The Glue is Gone

         NOBEL LAUREATE 
         NELSON MANDELA




                                                       RIP MANDIBA

It is sad that the world has lost Nelson Mandela.

It is a tragedy of immense proportions that South Africa has lost Mandela.

“How blessed we have been. He has become the most admired statesman in the world, an icon of forgiveness and reconciliation, a moral colossus.” – Desmond Tutu

How many men in history can you name who were treated shamefully, imprisoned, and put at hard labor who ultimately over a quarter of a century after imprisonment were freed and forgave their tormentors, torturers, political enemies and almost anyone else who sought that forgiveness.

And after all of that, the man went on to become president of his country when his long imprisonment contributed to the winning of the franchise for his people.

Madiba (some spell this Xhosa clan name as Mandiba), as South Africans affectionately knew him, set an example in the way of Christ, Mahatma Gandhi and a small group of others throughout history.

The difference with Mandela is he did not do it as a religious leader but as a political leader.

He contracted pneumonia during his imprisonment and it was the source of most of his post-prison medical problems and probably ultimately the cause of his death. Having said that, with all that history, he lived into his 90’s.

After all his sacrifice his wife Winnie Mandela disappointed him. She behaved badly while he was imprisoned and she embarrassed him after his release.

More recently his children were accused of taking advantage of the trust he established to care for his them and his grandchildren. It seems they could not wait to get their hands on his money.

Some of his contemporaries failed to measure up in the early years of the new Republic of South Africa. He must have been sad to see them unwilling or unable to adapt to the new South Africa and instead cling to the tribal and political differences from the past.

Jealous compatriots tried to undermine his good work.

Through it all he remained a calm presence. He talked peace and forgiveness. He lived the talk. He walked his talk.

The world will long read of Nelson Mandela. History will honor him. The Nobel Peace Prize was well deserved, as were all the other awards and prizes that came his way. The former prisoner who worked on rock piles on Robben Island counted among his friends  presidents of many countries, royalty, outstanding authors, religious leaders and people of depth accomplishment and substance.

Most of my readers have probably not read Mandela’s speech accepting the Nobel Prize. I commend it to you as an example of what is important in life, an example of his commitment to peace and reconciliation and as a template for the forgiveness we should allow show to our fellow men. Here is a short portion of his remarks on that occasion:

“We stand here today as nothing more than a representative of the millions of our people who dared to rise up against a social system whose very essence is war, violence, racism, oppression, repression and the impoverishment of an entire people.
I am also here today as a representative of the millions of people across the globe, the anti-apartheid movement, the governments and organisations that joined with us, not to fight against South Africa as a country or any of its peoples, but to oppose an inhuman system and sue for a speedy end to the apartheid crime against humanity.
These countless human beings, both inside and outside our country, had the nobility of spirit to stand in the path of tyranny and injustice, without seeking selfish gain. They recognised that an injury to one is an injury to all and therefore acted together in defense of justice and a common human decency.”

His country honored and revered him. His last years were spent in the company of his current wife, Graca Machel, and it appears she brought him the love and comfort one hopes for in old age. News reports say that in the more than one month he spent in hospital during his last hospitalization she never left his side for more than 3 hours.

Now that Madiba is gone, South Africa has an opportunity to demonstrate a commitment to his ideals. It will mean the Inkatha Freedom Party, the Xhosas and the Zulus will have to work at getting along without the glue, Madiba, who insisted they must.

They will have to work at it. It will not come easily.

Ambitious men who wouldn’t challenge Madiba while he lived will have to cool their ardor for fame and power and consider adopting the garb of a forgiver, an encourager and a penitent.

The qualities that allowed Nelson Mandela to escape the fate of most black revolutionaries in South Africa and to attract the support and friendship of whites who were former enemies is what will be required if South Africa is to continue the journey started at the end of the apartheid era.

My wife and I have been involved in work in South Africa for a couple of decades, work begun by our friend the philanthropist Charles P. Stetson.

With Stetson, my wife penned a short book titled “Pointing the Way-From Despair to Hope in South Africa.” And from these first steps we witnessed the changes occurring in that most beautiful of lands that harbored some of the ugliest hatreds and outrageous behaviors.

I had the privilege of chairing a foundation in South Africa for many years, started by Charlie Stetson, with a goal of encouraging young black and white children to interact with one another through the programs of Outward Bound.

While I cannot claim to be an authority on either the history or the future of South Africa I can claim to have been a witness, with feet on the ground, to much of that recent history.

I visited and watched pre-Mandela South Africa. And it was exciting to witness post-apartheid South Africa. The day blacks had their first opportunity to actually vote, they dressed in their finest clothes and stood in line for hours on all the streets leading to polling places. It was historic. It was social for them. They had waited and suffered so long. It was an honor and they treated it as such.

Living in a country, the United States, where so few people actually turn out on voting day, it was wonderful to see how the people of South Africa, who were so long denied the opportunity to have a voice, celebrated the day that all changed.

And no reasonable person could doubt that it was the person of Nelson Mandela who brought this about.

Working with Charlie Stetson, Ambassador William Lacy Swing, the US Agency for International Development, Outward Bound International, the U.S. Fund for Leadership Training and so many other people and organizations who bought into Mandela’s dream, it is my fervent hope that the people of South Africa will honor Mandela by continuing the forward march.

Unemployment is still a problem in the RSA.

Hunger is still a problem.

Qualifying young men and women for job advancement is still a problem.

And yes, sadly, racism is still a problem. Beyond racism, tribal loyalties and enmities still prevail.

Madiba was the glue that held this fragile new country together.

The glue is gone.

Hopefully it had enough time to “set.”

If not, we will witness the coming apart of all the pieces.

And that, my readers, would be a very real national and international tragedy.

But for now we honor the life and the accomplishments and the historical importance of Nelson Mandela.

And we are grateful for the example he set.