Since his passing, encomiums have been pouring in from every corner of the world in recognition of the intrinsic quality of this unique human being whose life would remain forever edifying for his innate goodness, courage, and self-sacrifice. Madiba embodied that rare capacity to transcend base and petty inclinations for vengeance from which he drew strength to forge a new society where elevating values held sway for the general good.
For Madiba, his death took a long time in coming, preceded by a protracted illness, particularly his chest infection, whose treatment took a heavy toll on other parts of his body to which he eventually succumbed. His was therefore a long good bye, so much so that in a sense it can be said that he tenaciously held on to life in all its lingering persistence, as if it was his own way of drawing attention to the possibility of what Madiba represents in a world besotted by all manner dross and evil. That if he endured long enough before passing to the great beyond, the force of his personal quality which has been acclaimed worldwide, might begin to have beneficial impact in bringing out the good latent in human beings. But alas, no one lasts forever. And so Madiba translated to the world beyond.
Madiba was born in a small village of Mveso on July 18, 1918 in Qunu district of the Transkei. According to Anthony Simpson the Qunu district was one of the most beautiful but also one of the poorest of the regions of South Africa. ‘’The limitless vistas of rolling hills, pale green grass, and round thatched huts , with herdboys and shepherds driving their flocks between them, presents an almost biblical vision of a timeless, idyllic, pastoral life’’. Being of royal blood, it was here that Nelson Mandela grew up and did his bit in tending goats and rearing cattle like the others.
At sixteen he along with others were packed off to Methodist mission school in Clarkebury. After two years, Madiba was sent to Healdtown, a bigger institution. It was at the mission schools that he was to meet many of the great freedom fighters with whom he fought racial domination and also served term in prison. He graduated from Healdtown in 1938 and the following year moved to the university of Fort Hare. At Fort Hare the fire of ambition burnt brightly and he had started to see himself as a civil servant in the Native administration, but all this was not to be.
In his second year, he was elected twice as head of a five man students’ council. The first time he resigned because due to apathy among the students, less than half of the students voted, reasoning that he could not parade himself as head of the students’ body when many of them did not vote. The election was re-scheduled and again voted in by less than half of the students’ body. Predictably, he again refused to serve and after a number of warnings by the Principal—Dr. Kerr, he was promptly dismissed from the university. And so ended Mandela’s ambition to earn a degree, he was however able to take a degree in Law much later. After being sent down from Fort Hare and at the age of 21, he went to Johannesburg to look for work, as was done by most young men. But at that time the huge African migration into the city was provoking Afrikaner nationalism on account of being threatened by black competition.
He worked briefly at the mines as a night watchman, but his real ambition was to be a lawyer and with the help of Walter Sisulu joined the firm of Witkin, Sidelsky& EIdelman, which employed him as an articled clerk. Attempt at earning a law degree from the University of Witwatersrand was again unsuccessful but all the while he was drawn into the politics around and he eventually joined the African National Congress (ANC). Meanwhile his legal practice continued apace culminating in a partnership with Oliver Tambo, the firm became not only the hub of ANC activities but also the one that handled most of its cases, so inevitably it became the vanguard of the struggle against apartheid and all its manifestations.
Political action against apartheid within the ambit of the ANC soon culminated into mass arrests and so began the treason trials and with the Sharpville massacre of 1960 the political scene was transformed radically to convince Mandela and those who had thought non-violence was a better course of action in the struggle, to now begin to see the inevitability of violence. It heralded the campaign of sabotage and sundry violence aimed at bringing the apostles of apartheid to heel. These violent campaigns precipitated his arrest and imprisonment along with others, first in prison in Pretoria and subsequently in Robin Island where he was to stay for 27 years.
Imprisonment of the leadership of the ANC further led to the intensification of the armed struggle and internal defiance and opposition to apartheid. The Soweto massacre of school children in 1976 and the brutal murder in prison of the Black Consciousness leader Steve Biko were two important milestones in the fight against racial bigotry. They galvanise world opinion as never seen before, leading to imposition of sanctions and eventual capitulation of the oppressive system. This has led many to say that Mandela’s imprisonment did more to free South Africa from the yoke of oppression than all the exasperations of the ANC and its leadership before they were jailed.
Prison however further raised his profile worldwide, becoming a moral force that drew attention to man’s inhumanity to man inherent in his and other prisoners’ ordeal, and helped to focus on the untenability of racist rule. Soon after release from prison he emerged as the first duly elected president in a free election where everyone voted. Under him the fears of bitter reprisal and retaliation never happened and the prediction that South Africa under majority rule would soon go the way of coups and counter coups, as it was in most African countries, has been debunked. Owing to Mandela’s deft and mature stewardship in the early days, South Africa has remained strongly democratic and prosperous and has taken up its leadership role on the continent. Though the process of economic empowerment is going on steadily, the great man would have wanted the business to be pursued more urgently.
Now that he has left, a fitting memoriam should not be grand edifices built in his honour but a relentless pursuit of the values he embodied—freedom, justice and inclusiveness for all South Africans. The ability to create the rainbow nation which was so much after his heart, where no one is oppressed and left behind would be a more fitting honour for his self-sacrifice and humanity. Sleep well then Madiba.
