What made Nelson Mandela great
Nelson Mandela
was always mindful that his leadership role in the liberation of South
Africa from apartheid might not have been possible if he had not been
imprisoned.
"It is possible that if I
had not gone to jail and been able to read and listen to the stories of
many people. ... I might not have learned these things," Mandela said
of the insights that he gained during his 27 years in jail.
In an interview less than
a year after he had stepped down as the country's first black
president, Mandela shared with me reflections of how prison changed him.
He said that reading the
biographies of great leaders who had been able to overcome their
shortcomings and rise to do great things had inspired him. He said it
also helped him to realize that behind every seemingly ordinary person
lay the potential of greatness.
"I have been surprised a
great deal sometimes when I see somebody who looks less than ordinary,
but when you talk to the person and they open their mouths, they are
something completely different," he said.
Mandela said that prison
gave him time to think about the times when he had failed to acknowledge
people who had been kind to him.
Mandela said that at the
height of the struggle against apartheid, he and other leaders were
understandably angry at the humiliation and loss of dignity of those who
suffered under the unjust policy. It meant their actions were driven by
anger and emotion rather than by reflection and consultation.
"But in jail -- especially for those who stayed in single cells -- you had enough opportunity to sit down and think," he said.
There was time to listen
to the stories of people who were highly educated and who were widely
traveled and experienced. "When they told of their experiences, you felt
humbled," he said.
Mandela said that he had
learned that when you had the moral high ground, it was better to sit
down and talk to people and persuade them of the correctness of your
cause.
"If you have an
objective in life, then you want to concentrate on that and not engage
in infighting with your enemies," he said. "You want to create an
atmosphere where you can move everybody toward the goal you have set for
yourself," Mandela said.
In his twilight, Mandela
was at pains to publish and acknowledge his weaknesses and shortcomings
in his family life, in his relationships with women and his first wife,
Evelyn. He was keen to dispel any notion of sainthood that might be
bestowed on him.
He also spoke increasingly about the importance of changing oneself.
"One of the most
difficult things is not to change society -- but to change yourself,"
Mandela said in 1999 at a tribute to billionaire businessman Douw Steyn
who had made his Johannesburg residence available to Mandela as a
retreat after his prison release in 1990.
Mandela had given
similar advice to wife Winnie in a letter written to her in 1981 after
she had been jailed by the apartheid regime. Mandela noted that there
were qualities "in each one of us" that form the basis of our spiritual
life and that we can change ourselves by observing our reactions to the
unfolding of life.
Ten years later, Mandela
said that it gave him a feeling of fulfillment to see that Douw Steyn
had changed and had learned to share his resources with the poor.
"It enables me to go to
bed with an enriching feeling in my soul and the belief that I am
changing myself" by reconciling with former adversaries, Mandela said.
I believe that the
essence of Mandela's greatness was to change himself fundamentally
during his period in jail and emerge as a potent leader and example for
all humanity.
The reflections took me
back to the extraordinary day of Mandela's release. The day the legend
became a man. Even now, the moment seems frozen in time.
It was February 11,
1990, and the African sun shone from a clear blue sky on a windless
summer's day in Cape Town. About an hour's drive from the city, the
international media thronged around the entrance of a neat prison
warder's house to await the emergence of one of the century's most
iconic figures.
I had arrived late at
the prison and wandered unnoticed into the prison grounds where my
slate-blue cotton suit coincidentally blended in with the uniform color
of the South African police. That might have had something to do with
the fact that I was not challenged when I strode confidently into the
prison grounds. But to this day I do not know.
An unscheduled wait of
an hour while Mandela consulted an anti-apartheid delegation including
his wife Winnie, who had arrived an hour late, seemed like an eternity.
When Mandela, flanked by
Winnie, finally emerged walking down the driveway towards the prison
premise gates, I lost all sense of time and self and strode towards
Mandela to shake his hand and congratulate him on his freedom.
He recognized me from
the photograph that accompanied my regular column I had written for the
Cape Times, where I often analyzed the successes and setbacks of the
anti-apartheid movement and the African National Congress in exile.
His face broke into a broad smile as we shook hands and he continued his historic walk to freedom.
At the time, I was the
southern Africa correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor which
was for many years the only international news publication that Mandela
was allowed to read in jail albeit in a vetted form with pages and
sections frequently removed.
On his first visit to
the United States in 1990, Mandela broke from his official program on
Sunday, June 24 to pay an unscheduled visit to the headquarters of the
Monitor at One Norway Street in Boston to the astonishment of the editor
and staff. (Today the Monitor is online only. The newspaper ceased
daily publication in 2009.)
South Africa since apartheid: Boom or bust?
I received an
incredulous call from my foreign editor, Jane Lampman, on that Sunday
asking me if I could guess who was standing outside the building with
two bodyguards asking to see the editor. It was, she said, Nelson
Mandela. I was astonished too.
Mandela was intrigued
that the founder of the newspaper, Mary Baker Eddy, also founded a
religion. Mandela came to respect the Monitor's sustained and fair
coverage of South Africa during his time in jail.
To this day, Mandela's
weaknesses, his turbulent youth and his sometimes tempestuous
relationships with women can still detract from the iconic status that
Mandela achieved in his own lifetime.
But, the responsible
airing of his weaknesses -- including his own acknowledgment -- in fact
humanized Mandela and focused on his extraordinary strength of character
and commitment in overcoming both his weaknesses and adversity in his
own lifetime. It augmented Mandela's greatness.
It is Mandela's
achievement as a universal icon that has always fascinated me most. He
first conquered his jailers by convincing them that they were the ones
imprisoned by their own unsustainable policies based on fear and racial
injustice. And then he negotiated them out of power with the sheer force
of his moral authority and belief in himself.
Mandela's example and
actions in becoming the country's first black president struck a mortal
blow to racism worldwide and helped build confidence and pave the way
for Barack Obama to pull off a similar feat in the United States.
If Mandela has a global
heir in the ongoing campaign against racism and the quest for human
dignity it has to be Barack Hussein Obama.
The power of Mandela's
leadership was rooted in the fact that at key moments in his life he
acted independently of the movement to which he dedicated his life and
to which he deferred as a "loyal and obedient" member.
He did so when he
decided in 1986 to begin negotiating with his jailers from behind bars
not knowing where it would end. He did so in continuing to refer to
former President F. W. de Klerk as a "man of integrity" long after it
was less popular to do so in the ranks of the African National Congress.
And he did so again when
he went out on a limb within his own constituency after his release to
support the overwhelmingly white South African rugby team in the World
Cup in 1995.
Mandela said that even if he wanted to he could not bind future generations to remember history in a particular way.
The lesson of Mandela's life is that he has no need to bind anyone to his legacy nor does he need any organization to do so.
His actions in his own
lifetime are his legacy and they will remain indelibly etched in history
for generations to come as a living example to inspire the leaders of
tomorrow.
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