How many ways can you ‘meet’ a person? There’s the typical meeting - during which the two of you are face to face, and respond and communicate directly, whether it be by friendly chit chat, or something a little less pleasant. Such meetings dominate our everyday lives, and become the only way we think of using the word. But if this meaning alone dominated the word, how would we describe meetings that aren’t as simple? That aren’t as direct, but are more personal than face to face meetings could ever be? A meeting where one reaches another, not by picking and choosing his words so as to avoid causing offense, but by showing himself through his actions. The kind of meeting where, in a single moment, a connection is made, without the person even being aware that he has made it. Indeed, this kind of meeting is done not while one is trying to impress. It is done not by careful deliberation; but can only be brought about by independent action. It is such a meeting that I’ve described, that has the ability to inspire change in every stubborn man involved in it.
Such was my meeting with Nelson Mandela. It was not one face to face, not one that could be achieved through a handshake, but a meeting as real to me as any other. As I watched the movie ‘Invictus’, based on Nelson Mandela’s achievements and success in uniting South Africa for a Rugby game, I came to see this legendary man in a new light. We have all heard of good leaders, and have put them on this pedestal in our minds, setting them apart from other human beings. But as I watched the movie that day, I came to consider the possibility that great people had flaws like every one of us.
Of course, the movie was a movie - I had no way of ensuring myself that the things I’d heard and seen could realistically be applied to life, or had even occurred. There was no way for me to know if the character I saw portrayed through Morgan Freeman was truly existent; if the personality of Nelson Mandela depicted through him was true; I had no way of knowing it was not just the work of an excellent scriptwriter. With such doubts in mind, I was left with only one choice - research. I conducted a curiosity-induced search on just how this man really was and how he came to be someone that I had put on the pedestal of godliness.
“I learned that courage is not the absence of fear but the triumph over it.” In Nelson Mandela’s famous autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, he tells us the story of his life - the tale of sufferings and hardships that made him become who he was - and indeed, his life was not absent of ups and downs. When he was only a little boy living in the tiny village of Mvezo, his father lost a dispute, and thus lost his title as future chief. Reduced to nothing, he and his family retired to an even smaller village, one where there were no roads, with only footpaths that linked the pastures where livestock grazed. Food was maize, sorghum, pumpkin, and beans produced by the family themselves. There, the little boy (at the time known as Rolihlahla, which roughly translates to ‘troublemaker’) made toys from natural materials available, whether they were twigs or rocks, and drank the water coming from natural springs.
Yet disaster, in love with Nelson Mandela from a young age, had not quite left him alone. When he was only 9-years-old, his father died of lung cancer. With the man of the house gone, and “Rolihlahla” too young and mischievous to take his place, things were looking bleak. However, the Chief of the old village was indebted to the boy’s father, and decided to make amends by taking care of his family instead. Adopted and living with the chief and his children in the palace of Mqhekezweni, the young boy was able to receive a formal education - and in this British-education system, he was assigned the ‘Christian’ name of Nelson.
It was during this time that Mandela received his very first sign from God - the sign that would start him down the path to becoming South Africa's very first black president. On the day of his circumcision (a South African tradition used to celebrate a boy’s transition into manhood), he heard the main speaker say with sorrow to the boys assembled, that they were “enslaved in their own country”; the white man had taken control of the land, and the air they breathed no longer belonged to them. It was only when Mandela traveled to Johannesburg, and witnessed the start of Apartheid, that he truly understood what the main speaker had meant.
Encouraged by his childhood to think of solutions, and to put good ideas into action, Mandela began working to fix the issue. He completed his degree in law and joined the African National Congress (ANC). During Apartheid, he worked with the ANC to organize a peaceful protest to approve the freedom charter. Such was to no avail - he narrowly avoided a treason trial held for the organizers of the protest, and the freedom charter was not granted. With no other choices, Mandela had to make a dangerous call; in such times, diplomacy was no longer needed. As the leader of the armed resistance against Apartheid, Nelson Mandela also became known as “the black pimponel”.
Unfortunately, Nelson Mandela could continue to evade capture for only so much longer. Arrested for leaving the country illegally (without permission), Mandela was further charged by the court for ‘treason’, and sentenced to imprisonment on Robben Island, a place designed with the intention of breaking the souls of convicts and political “undesirables” - a place designed for breaking people like Nelson Mandela himself. With the potential to ruin a man’s health, both physically and psychologically, it became a 15-year-long torture for our precious Rolihlahla.
As a black political prisoner, Nelson Mandela not only had to cope with the small cell without a bed or plumbing, and the hard labor he was forced to do everyday in the lime quarry, but he had to do so while coping with additional discrimination from the guards. Forced to run on little or no food, he would endure the guards inhumane punishments, ranging from racist taunts to shameful atrocities, such as burying a man up to his neck and then urinating on him.
Nonetheless, Nelson Mandela’s spirit never broke. In an article written by Skip Prichard, Nelson Mandela was recorded to have shown “no bitterness, no desire for revenge, no desire for self-glory, and no desire to hide his faults or failings”. The very same man that went in came back out, not with his will broken, but strengthened. “As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I didn’t leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I’d still be in prison.” Even after facing the harshest form of white despotism, he found it in him to forgive.
“I have fought against white domination and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all people live together in harmony, and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.”
- Nelson Mandela
Walter Sisulu described the speech Nelson Mandela made from within the courtroom as “a speech that consolidated the spirit of the people outside because it was [the promise] of a defiant spirit.” Nelson Mandela did not just fight the tyrannical white authority; he did not seek revenge through black domination. He sought political balance between races, and pursued a relationship of brotherhood between whites and blacks. One cannot say it was his ‘destiny’; such a pretentious fragile thing had no part in his victory. It was him, and him alone, who clutched his dream, and though he may have wavered, he emerged from his prison with an indestructible resolve. He clung to his pride. He clung to his vision. It was only him, who was in control of every step. Only him who chose to overcome his fear, his hardship; only him who decided to fight.
I have met Nelson Mandela, and by no means was he some flawless god. Through his beautiful, intransigent soul, my indecisive heart has found its resolve. In him, I find inspiration to change, to fight and to struggle. I find the strength to stay focused and press on. The capabilities of man are endless. However, it is only those who learn to cultivate these abilities and use them efficiently, that will attain greatness. Such greatness that allows you to embrace the flaws your humanity has given you, and then surpass them to reach godliness.
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