The Saltman Center for Conflict Resolution will mark its 10th anniversary by heralding anti-apartheid revolutionary Nelson Mandela and the insights he offered to help resolve present-day problems.
To explore Mandela's contributions to conflict resolution, the center will sponsor a public event at 3 p.m. Nov. 1, titled "Making Peace with Your Enemy: Nelson Mandela and his Contributions to Conflict Resolution."
Event Speakers
Speakers at the event will be leaders in the field of conflict resolution and experts on South Africa
- Carrie Menkel-Meadow, one of the founders of the legal discipline of conflict resolution and now Chancellor's Professor of Law at UC Irvine, will address "Nelson Mandela's Procedural Transition From (Violent) Cause Activist to Peace and Justice Seeking Activist."
- Robert Mnookin, Samuel Williston Professor of Law and Chair of the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School, will draw from his book Negotiating with the Devil to discuss "Nelson Mandela's Decision to Bargain with the Devil."
- Richard Goldstone, a former judge of the Constitutional Court of South Africa and former chief prosecutor of the UN International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, will give a talk titled "Nelson Mandela's Skills in Conflict Negotiation: A Personal Reflection."
- Penelope Andrews, who grew up "colored" in apartheid South Africa, and is now dean at Albany Law School, will speak on "Nelson Mandela, Forgiveness and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission."
- Professor Andrea Schneider of the Marquette University Law School, as moderator, will help the speakers draw lessons from Mandela's work for current, seemingly intransigent, disputes in places such as the Middle East or Ukraine.
A webcast will be available through the Law School's website.
About Nelson Mandela
Mandela, who died in December 2013, was a lawyer who fought against the white supremacist regime in South Africa and brokered peace with that regime after having been jailed for 27 years.
His effort to negotiate a peaceful transition to democracy with apartheid leader F.W. de Klerk was understandably highly controversial, as it rose out of numerous bloody confrontations between activists seeking to destroy apartheid and the white South Africans seeking to maintain that same system. Yet Mandela famously stated in his memoir, A Long Walk to Freedom: "To make peace with an enemy one must work with that enemy, and that enemy becomes one's partner."
The interim Constitution negotiated by Mandela and de Klerk allowed for open elections and creation of a unitary government, with Mandela winning the presidency in 1994. For these efforts Mandela and de Klerk were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
As South Africa's first black president, Mandela saw national reconciliation as his primary task. He therefore took steps to help the former enemies begin to resolve their deep differences, forgive one another to the extent possible, and live and work together productively. For example, Mandela helped create the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission in which former adversaries could confront one another and explain their various perspectives, learn the truth about past crimes, as well as potentially obtain amnesty.
He also urged black South Africans to support the previously all-white rugby team, the Springboks, which had been a hated symbol of white rule.
