Special tributes have been paid the world over to Nelson Mandela, who died on Thursday 5 December at the age of 95.
The anti-apartheid leader was imprisoned for 27 years for his stand against injustice meted on South Africa’s black majority by the white minority government. Behind bars, he became an inspiration to the civil rights movement the world over. And upon his release in 1990, he defied those who were convinced he would seek revenge against his oppressors by ushering the birth of the ‘Rainbow Nation’.
Mandela, who was elected President of South Africa in 1994, demonstrated a sense of dignity and self-belief built on forgiveness and reconciliation. This stance did not suddenly come about on his release, but from a deep personal conviction over decades.
Neither was it a position taken against his oppressors alone. Mandela was also firmly opposed to injustice among the black community. “I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination,” he told the court during his trial for sabotage in 1964.
Mandela’s lack of bitterness was not only “astonishing” – as noted by FW De Klerk, the last president of the apartheid era who later shared the Nobel Peace Prize with him – but something that seems to have eluded many other world leaders.
That’s not to say Mandela was a saint. Like all mortals, he too made mistakes. But as over 100 serving and former heads of state arrive in South Africa for Mandela’s memorial and funeral, we call on them to reflect on his achievements, and how they might follow in his long walk to freedom.
