Madiba, we thank you for inspiring us
Although expected for so long, the news is still so sad. In my lifetime, I have never known the death of anyone to affect so many people so deeply as the loss of Nelson Mandela.
On 11 June 1988, Vee and I attended a concert in (the old) Wembley Stadium in London to mark Mandela’s 70th birthday and to call for his release from prison.
In 2004, during a holiday in South Africa, we visited Robben Island and saw the prison cell occupied for so long by Mandela [my account here]. It was at the prison that I bought his autobiography “Long Walk To Freedom” [my review here] which has now been turned into a film which is just about to go on general release.
Only once did I have the opportunity to see Nelson Mandela but I made sure that I took it. It was on 3 February 2005 in London’s Trafalgar Square when he was visiting the UK to put pressure on the forthcoming G7 summit to Make Poverty History. I wrote in my diary:
“He is almost 88 and he was frail, but I wanted to see the man I most admire on the planet before he leaves us all.”
For decades now, Mandela has been a kind of secular saint. I always knew that, once he died, the revisionism would start because all heroes are flawed. In fact, the criticisms have commenced already. But, for a few days at least, can we just mourn his loss and treasure his memory.
December 8th, 2013 at 2:05 pm
Of course we are all flawed. However, lets rejoice. He is being described practically universally as a giant who stood on the shoulder of giants.A black man, a convicted terrorist who wasn´t afraid to take up arms against a white terrorist regime, a Marxist who believed in universal( as all us Marxists do) peaceful coexistence of the human (only) race.As he said himself he was even convicted of being a criminal. So many of those who know praise him were/are the real criminals in supporting the vile regime he fought.Viva Mandela. Viva his memory and the things he fought for.Contrast his ideals with those of the Tories in the past and present (Boris!) and we know who the real saints are.