Mandela: A great man of humanity

 MOST non-South Africans find it difficult to grasp the phenomenon that was Nelson Mandela.

With his passing, this “giant for justice” will continue to be a myth and become a legend that will be told and retold for generations to come.

Those who have had the privilege of meeting “Madiba” – the clan name by which he was affectionately known by millions within the “Rainbow State” and throughout the world – will continue to feel his presence and influence for the rest of their lives.

Mandela guided South Africa from the shackles of apartheid to multi-racial democracy, as an icon of peace and reconciliation, a man who came to embody the struggle for justice around the world.“He is the epicentre of our time, ours in South Africa, and yours, wherever you are,” Nadine Gordimer, the South African writer and Nobel Laureate for Literature, once remarked.  

Mandela has indeed touched the lives of so many people, even those who have not been privileged to meet him in person.

As Australian journalist Neil McMahon, who observed the Mandela phenomenon up close as a foreign correspondent, wrote:

“… I visited Robben Island, the prison off the coast of Cape Town where Mandela had spent most of his years as an inmate. I was taken to a small cell, barely a closet. This was where the Mandela of legend grew, as Mandela the man endured his deprivation with a dignity and stoicism that remains a thing of wonder.

It’s a tourist attraction now, but then it was as it had been before they let the prisoners go. If you want a memory of Mandela, go to Robben Island. You can stand there in that cell and sense him with you. You can leave inspired, humbled and even hopeful. Madiba doesn’t need to be there; the idea of him is all you need.”

Mandela’s years behind bars made him the world’s most celebrated political prisoner and a leader of mythic stature for millions in black South Africa and other oppressed people far beyond his country’s borders.Charged with capital offences in the 1963 Rivonia Trial, his statement from the dock was his political testimony.

“During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.”

Mandela survived “10,000 days of imprisonment” and went on to become the first black president of South Africa and arguably the greatest political leader of our modern era.Following his passing last Thursday, tributes flowed in from leaders around the world.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon took a break from the UN Security Council session to address reporters: “Nelson Mandela was a giant for justice and a down-to-earth human inspiration.”

Barack Obama, the first black America president, described Mandela as an inspiration: “Like so many around the globe, I cannot fully imagine my own life without the example that Nelson Mandela set, and so long as I live I will do what I can to learn from him.”

Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Peter O’Neill paid tribute to Mandela, describing him as “the finest statesman of our time”.

“The Government and people of Papua New Guinea join with me in mourning the passing of the most influential and inspirational statesmen of our time, the first democratically elected President of South Africa, Nelson Mandela,” he said in a statement on Friday.

“His influence for good on our world continued as strong and as wholesome as ever in his retirement from public life – and it will continue as strong as ever even after his passing, when we remember the struggles he endured, and his fellow freedom fighters endured, just to gain the freedom and democracy we all too often take for granted.

“The world is a better place for the life and times of Nelson Mandela.”

We salute Mandela as a champion of free speech and press freedom. Farewell Madiba, you were truly an inspiration to democracy and mankind.