[dropcap]M[/dropcap]andela’s greatness lay as much in his achievement as the first black president of South Africa as it did in his ability to forgive his enemies, those who were opposed to his principles and those who wanted him dead.
This capacity to forgive, to feel compassion that moved him to reconcile with his detractors made him achieve his dream –the end of apartheid in his country.In his death, at the age of 95, in his home in the suburb of Johannesburg the hall of world leaders will miss his quiet assurance and wisdom.
He stood out a colossus amongst them.
Inspired by Gandhian principles, Mandela led a massive movement to end the apartheid system of segregation. He joined the African National Congress (ANC) in 1944 and helped form the ANC Youth League.
In 1952, he was among 20 people who were arrested for their role in the Defiance Campaign, a joint civil disobedience movement by the ANC and the South African Indian Congress.
In August the same year, after acquiring a two-year diploma in law, he and Oliver Tambo formed the first black law firm in South Africa, Mandela and Tambo.
He faced a ban 1952 for the first time.
Mandela was among 156 people who were arrested in a police swoop-down Dec 5, 1955, that led to the 1956 Treason Trial, which ended only March 29, 1961, when the last of the detainees, including Mandela, were acquitted.
After the Treason Trial, Mandela formed the The Spear of the Nation, the armed wing of the ANC and in January 1962, he left South Africa under an assumed name to travel around Africa and England to garner support for his armed struggle and underwent military training in Morocco and Ethiopia.
He returned to South Africa in July, 1962, and was arrested on charges of illegally leaving the country and inciting people to strike and was later sentenced to five years in prison.
In 1963, Mandela and nine others were put on the dock in the famous Rivonia Trial for sabotage.
He only saw freedom twenty seven years later when he was released on Feb 11, 1990, nine days after the ban on the ANC and the PAC was lifted.
He was elected the first black president in the first open election in South Africa April 29, 1994, and assumed office May 10 that year.
In 1999 he stepped down from the office after serving one term.
In January 2011 he was treated for an acute respiratory infection and in February 2012 he underwent surgery for an abdominal hernia. He was again admitted to a Pretoria hospital June 8 this year for a recurring lung infection and never fully recovered from the ailment.
Mandela never lost sight of his long term goal and his humility.
He would say ‘I would like to be remembered not as anybody special but as a part of a movement of many people’.
Asked if he felt that the 27 years in jail were wasted he is known to have remarked that ‘the greatest thing for a politician is to know whether the ideas to which he has committed his life are still alive. And after everything that has happened with the anti-apartheid movement he knows that he did not sacrifice in vain’.
Mandela only faulted in one instance, referring to himself as a politician … he was a statesman.
And as he leaves the world stage the prayer that he belted out in his first speech as the president of South Africa will ring throughout his homeland.
“Never, never, never again shall this nation experience the oppression of another”
Such a future will be the true legacy that the people of South Africa can bequeath to the Father of South Africa.
