Goodbye Madiba

On Thursday December 5th Nelson Mandela passed away. He was South Africa's first black President. He was the first President of a free and democratic South African state. I will always remember how I found out of his departure. I felt a sense of deep sadness, of incommensurable loss. I felt inconsolable. 

I am too young to remember his struggle, his great achievements and his presidency and yet it was like I had lost someone very close to me. People like Mandela have the power to influence our lives even when their actions don't directly affect us. Everyone has learnt something from the exemplary life of this great man and I am among those, surely.

Since I was a child, I have heard of his name, his role in ending apartheid in South Africa, of his Nobel Prize and all the great things he had accomplished, but the first time I realised the greatness of the man was, sadly, when I was watching Clint Eastwood's inspirational film 'Invictus'. The scene when Matt Damon playing Francois Pienaar goes to visit the cell where President Mandela spent almost 27 years of his life really struck me. I couldn't believe that a man, so gentle and kind, had found the strength to survive so many years of forced labour, detention, segregation and maltreatment and never lose hope. 

What astonishes me even more is his ability to forgive. He came out of prison and what he wished for his country was not black domination or vengeance but a 'rainbow nation' where no skin colour or race would dominate the others; a country where everyone is equally free and has equal opportunities. We always find forgiving very difficult. I think it is part of human nature not being able to forgive our enemies entirely and imagining a man who is subjugated  all his life to that type of discrimination would naturally learn only to hate, but instead Madiba learnt to love. That is an invaluable life lesson.

I am writing this post because I want to thank him, thank him because he never gave up and he taught to all of us the power of hope, ideas and moral strength. He taught us that we should never give up until we achieve what we believe in. He taught us that all men are equal and we are all brothers. He taught us to look for our good side because there is always something good in each of us. He taught to be guided by our hopes and not our fears because our strength exists in our power to overcome these fears. We are human but our greatness lies in our humanity, just like Mandela's moral stature lied in his humility.

One last teaching will always remain in my heart: his smile. Mandela went through life with that smile, with a positive attitude and an ironic approach to his sufferings, something only those who are sure of the power of their ideals are able to do.

So, today we say goodbye to Mandela the man and we greet his eternal legacy.