A Tribute to Nelson Mandela
“When a man has done what he considers to be his duty to his people and his country, he can rest in peace.”
-Nelson Mandela-
On December 5, 2013, the world mourned the death of former South African president Nelson Mandela, who died at age 95. Nelson Mandela, or Madiba, was one of the most wise, intelligent, and fearless leaders in the world. President Mandela was South Africa’s first Black president, anti-apartheid leader, Nobel Prize winner, and was responsible for changing the path of South African history forever. He was an incredibly selfless man and truly a global symbol for human rights. Throughout his lifetime, his wise words and global impact on South Africa have earned him the title of the Hero of South African Democracy. He was not only a hero to South Africa, but also to the rest of the world. There is simply no other man who has accomplished or can attempt to accomplish a quarter of what Nelson Mandela has achieved in his lifetime.
I had the privilege to study abroad in Cape Town, South Africa from January to June of 2013. During my time in South Africa, Nelson Mandela was incredibly sick and in and out of the hospital. Each time there was a news update on the President, he became the sole focus of the entire country. His people were completely devoted to him and the country he had recreated. Whenever there would be talk of his health, each South African would say the same thing: “I don’t know what would happen to this country. Everything would shut down.” Fortunately, President Mandela remained alive during my five months in South Africa and I was able to experience the results of his impact on the country.
During my time in Cape Town, there was not a single day that passed where I did not experience or encounter the topic of the apartheid. Apartheid was a policy of racial segregation in South Africa that was put in place by the country’s all white government in 1948 and remained in place until 1991. Nonwhite South Africans were not allowed to live in the same space as whites or share public facilities.
Although the effects of the apartheid are still incredibly present in South Africa, the country is changing for the better. I volunteered in a mixed race community known as Manenberg, where each family was evicted from their homes by the apartheid government. There are ten-to-twelve people per shack and the conditions are simply horrible. Each family is completely aware of how apartheid destroyed their family’s life, even the little children. I will never forget the day where a ten-year-old girl asked me, “Where do you live?” and I replied, “Rondebosch.” (A suburb of Cape Town.) She responded, “Oh, my auntie used to live there before she was evicted and now she lives here.” That conversation still replays in my head to this day; however, the residents in Manenberg have more hope and joy than the majority of people I know. They believe that there will be a way out, and there is a future for them and their kids. Nelson Mandela has fought the apartheid and given families, like the ones I had spent time with, hope.
I also had the opportunity to visit Nelson Mandela’s jail cell at Robben Island where he had spent eighteen out of the twenty-seven total years in confinement. President Mandela was a political activist against white minority rule that rejected blacks of their political freedom. His bombing against government targets in attempt to overthrow South Africa’s white government placed him in prison. Upon his release, he tried to make peace with South Africa’s white government as long as Blacks received the rights they deserved. Mandela stated, “For to be free is not merely to cast off ones chains, but to lie in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.” Mandela’s peace policy created the recipe of success to rebuild the strength of the South African people.
It is impossible to escape Nelson Mandela’s presence in South Africa. Apartheid cannot be ignored, and he was the man responsible for changing the country’s path and millions of lives. It almost seems impossible for one man to have accomplished so much. To quote Mr. Mandela, “It always seems impossible until it’s done.”
Well, he has done it. He is the human symbol of change.
During my time in South Africa, I was moved at his strong presence among the people of South Africa and honored that I was able to witness a country still changing on a daily basis. Apartheid was repealed in 1991 and South Africa received a chance to change its social path for the better.
I would like to thank you, President Nelson Mandela, for allowing me to learn more about peace policy and social change than I could have ever imagined during my time in South Africa. It was an honor to have spent five months in your country.
The lessons I have learned as a result of Nelson Mandela’s policies are far more important, life changing, and useful than anything I have ever read in a textbook. If I was extremely impacted by the President as a foreign observer in South Africa, imagine the impact of Nelson Mandela on the people of South Africa. Mandela will never be forgotten and South Africa will continue to rewrite its social and historical journey.
Rest in Peace, Nelson Mandela: the voice of change and the reason to continue on the path of becoming a better and more optimistic world.
“I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.”
Nelson Mandela: 1918-2013