Let’s find the courage to learn from Johnny’s life

Aremarkable thing happened this week after the death of Johnny Clegg. SA found itself united again, as it was in the days when we still believed in the dream of a Rainbow Nation. The outpouring of grief and gratitude knew no colour or creed. Even the bigots and haters were silenced as people from all walks of life found themselves quietly humming the songs that had offered a fragile lifeline of hope when the custodians of apartheid were at the height of their dreadful powers. Clegg’s life and death can teach us a great deal, if we are willing to learn. That reaching out to other people, however different they might seem, is always worth the risk; that music and dance are life forces with mysterious healing powers; that differences in colour and culture can be overcome if we are willing to make the effort; that courage and conviction tend to triumph; that we should all give some thought to the kind of legacy we want to leave behind.

Many of these lessons are the same as those taught from the opposite side of SA’s many divides by Nelson Mandela; what would have been his 101st birthday we celebrated this week. In the years since Mandela retired from public life, we appear to have forgotten many of these lessons. The death of Clegg brings them back into the public consciousness at a time when we badly need a reminder of our potential as a nation rather than our propensity for self-destruction.

Clegg died peacefully at home and his burial was swift and low-key, as he had requested. The dignity of his departure, the universal acclaim he received, were a far cry from the simultaneous pathetic spectacle at the state capture commission, which reminded us only of how far we have fallen short of the values he embodied.

After a tumultuous week, the sharp contrast between the examples of the “white

Zulu” and a Zulu from Nkandla ought to give all South Africans plenty of pause for thought. Which of them best embodies the kind of country we want to live in? Which of them can teach us the most valuable lessons about how to lead our lives?

Easy questions, even easier answers.