His smile was like sunshine, but Nelson Mandela was made of steel. It was his strength of character, repeatedly tested throughout his long and impossibly full life, that made him one of the towering political figures of our time.
That is the lead paragraph of
Eugene Robinson's tribute to Nelson Mandela in today's
Washington Post, titled as is this posting.
Robinson only met Mandela once, about which he writes After his release, he visited world capitals, including Washington. That was the one time I met the man: He came to The Post for lunch, and I, like everyone else, was star-struck by his charisma. I recall being struck, too, by his vigor and energy. Most men would have been broken by what Mandela had endured. He seemed to be just getting started.This is a column that should be read carefully. Let me explain why I urge you to do so.
I think Robinson is able to provide a context for Mandela's greatness.
It is not merely the incredibly courage it took to sustain him for the years at Robben Island in prison.
It not merely that he was not vindictive when the Apartheid regime finally failed.
There is more.
He was generous, as we saw in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, while at the same time not willing to totally overlook the worst of the crimes that had been committed, for which there was some clear accountability.
Perhaps these words provide some context:
The world remembers the great leader who acted without bitterness. But Mandela could play that role only because of his decades of implacable opposition to a system that he knew was evil.
So we should remember not only the man who embraced his former enemies but also the man who refused to be bowed by those enemies, who remained militant despite 27 years of imprisonment, who walked out of jail and into freedom with his head held high and his eyes toward the future.
implacable opposition to a system that he knew was evil
This is to my mind a key to understanding Mandela - he did not ignore evil, but he also did not seek to tar all who had participated in the system for the responsibility for that evil were they willing to acknowledge and move forward.
There is a lesson to be learned there, one I think we have failed to learn in this country, even though it was offered by our greatest President in his Second Inaugural - Lincoln was prepared to move on: "With malice towards none, with charity for all" are words that could as easily have been offered by Nelson Mandel. Lincoln's death meant we lost that opportunity for a generosity of spirit that would have been accompanied by an accounting but without vindictiveness. Instead we got to Radical Reconstruction as as a nation we lost then the opportunity to heal in the way the Republic of South Africa has been able to experience.
Please note - Mandela did not close his eyes to what was wrong - "implacable opposition" - as we look back at the wrongs of the last national administration, our failure to insist on at least a Truth and Reconciliation type of approach means we lack the proper accountability, and one can clearly argue that many of the wrongs of the system in place then continue today, about which many on this site find occasion to write, including me.
Madiba, as he was familiarly known to South Africans, personified his country in a way that few individuals have. It is no exaggeration to say that he served as the conscience of his nation. Many people thought of him as the conscience of the world.
The world hungers for figures who can serve as moral examples. Because of what he lived through, including the scorn cast upon him by major figures in this nation as you can read in the front page post by Meteor Blades, Mandela had that stature in the minds of millions, even billions, of people.
After his tenure as president, Mandela acted as a global elder statesman, an adviser, mediator and honest broker in times of crisis. In his later years, he suffered from dementia. As long as he drew breath, however, he was a living symbol of hope and triumph. He will be desperately missed.
It did not matter his physical or mental condition - the world continued to care for him. We have for several months effectively been on a death watch - he was in his mid-90s, we knew his time would be soon, and many began to reflect back upon the meaning of his life and work.
“He belongs to the ages,” President Obama said. But it is hard to let him go.
I am quite sure Obama was deliberately quoting words spoken as Lincoln passed.
And Robinson is right - it is hard to let him go
We seek leaders of that moral courage, of generosity of spirit, to inspire us, to remind us that we do not have to be vindictive.
We hunger for leaders whose purpose is not their own glorification but the betterment of others.
Some inspire a nation.
Some inspire a world.
Mohandas K. Gandhi was one such figure.
So is Madiba.
I said "is" deliberately, that is not a typo, because even with his passing his lesson remains before us, to challenge and to inspire us.
Nelson Mandela, the conscience of the world
Peace