You may have thought that Eponymy in August was over, but really it never went away. It just wasn’t August from 11 months ago until now. But it does lead to a nice segue into talking about today’s Eponymy in August, which is the Mandela Effect. Let’s start by listing some oddly controversial facts.
- The Berenstain Bears aren’t spelled B-E-R-E-N-S-T-E-I-N
- Sinbad didn’t star in a movie in the ’90s called Shazaam
- Ed McMahon never worked for Publishers Clearing House nor went out on the Prize Patrol; he was a spokesman for the rival firm American Family Publishers
- Rich Uncle Pennybags, the Monopoly mascot, has never worn a monocle
- the man who stood in front of tanks the morning after the Tiananmen Square massacre was not run over
- Nelson Mandela didn’t die in prison in the ’80s. He was the first president of post-apartheid South Africa and passed in 2013.
- The United States of America comprises 50 states (plus a number of districts and territories which are not states)
These are “oddly controversial” because in each case, a significant number of people remember it differently. Though some may insist that these and other similar phenomena are evidence of parallel timelines or other interpretations of multiverse theory, it’s more likely that they’re examples of mass confabulation (unconscious distortion or fabrication of memory). A paranormal researcher, Fiona Broome, coined the term “Mandela Effect” for this after learning that her misremembering of Mandela’s death in prison was shared by a significant number of others.
Nelson Mandela, born Rolihlahla Mandela, was the first in his family to attend school, where he was given the English name “Nelson”. Mandela’s young adulthood was a repeating tale of involvement in direct action politics interfering with studies, and while he finished his bachelor studies by correspondence, he failed to complete law school. As the 1940s brought about both greater action by the African National Congress party (of which Mandela became a member in 1943) and a massive upswell in segregation and apartheid laws starting in 1948, Mandela’s prominence within the ANC steadily rose. Through protests, boycotts, and other direct actions, Mandela and the ANC leadership rankled the Afrikaner government and endured several political jailings and a trial for high treason. In 1960 the ANC was formally banned by the government and martial law was instated; in response, Mandela traveled the country setting up autonomous cells of the ANC as part of a plan for militarizing the resistance to the apartheid government. After a successful sabotage bombing campaign in 1961, Mandela was captured through a tip from the CIA in 1962 and sentenced to life imprisonment in 1964.
Mandela’s prisoner classification, which controlled visitors and correspondence, improved slowly through the next decade. He used the resources availed him to continue to increase his profile and that of anti-apartheid activists in the ANC and other organizations in South Africa. His milestone 60th and 70th birthdays in 1978 and 1988, respectively, put him internationally in the public eye and helped to force the hand of the South African government to reconsider apartheid, as it was already facing increasing resistance and violence from the ANC and thread of civil war. In 1989, a transfer of power to a new president, F.W. de Klerk, spearheaded meetings between both the outgoing and incoming president, and Mandela. Concurrent with this was the beginning of plans within the government to re-enfranchise the ANC and end apartheid. The following year, the ban on the ANC was lifted and Mandela released from prison.
Following release, Mandela toured for international support for sanctions against the apartheid government. Through a tense series of negotiations, 19 political parties including the ANC and the ruling National Party hammered out a plan for the first election with universal adult suffrage regardless of race, and the formation of a coalition government through a provisional constitution. Mandela and de Klerk shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993, and the following year, with a clear majority of the vote, the ANC’s delegates to the Assembly elected Mandela as president.
Mandela served one five-year term as president, and stepped down in 1999. For the five years that followed, he kept a busy schedule in public life, especially in efforts to combat the spread of HIV in Africa. These efforts were scaled back after 2004 due to age and deteriorating health, and Mandela became less public person but not an entirely private one. After almost three years of fighting recurrent infections, Mandela died in 2013. His legacy includes the aforementioned peace prize, being the first living person to be awarded honorary Canadian citizenship, and lending his name eponymously to the United Nations’ rules for the treatment of prisoners.