The world will be celebrating Nelson Mandela International Day on July 18 — Mandela’s birth anniversary. Mandela Day is a global call to action for citizens of the world to take up the challenge and follow in the formidable footsteps of Madiba, a man who transformed his life, served his country and freed his people. Its objective is to inspire individuals to take action to help change the world for the better and in so doing, to build a global movement for good. A day not only to honour the man himself but also a chance for us to join the global movement to make the world a better place. Most of us know the facts of his life: his fight against apartheid, his imprisonment for 27 years first at Robben Island, then at Pollsmoor Prison and finally at Victor Verser Prison, how he became the first Black President of South Africa, his winning the Nobel Peace Prize, etc.
Nelson Mandela of South Africa was an icon for modern democracy. Today Nelson Mandela is acclaimed as one of the greatest personalities of our times. He belongs to that category of men who have graced our civilisation with their personal charisma and noble contributions. He was a champion for the rights of all humans. He showed to the world that all souls are created equal without any string attached. He was a leader with a difference.
Mandela spent 27 consecutive years of his life in detention. For 18 years (1964 – 1982) he was held on Robben Island, in 1982 he was moved to Pollsmoor Prison, Cape Town, and in 1988 he was again moved to Victor Verster Prison, in Paarl, till 1990. A real leader, according to him, works and serves the people making them know about their strengths. He was not for ‘power’, ‘money’ or ‘greed’. This humble soul was created for benefits other souls who were suffering. He said, ‘it is an ideal which I hope to live for and to see it realised. However, if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die’.
Mandela followed three rules throughout his life, which he did at great personal sacrifice: [1] Free yourself, [2] Free others, and [3] Serve every day. Mandela’s greatest legacy is perhaps his commitment to the redemptive powers of hope and struggle. He played a major role in many political endeavors, many anti-apartheid movements such as the Program of Action, a policy-based initiative that was founded on the principles of non-violent “civil disobedience, boycott, strike, and non-co-operation” Peace was his motive.
He achieved objectives for the benefits of all mankind without ‘violence and killings’ which is a lesson to everybody in present-day world. He showed to the world how humanity can be achieved through peace without violence and killings. In 1975 he wrote a letter from prison “The cell is an ideal place to learn to know yourself,” and “Never forget that a saint is a sinner who keeps on trying.”
Mandela was a liberator of the stature of Gandhi. Both shared a common vision and passion for the breaking away of the shackles of tyranny and oppression. Both stand as stalwarts of our proximate history. Nelson Mandela was one man who was able and willing to stand up and fight back. Indeed, we can also see how this man developed his legacies through his years in prison, his activist years and his elaborate life afterward. Many people have been inspired by the South African movement, especially their decision to forgive and move on. He’s endowed with many personality traits; this makes him a natural leader and also has developed many leadership skills and strategies in his lifetime.
He was a superhuman being and the architecture of Modern South Africa and of the world. Mandela will always be remembered as a saint, a sage of humanity in line with Mahatma Gandhi. Hope our present and future generations learn from his great experiments with the struggle for oppressed and downtrodden.
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
