For some months now we’ve been anticipating the departure of a great leader. Madiba Nelson Mandela has died at 95-years-old, today the world mourns a hero.
Madiba was the first black president of South Africa. He is known throughout the world for his fights against apartheid. To millions not only in South Africa, or the continent of Africa, but throughout the world he was a beacon of the hope and peace, an epitome of the good in humanity.
He led South Africa’s transition from white-minority rule in the 1990s, after spending 27 years in prison. He was arrested on August 5th 1962, incarcerated until February 11th 1990 (a year before my birth). What stunned the world was his compassion and his love for peace and equality.
Growing up in Africa his name was the first on our tongues whenever we thought of the perfect role model. I remember dancing to songs from the 1992 musical ‘Sarafina’ by Mbongani Ngema, starring Whoopi Goldberg. My favorite song in that musical is titled ‘freedom is coming tomorrow’, it features the lead character dressed as Mandela after his release, this was my official introduction to what Mandela and his work. Across the seas dividing West Africa from the south, we felt a surge of power whenever the movie came on Television.
Nelson Mandela was also our leader, thousands of miles away he led us with a fist in the air and we followed with faith. His face was a reminder of freedom, ‘an ideal he was prepared to die for.’ In the speech he gave at the beginning of his trial facing charges of sabotage in 1964(way before my time), he said
“Our struggle, is a truly national one, it is a struggle all the African people inspired by our own suffering and our own experience, it is a struggle for the right to live. During my lifetime I have dedicated my life to this struggle of the African people, I have fought against white domination and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons will live together in harmony and with equal opportunities, It is an ideal for which I hope to live for and to see realized, but my lords if it need be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.”-(Nelson Mandela, Supreme court of South Africa, Pretoria, April 20 1964)
It was always silent when Nelson Mandela’s speeches were played over and over again on the Radio, for my father this was his moment of reflection. There was something about the sound of Mandela’s voice, as he spoke of mutual struggles, Although when I was younger, I didn’t necessarily have a clear understanding of his words, I just knew it resounded the truth, a truth we lived daily in Nigeria.
Now As I read tweets by Cameron “Nelson Mandela was a hero of our time”, and a speech by Obama who said “I cannot imagine my life without the example Madiba set.” I sit back once more to enjoy the sweet song of freedom.
