3 December 2013

Madiba, or as Tata (“Father”); he is often described as “the father of the nation”

09 December 2013
In reading Martin Kemp’s book Christ to Coke “How images become icons” this weekend, I could not help but to draw certain parallels between certain corporate brands like Nike or Apple and someone as famous as Nelson Mandela. I first learned of his death on Friday December 6 through social media. It took a while to sink in even though it was common knowledge that he was in ill health over the past few years; you knew it was coming, however, you did not want to believe it when it finally happened. At the new Church I attend, the pastor who is a South African Native gave the most moving sermon about Nelson Mandela. One part was he said “I grew up just minutes away from where Nelson Mandela served over 27 years in prison initially on Robben Island (and later in Pollsmoor Prison and Victor Verster Prison.) but he seemed a million miles away from most South Africans” He actually was one of the first to visit the actual prison cell that held Nelson Mandela for all of those years.

While Nelson Mandela had his detractors as all great men do none could argue that he was a great man. To me, Nelson Mandela symbolised what one man could accomplish if he acted with conviction, character and compassion. Madiba, or as Tata (“Father”); he is often described as “the father of the nation” has shown the world that one man can make a difference. To become great one must know suffering and to suffer properly one must know humility because it is only through humility that we can truly meet our naked selves and this is where true growth begins. This man could of had anything in life that he wanted but he chose to sacrifice his freedom for the good of humanity and of his people. I know many men today who won’t sacrifice even afternoon to spend with their children. Thank goodness for Madiba.

A Xhosa born to the Thembu Royal family, Mandela attended the Fort Hare University and the University of Witwatersrand, where he studied law. Living in Johannesburg, he became involved in anti-colonial politics, joining the ANC and becoming a founding member of its Youth League. After the South African National Party came to power in 1948, he rose to prominence in the ANC’s 1952 Defiance Campaign, was appointed superintendent of the organisation’s Transvaal chapter and presided over the 1955 Congress of the People. Working as a lawyer, he was repeatedly arrested for seditious activities and, with the ANC leadership, was unsuccessfully prosecuted in the Treason Trial from 1956 to 1961. Although initially committed to non-violent protest, he co-founded the militant Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) in 1961 in association with the South African Communist Party, leading a sabotage campaign against the apartheid government. In 1962 he was arrested, convicted of conspiracy to overthrow the state, and sentenced to life imprisonment in the Rivonia Trial.

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African anti-apartheid revolutionary, politician, and philanthropist who served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. He was the first black South African to hold the office, and the first elected in a fully representative democratic election. His government focused on dismantling the legacy of apartheid through tackling institutionalised racism, poverty and inequality, and fostering racial reconciliation. Politically an African nationalist and democratic socialist, he served as President of the African National Congress (ANC) from 1991 to 1997. Internationally, Mandela was Secretary General of the Non-Aligned Movement from 1998 to 1999.

I think 100 years from now we will still be talking about Nelson Mandela’s legacy (After all that’s what a legacy is) If I could take one thing from his life and death that would be that life is not supposed to be easy and it should mean something. There are two types of people in this world when it comes to greatness and they are those who read books and those who write books.

I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.~Nelson Mandela

There is no passion to be found playing small – in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.~Nelson Mandela

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