Steve Biko, Nelson Mandela and The Mandela Effect

Looking up "The Mandela Effect" (See David Lynch's Weather Report) I came across something that made me wonder, ...

The Mandela effect got its name when Fiona Broome, a self-identified “paranormal consultant,” detailed how she remembered former South African President Nelson Mandela dying in the 1980s in prison (although Mandela lived until 2013).

Broome could describe remembering news coverage of his death and even a speech from his widow about his death. Yet none of it happened.

If Broome’s thoughts occurred in isolation, that would be one factor. However, Broome found that other people thought the exact same as her.

Even though the event never happened, she wasn’t the only one who felt like it did. As a result, the Mandela effect concept was “born.”

Asking a person, “Didn’t Nelson Mandela die in prison?” or “Nelson Mandela died in prison, right?” is a leading question that increases the likelihood a person will answer yes.

That made me think of how I used to believe that the reason the Apartheid regime gave for why Nelson Mandela spent so long in prison was that "he refused to denounce violence as a possible solution to South Afria's problems." I have scanned most of the Wikipedia page on Steve Biko and can find no indication that he considered violence as a possible solution to South Africa's problems. He was more interested in setting up crèches for working mothers, ... Not that I'm a big fan of crèches!!

The government came to see Biko as a subversive threat and placed him under a banning order in 1973, severely restricting his activities. He remained politically active, helping organise BCPs such as a healthcare centre and a crèche in the Ginsberg area. During his ban he received repeated anonymous threats, and was detained by state security services on several occasions.

Photo: Mark Peters/Liaison Agency

See this post of mine a few weeks ago: Steve Biko. And I found out how the Port Elizabeth/Pretoria confusion arose. Biko was beaten and abused in Port Elizabeth, then after a cursory medical examination, driven 740 miles to Pretoria in the back of a Land Rover, and died the next day: From Wikipedia: Steve Biko: 

The security services took Biko to the Walmer police station in Port Elizabeth, where he was held naked in a cell with his legs in shackles. On 6 September, he was transferred from Walmer to room 619 of the security police headquarters in the Sanlam Building in central Port Elizabeth, where he was interrogated for 22 hours, handcuffed and in shackles, and chained to a grille. Exactly what happened has never been ascertained, but during the interrogation he was severely beaten by at least one of the ten security police officers. He suffered three brain lesions that resulted in a massive brain haemorrhage on 6 September. Following this incident, Biko's captors forced him to remain standing and shackled to the wall. The police later said that Biko had attacked one of them with a chair, forcing them to subdue him and place him in handcuffs and leg irons.

Biko was examined by a doctor, Ivor Lang, who stated that there was no evidence of injury on Biko. Later scholarship has suggested Biko's injuries must have been obvious. He was then examined by two other doctors who, after a test showed blood cells to have entered Biko's spinal fluid, agreed that he should be transported to a prison hospital in Pretoria. On 11 September, police loaded him into the back of a Land Rover, naked and manacled, and drove him 740 miles (1,190 km) to the hospital. There, Biko died alone in a cell on 12 September 1977.

I think maybe my father used to work on the 20th floor of the Sanport/Sanlam building in Port Elizabeth when he was an Architect in Stauch Forster & Partners.

This is all the more reason why it's important to talk about stuff you remember!! See Death and Grieving in The Navajo Tradition.