"I have fought against White domination and I have fought against Black domination. I have cherished the ideal of democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if need be, it is an ideal I am prepared to die for." — Nelson Mandela in 1964.
The man had an extraordinary resistance. A rare attribute, which only persons of utmost conviction, vision and irresistible mission to fulfil possess. This was why many years of prison life, some spent in solitary confinement, could not break him down physically, psychologically and spiritually.
When the tide swang in his favour, what would ordinarily be expected of many people -- vengeance -- was absent. Instead, the man became the symbol of reconciliation, forgiveness and national unity.
Nelson Mandela died at a ripe age of 95 on Thursday, December 4, 2013, but not before seeing his dream of one South Africa, where Black, White and Coloured people are all woven into one, come into fruition. The Rainbow Nation he rightly called it.
The grounds of Apartheid, one of the most vicious racial policies ever practised in the modern-day era, started to shake with the release of Nelson Mandela, the most popular of the political prisoners in the apartheid regime, on February 2, 1990.
Whether it was in response to international pressure, or the man just wanted to listen to his own conscience, former President F.W. de Klerk has gone down in history as the man who hastened the end of apartheid when he introduced reforms which included unbanning of the African National Congress (ANC), the movement that was spearheading the fight against apartheid, in early 1990, and crowned it with the release of Mandela after 27 years in prison, where he was to stay for life.
Mandela led multi-racial South Africa to independence in 1994, and quickly shamed those who were expecting political turmoil and social disintegration. White South Africans who were planning relocation quickly had to abandon their plans, when Mandela proved to them that it was easy for peoples of all races to live together in harmony to satisfy their common aspirations.
Former President de Klerk, who shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Mandela in 1993, paid tribute to him thus, "I think Mandela's greatest legacy and influence on the South African nation is that we are basically at peace with each other notwithstanding our great diversity. His greatest legacy is that he was a unifier and that he successfully broke the bridge between the conflict of the past and the peace of today."
South Africa has since tapped on its multi-racial strength to become Africa's prime economic power and playing other lead roles on the continent.
African leaders have joined other world leaders to pay tribute to Mandela for his humility, honesty, humanness and abhorrence for any form of exploitation and oppression.
The question is, if they know so well these attributes that have endeared Mandela to so many people on all continents, why hadn’t African leaders tried in their small ways to emulate him?
African leaders are about the only breed that do not know how to say ‘enough is enough’ when they are in power. They are the only group that do not harbour any sense of shame when they preside over the dissipation of the resources of their countries to render them poorer than they came to meet them.
Why don't they have accommodating heart towards their opponents such as what Mandela did?
What we are seeing today of South Africa, sad to say, are the fruits of apartheid, when the White minority were in full control of economic and political power. It is anybody’s guess how that country would look like, if Blacks were in control from the beginning.
African leaders must take inspiration from Mandela’s death and resolve to move the continent from its backwardness to that of enlightenment. There is no excuse for a continent considered the richest in terms of resources to be the poorest.
Africa's predicament has been narrowed down to uninspiring and corrupt leadership on the continent. As they prepare to attend the funeral of Mandela, who fought a good fight and has retired to his Maker, African leaders should not end with flowery tributes, but resolve to pick important lessons of patriotism and nationalism from the notebooks of Mandela, who said, "Death is something inevitable. When a man has done what he considers to be his duty to his people and his country, he can rest in peace. I believe I have made that effort and that is, therefore, why I will sleep for eternity".
Nelson Mandela has paid his dues. May he rest in eternal peace.
