Elon Musk wasn’t the first South African to end up in the white house discussing the United Nations and having the President of the US listen with intent. Jan Smuts did it about a hundred years ago with Woodrow Wilson. Both the president and the South African were of a higher calibre human being back then. Their goal was to create the United Nations, not destroy it.
The ravages of the Boer War and World War I led them to believe in prosperity through cooperation and collaboration. Of course that prosperity typically excluded black and brown people but in terms of human history it was quite an accomplishment to have a couple of humans even capable of even thinking that evenly and far ahead.
After fighting to the bitter end against the British empire, Smuts’ philosophy of holism enforced his belief in a term he coined: The Commonwealth. The world itself could never be completely apart, although every person seems determined to delimit the world within their imaginary measurements. Jan was no different, but he was also quite different. When looking back at the men who made Apartheid, Jan must fall lower on the list of culprits than those Nationalist fellows who formed the governments that would go on to rule an autocratic system in RSA for a good chunk of the 20th century. Ironically the principles that Jan ensured were enshrined in the UN were used against him and South Africa when the horror of Apartheid became widely known. A wonderful contradiction in the story of his life.
Besides being a global statesman, and not just the South African prime minister, Jan Smuts was also quite a scientifically-minded intellectual. According to Steyn, one of the most impressive epithets that alludes to Smuts’ intelligence is the fact that Einstein said that Smuts was only 1 of 11 people alive at the time who fully understood the theory of relativity.
From studious student in Stellenbosch to Boer War General and international man of influence, Jan Smuts seemed to navigate his world with a morality and ethics that may have made him a devil in the eyes of some, but his actions on the world stage cannot be considered as anything but great as measured by their impact on world history. He may not be a hero any more but he certainly was a hero to many a hundred years ago.
He undoubtedly shaped the path of South African history but he also left an indelible impact on the wider world. For all the faults he could be called on, I’m not entirely convinced that they’re worse than the person who seems to be leaving an indelible mark in the minds and histories of millions as to what is the best South Africa can produce these days.
