MADIBA (journey to freedom)

1918 - 2013 

The crowd gathered in multitude, dancing, chanting in circles and not minding the long hours they’ve spent rejoicing outside a modest home in Johannesburg. They did not mourn and cry for their beloved leader. They were celebrating the life and legacy of Nobel Prize winner Nelson Mandela, the first black president of South Africa.

Tributes, kind words of remembrances and fond memories of long-spent friendships and chance meetings and encounters with the democratic icon this lifetime had ever seen, poured in from around the world. Once again, world leaders, celebrities and ordinary people sang in unison to praise and remember Mandela’s legacy as an incomparable world leader, father of his nation, and universal symbol of freedom and democracy.

The United Nations spent a minute of silence to honor him shortly after his death from a long battle of illness was announced to the world. 

A staunch anti-apartheid hero, he spent 27 years in prison after being convicted for sabotage and trying to overthrow the government. An international ‘Free Mandela Campaign’ was launched. He was freed in 1990 bringing along with him the commercialization and eventual branding  of his prison number 46664 to help his people rise from the greed of politics and poverty.   

During his presidency (1994-1999) He steered South Africa to heights never known to his race and made it more palatable to the world.

Those who knew him by virtue of chance and longtime friendship describe Mandela as compassionate, as someone with a deep sense of forgiveness, and overly kind and mindful to the plight of others. He never took credit for himself for all that has been done to South Africa and its people.

He stood tall by himself, even taller among his peers. He's got the groove and he loved to strut to the rhythm and the beat making his moves famous and what is now called the 'Mandela Jive'.

People knew him as sometimes mischievously  inappropriate. Scooping women on their wastes and giving them a hug as if taking in the life he sorely missed while in incarceration. He always gets away with every mischief, with a smile. 

The world is at the same time sad and happy on his passing. In sadness, today’s generation realizes that there is nobody else living right now that is (even) comparable to Mandela. In rejoicing, Mandela is now resting in the company of angels that  lulled him in deep peace and tranquility while fighting for his life. Finally, mankind can now focus on his legacy and extraordinary deeds that inspired and greatly impacted the world and the rulers of men.

In his tribute to Mandela, US President Barack Obama, a self-confessed Mandela follower and supporter perfectly summed up the late leader’s life in a phrase. ‘He no longer belongs to us. He belongs to the ages’.

Indeed, ‘Madiba’ is no longer with us, but he will live forever in every peace-loving heart’s memory in this lifetime and beyond.

 

'Sometimes, I feel like one on the sidelines, and who has missed life itself'

- Nelson Mandela