The communist revolutionary exiled in Britain with a mission to smash oppression has never forgotten the day the tables were turned.
Britain was supposed to be a sanctuary for the African National Congress, but a London bobby had other ideas and smashed his fist into Thabo Mbeki’s face.
Four decades later the pain has gone and with it half a tooth, last seen outside the US embassy in London where South Africa’s future president was demonstrating against the war in Vietnam.
Mbeki (60) revealed the bashing with pride at this week’s ANC party conference in Stellenbosch, prompted by delegates’ chants of ”Ho Chi Minh” after a message of solidarity from the Vietnamese Communist party.
Taking the microphone the president said: ”Some of the comrades might have seen I’ve got a half tooth here. Some people have suggested that it was cosmetic to make myself more beautiful. But other comrades … would know this tooth was broken by the fist of a British policeman. We were demonstrating in front of the US embassy in London demanding that the Americans get out of Vietnam. Comrades, that’s how we grew up.”
The tale was well received. Though not quite in the league of Nelson Mandela’s 27 years on Robben island, it softened Mr Mbeki’s image as a cold technocrat who appears self-conscious when swapping his suits for a T-shirt.
Mbeki was sent by the ANC to the UK to study soon after the organisation was banned. He spent six years in Brighton, obtaining a masters degree in economics from Sussex University and a reputation for supporting Harold Wilson’s Labour party as well as the Soviet Union.
He led a march to London to protest at a possible death sentence against anti-apartheid activists, including his father, Govan, as well as Mandela.
After studying military training for a year in Moscow, he worked in the ANC office in Islington, north London, before moving to ANC jobs in Africa and, in 1999, the presidency. – Guardian Unlimited Â