In Prince Mashele's article, "Leave more than your name behind", August 24, he quotes Nelson Mandela as having said: "Men and women all over the world, right down the centuries, come and go. Some leave nothing behind, not even their names. It would seem that they never existed at all."

I don't know about other parts of the world, but in Africa there are genealogies that nowadays some African families not only commit to memory but write down.

These genealogies mention names of family members. John S Mbiti writes in his book, African Religions and Philosophy, that for African peoples, the family has a much wider circle of members than the word suggests in Europe or North America.

The African concept of the family also includes the unborn members who are still in the loins of the living. They are buds of hope and expectation, and each family makes sure that its own existence is not extinguished.

The family provides for its continuation, and prepares for the coming of those not yet born.

Obviously Mandela was and Mashele is oblivious to this African practice.

Mashele went on to say that: "Mandela was perhaps the best black to say this, for only a jaundiced historian would overlook Mandela when aiding posterity to reconstruct our age."

Based on what Mbiti revealed, I disagree and I don't think I am jaundiced. Is it true that Moshoeshoe left no legacy behind? Any writing about Moshoeshoe that one can lay his/her hands on describes him as a skilful diplomat.

Does that not equate with having left behind a legacy? His reasoning was unparalleled, not to mention his battle and peacekeeping skills.

I am certain that Sekhukhune also left a legacy as well as Shaka and Mzilikazi. Notwithstanding that the latter two are not always written about in complimentary terms.

But Shaka and Mzilikazi have people who honour them and can talk about the legacy they left behind.

Cecil John Rhodes bequeathed to us death and destruction. There is no imperialist and colonialist who can bequeath to us anything good.

Is Mashele aware that Europeans used mine tunnels that were dug by African miners and roads that were constructed by early Africans? There were roads that were trade routes between East Africa and the Munhumutapa Empire. The Munhumutapa Empire also included Mozambique and what is now called South Africa.

Professor Carroll Quigley exposed Rhodes's modus operandi. The scholarship he sponsored was aimed at producing scholars who would work for British imperial and colonial interests. That can't be laudable.

He used his secret societies to achieve his nefarious goals and he murdered many people, including Lobengula, Mzilikazi's son, and thousands of his followers and then renamed Zimbabwe after himself.

In fact, Dr Modiri Silas Molema, in his book Montshiwa, describes Rhodes as a man devoid of scruples.

I wonder if Mashele has read anything about the intellectuals and experts of ancient Egypt. The fact that we are not exposed to the works of some significant Africans does not mean they have left no legacies.

I also recommend that Mashele read Blacks in Science edited by Professor Ivan Van Sertima, which could enlighten him further about African achievements.

Finally, I question Mashele's high regard for Mandela. Has he not read MI6: Fifty Years of Special Operations by Stephen Dorril and the first edition of The Big Breach by Richard Tomlinson that detail Mandela's covert cooperation with the M16 and CIA.

Mandela's legacy is not all rosy and includes the bad deal he negotiated with the representatives of the apartheid government, the effects of which we are feeling today.

These should be acknowledged as a part of Mandela's legacy.

lDitshego is a fellow at the Pan Africanist Research Institute