KGEM-TV's Ralph Walker Shares Monrovia's Link to Mandela's Fight Against Apartheid

Many of the city's residents might not know that Monrovia has a link of sorts to President Nelson Mandela and his fight against apartheid in South Africa, but television show producer and host Ralph Walker hopes to share that piece of history.

Walker, host of the show "Conversations with Ralph Walker" on KGEM-TV, spoke to the Monrovia City Council Tuesday night about the link.

In 1993, Walker was involved in the planning of a concert at the Baha'i Center in Los Angeles.  Organizers tasked him with getting some notable people to attend, and Walker called then Monrovia Mayor Bob Bartlett.

Bartlett agreed to issue a proclamation declaring the city's opposition to apartheid, a system of racial segregation and discrimination black South Africans lived under for decades.  Mandela, an anti-apartheid activist, spend 27 years in prison for fighting against the system.

Music artist Hugh Masekela received the proclamation at the concert and Walker, who had contacted the South African consulate in Beverly Hills, received the new South African flag for the celebration.

"There is that Monrovia connection," he said. "And it typifies Monrovia standing on the right page of history."

Bartlett, who served on the Monrovia City Council for 27 years, said when he watched Mandela's funeral on television recently, seeing South Africans dancing and waving the flag reminded him of the event at the Baha'i Center.

"It made me think of Hugh Masekela and the music that was played," he said.  "You just couldn't sit still. There was foot-tapping. It was joyous."

Bartlett said he doesn't remember when he became totally aware of Mandela but he recalled reading about his being put in jail for fighting against apartheid, a system that has parallels to the Jim Crow laws in the South here in America.

"I thought about how he forgave his captors or the people who put him in prison," Bartlett said.  "He even had his jailer in the front row when he was sworn in and that is so unusual. He was such a wonderful man and I hope the world will have another Nelson Mandela to say 'let's let bygones be bygones' and move ahead, forget about all of these wars and ugliness."

Walker said at the council meeting that modeling Mandela and spreading forgiveness could be a world changer.

"The remarkable thing about President Nelson Mandela was his ability for forgiveness," he said. "This could be such a perfect timing and season right now, and we're in the holiday season, that people really probably need to take the time to extend their hand toward someone to ask for forgiveness, not just on the surfce but from the heart."

Councilman Tom Adams called for Walker's South African flag, as well as Bartlett's proclamation or some information about it, to be displayed at City Hall.  He said he would like to see it subsequently moved to the Monrovia Library.

"I can't imagine what it would have been like to have been in prison for 27 years fight something wrong," Adams said. "But he maintained such a positive attitude throughout that and continued to work on making the world a better place."