Reflections on Nelson Mandela

During silent worship this morning at the Sarasota Friends Meeting (Quakers), one member stood and gave a message about what a loss it was to mankind that the voice of Nelson Mandela had, at long last, been silenced.  That got me to thinking about Mandela and his message.

While he started out as a non-violent opponent of apartheid who advocated civil disobedience as a member of the African National Conference (ANC), he came to believe that armed insurrection was the only way to achieve change.  He was ultimately sentenced to life imprisonment in 1963 for his actions.  In 1985 he was offered his release from prison by South African President P.W. Botha, an offer Mandela flatly refused.  When Botha suffered a stroke and was replaced by F.W. deKlerk, discussions geared toward his release from prison progressed and Mandela was released on February 11, 1990.  I recall watching his release in the middle of the night with my wife, Pam.  We were both so happy to be witnessing such an historic event.  Upon his release from prison, Mandela renounced violence and set the stage for a most wonderful final almost 24 years of his life.

In reflecting on him during worship this morning, it struck me that he was the Abraham Lincoln; the Mohandas Gandhi; and the Martin Luther King, Jr. of South Africa.  The only difference was he was able to live out his natural life rather than having been assassinated.  South Africa, much like the American South, was a very divided society--a society in which the native African people were subjugated to third class citizens and were looked on by the whites as being akin to something they would wipe off their shoes, had they the misfortune of stepping in an unpleasant deposit on the sidewalk.  Mandela and deKlerk were jointly awarded the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize for their work in dismantling apartheid and in 1994 Mandela was elected the country's first black president.  His work in transitioning his country from white minority rule to that of the black majority left his mark on South Africa.  He remained active after retiring from the presidency in 1999, raising money for various needed projects, building schools and furthering the educational opportunities for his nation as well as promoting nonviolence as the means to an end.

His dedication to non-violence is and will remain his legacy.  The world has seen very few people who can affect not only their country but the entire world.  He was such an inspiration to so many people.  A good friend wrote to me about her thoughts on his passing:  "I think we all have it in us to approach life from a place of love and compassion.  We all have it in us to put ourselves on the line in the name of justice, real justice for all, to speak up and out.  We may not all have the charisma or the desire to be on the front page, but we can and MUST be like Nelson Mandela, the Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu...  I feel like I spent the 8 years under Bush/Cheney saying, 'Where are the leaders?'  WE are the leaders, we have to be!!  And we have to be the monkey wrenches that stop the wheels from turning, when that is called for."

My prayer is that we all take a bit from Nelson Mandela's lessons and use them to make a better world for all and especially, our children.