Nelson Mandela
By THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Published: December 5, 2013
Nelson Mandela, who died on Thursday at age 95, fully deserved the legendary stature he enjoyed around the world for the last quarter-century of his life.
He was one of the most extraordinary liberation leaders Africa, or any other continent, ever produced. Not only did he lead his people to triumph over the deeply entrenched system of apartheid that enforced racial segregation in every area of South African life; he achieved this victory without the blood bath so many had predicted and feared.
And as South Africa’s first president elected by the full democratic franchise of all its people, he presided over a landmark Truth and Reconciliation process that finally allowed apartheid’s victims a measure of official recognition and acknowledgment of their suffering.
Mr. Mandela’s enormous strength of character steeled him for his long struggle and ultimate victory over apartheid. Even deeper resources of political wisdom and courage steered him toward the course of constructive reconciliation over destructive vengeance.
I know he was 95 and his health was failing, but this is still sad news.
The world doesn’t feel the same now.
“It is rare that one soul can impact all of ours – and make us more patient, more powerful and more human. Mandela was such a soul. And he will never leave us.” Andrew Sullivan
Remarkable, remarkable man.
A TRULY Great Man, and one uncomfortable with the idea that anyone should see him as anything but an ordinary human being with vices and virtues, which, ironically, made him seem all the greater.
I saw the BBC journalist John Simpson talk about a close friend who used to visit Nelson Mandela frequently, the friend has a severely disabled child and when Mr Mandela learned this he asked that the friend bring his child; this he did, Mr Mandela spent much time talking and even feeding the child. Simpson commented that though he has met many world leaders past and present he couldn’t think of another who would have done that. With all the things that Mr Mandela had been through (years of struggle against racist evil, apartheid, over a decade and a half of imprisonment and attempts to break him, separation from his wife and children, ceaseless commitment to making South Africa a better place upon his release, the break-up of his first marriage, the deaths of two sons, and a myriad other events) it speaks to his towering spirit that that should be true. Rest well, sir.