva PUDEMO” at a union rally on May Day. I helped run a
campaign for his release in Denmark.
In October Danish Minister
of Foreign Affairs Martin Lidegaard told the Danish Foreign Affairs Committee
that Denmark has continuously raised the question of political freedom with
Swaziland.
“The trial of Mario Masuku
and Maxwell Dlamini was brought up during the recently held political
consultations between the EU and Swaziland on the 2nd and 3rd of October
regarding the Cotonou Agreement, at the request of the Danish Ambassador,”
Lidegaard said.
During the meeting, the
Danish ambassador urged Swaziland to comply with the demands of the ongoing
AGOA-negotiations, which should include the adaption of laws such as
Swaziland’s Suppression of Terrorism Act, a bill that Amnesty International has
called “inherently repressive”.
Hundreds of unions,
parties, politicians and individuals from all over the world signed a petition
to demand the release of Mario Masuku and Maxwell Dlamini, including the
International Trade Union Confederation, British trade union federation UNISON
and the African National Congress. In July 2015 they were finally released
“into the big prison that is Swaziland,” as Masuku put it.
Conquers the
kingdom
I have met with Mario every time I have visited Swaziland and stayed in touch
with him when back home, on occasion interviewing him over the telephone for
articles on matters such as the talks about talks with the regime or Swaziland
assuming the chairmanship of SADC.
I have never met two of my
heroes – Steve Biko and Nelson Mandela. But I believe myself to have been
fortunate to have met and interacted with Mario Masuku.
A leader who has been
manhandled by police, had his house raided in front of his children, been put
under house arrest, charged with terrorism, detained and jailed in harsh and
unbecoming conditions detrimental to his health – so much so that he calls
prison “my second home”. Simply for peacefully demanding democracy. But
also a man who has always acted in a calm and respectful manner that becomes a
true leader.
In the end of the Super
Mario game, Mario saves Princess Peach and the Mushroom Kingdom from King
Koopa, as he conquers the eight worlds of the Mushroom Kingdom by going to the
castle in each to defeat a minion of King Koopa.
Last year Mario Masuku
stepped down as leader of PUDEMO, and Mlungisi Makhanya took his place. But I
hope that Mario Masuku, through his decades-long battle for democracy in
Swaziland, has helped set the scene for something similar in the kingdom of
Swaziland.
See also
PUDEMO leader defies bail conditions
