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In 1990, when Nelson Mandela was released from 27 years in prison, he flew to America. His first stop was in Brooklyn. Later that night he spoke at Yankee Stadium to a packed house.
Mandela was, of course, invited to the White House by former CIA drug lord George “Poppy” H.W. Bush, our crime boss President at the time, who almost certainly was involved in helping the Afrikaners arrest and imprison him back in 1963. The CIA and MI6. of course, had a very close working relationship with the Afrikaner regime in South Africa. Mandela snubbed the President and refused to meet with him and refused to be greeted at the White House in Washington, D.C., refusing the televised spectacle, denying Bush the photo opportunity to whitewash what he had done in assisting the Afrikaner regime.
No, his first stop was in Brooklyn, New York.
I was hired to supply the stage, and sound system and the electrical generator for the event, by Assemblyman Roger Green. My team and I arrived the night before at the Boys & Girls High School playing field and set up the loudspeakers and the stage. The next morning the Secret Service arrived, and led their bomb-sniffing dog onto our stage. The dog barely sniffed anything. He just trotted here and there for a moment, then went in a tight circle and settled down for a nap. I smiled at the sleepy, bored canine.
Twenty five thousand people attended the speech, but first Mandela kept them waiting for about three hours. I had not managed to bring with me any other music to play on the sound system except Youssou N’Dour’s CD NELSON MANDELA, which I kept playing over and over.
When Mandela finally arrived, I think the crowd had expectations of basking in a spectacular, triumphant history making public address that would uplift them, or make them feel important for attending, or something, but instead he CRITICIZED them. He said we Americans had it way too easy. That we should help others less fortunate, get off our butts and actively help the oppressed people around the world. He suggested we find ways to be of service to others, rather than think only of ourselves. He suggested we find a way to fund a program of exchange students between our countries, for instance. The whole tone of the speech sounded scolding to me, like he would have preferred not to have to waste his time teaching us what we should already know. He seemed almost immediately exasperated with his adoring crowd. I guess 27 years in prison can make a man a bit impatient.
I had agreed to provide stage, sound and power for 25,000 people for only $750. I thought it was the right thing to do. I felt like it was the least I could do, after the way my country treated the South African people. How we assisted the criminal apartheid regime of the Afrikaners. And especially how we continued to treat the Cubans, the only country that openly assisted the African National Congress in overthrowing the apartheid system.
New York State Assemblyman Roger Green told me at the end, he was sorry, that he had no check for me. That not only was he not going to pay me, but that he would not be able to even promise to pay the bill. The way he explained it, “The A.N.C. demanded all the money we raised.” The A.N.C. basically confiscated my fee. It was a very modest amount. A respectful ask. No one can say it was anything more than one tenth of the going rate. But it was confiscated anyway, without any reason given. And without thanks.
These past 35 years, I have often thought about those bewildering, awkward moments in my life. I never really held it against the South Africans. We audioworkers get used to being stiffed. Even when we do a great job. Even when the sound is crystal clean and clear 1000 feet from the stage, behind tens of thousands of happy people. Even when we did everything right and made no mistakes. Even when the program went flawlessly with no errors, such things can happen.
But this was my lived experience.
@CyrilRamaphosa
Alan Thompson@audiogrouch
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