There was a time when there were two people almost everyone in any corner of the world knew. These people were Michael Jackson and Nelson Mandela. There are some people that we naturally feel they have to be there all the time somehow. We may not have blood connections to them but we still feel they are part of us. Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela is one such person. Madiba, as the former South African president is fondly known, has spent the week in hospital for a recurring lung infection. As I write this, his condition was said be “serious but stable”. At 94 Madiba is no spring chicken. In fact he has lived more than a full life. And yet the world still has not had enough of Mandela. Although since dropping out of public life over a decade ago Mandela is almost in a vegetative state, the world still think Mandela should be around...somehow. Some people may think greatness was thrust on Madida, that the 27 years he spent on Robben Island actually saved him from early death. Nobody expected, for example, Chris Hani to die young. Whatever the case Mandela’s life has inspired the world. His life is stuff of legend. He has been everything, a boxer, a militant lawyer, a fiery anti-apartheid icon. His life has inspired music, books and films. Several volumes of music, books and films of – or about - his life will continue be produced long after he is gone. That Mandela was a peace-maker is not in doubt. After spending almost three decades in the slammer one would have expected an angry Mandela to be mad at his jailers. But he made peace with them. No wonder the militant types on the continent, notably Robert Mugabe, branded him “too soft and much of a saint”. I recall the time President Bill Clinton was being hit left, right and centre over his liaisons with the White House intern Monica Lewinsky. The most powerful man in the world was almost reduced to tears when Mandela advised him: “Mr. President, don’t worry about falling down; worry about getting up when you fall down.” Perhaps it is high the world started looking for the next Mandela, a world icon, a symbol of peace.
Posted on: Sun, 16 Jun 2013 20:42:29 +0000
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