Tribute to Nelson Rolihlahla Madiba Mandela and a call for a new struggle
As the world gets ready to send another Global African Hero home, one of the major rights he fought for - political freedom and basic human rights such as the right to eat in any restaurant of your choice or live anywhere you can afford if zoned for residential living - has been attained.
However, the struggles and inequities faced by generations after him are most times more subtle in terms of anyone purposefully oppressing us but rather making us handicaped because these generations are late to the acquisition of knowledge and wealth. Two necessary ingredients to level the playing field. These handicaps are utilized by others in a sophisticated fashion to give them a competitive advantage.
It has created a false sense of knowledge superiority and this unearned and most times undeserved head start in the acquisition of knowledge capital and wealth gives some the Hutzpah to believe they are better qualified and are therefore pushing to retake power be it political or economic.
Madiba, as the world begins to pay their last respects and send you on a beautiful homecoming to The Creator of Mankind, I'm hopeful that the generation you inspired will forever be grateful and the world will forever be humbled by your sacrifice, victory and magnanimous olive branch extended to those who sought to destroy you.
May you be received by the likes of the Great Sengpeh Pieh of Sierra Leone who led a revolt of slaves on board the Amistad headed to the USA, the Great Martin Luther King Jr of USA who led a peaceful revolution for human rights in the USA, the Great Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, the Great Mahatma Ghandi of India, the Great Rosa Parks who refused to stand up on a bus by sitting down for dignity.
We certainly hope that all righteous revolutionaries get the message you set through the example of your own struggles in life and realize that the next phase is knowledge and economic empowerment not just for self but the entire village. This current struggle is one that should not be fought with machetes, explosives, guns or weapons of mass destruction on the streets of Chicago, Baltimore, Accra, Mumbai, Beijing, Tehran, Cairo, Gaza, Moscow, Freetown, London…. This is a struggle that must be fought with the brains, charisma, physique, beauty and other natural gifts we are all endowed with. We can accomplish this most times through a change in our own behaviours and attitudes toward collaboration in the acquisition of knowledge, wealth that should lead to a better standard of living for the benefit of all mankind.
You and the generation that blazed the trail you walked and others after you that are blazing their own trails faced huge odds of success and overcame them by securing political freedom, human rights, majority rights in parliaments all over the world, corporate boardrooms around the world and yes, even the White House on Pennsylvania, Avenue.
This is proof positive that the generation you inspired has absolutely NO EXCUSE for failure despite our handicap in most cases of late acquisition of knowledge capital, wealth and other roadblocks. We owe it your life and struggle to succeed.
RIP Nelson Rolihlahla Madiba Mandela
(Rolihlahla means "troublemaker")
By Sheku M. Kallon Jr (PMP, CSM)
PwC | Africa | Director - Technology Advisory Services
Email: [email protected]