Remembering a once faceless man by his deeds

THE first time I heard the name Nelson Mandela, it was just a name being mentioned around me by the adults who “knew it all”. I was only a child then.

With time, and armed with a little knowledge in an era where the internet, Google and anything digital was a world that was only to be imagined and dreamed of, the name Mandela began to take shape.

Though faceless at the time, this person, who was a prisoner on a faroff island, because he was a “terrorist” that was going to cause harm to the country, began my journey in the understanding of the “Struggle” – bearing in mind that I did not even know what a terrorist was or meant.

Somewhere on that far-off island, the future history of this land was being written, and while Nelson Mandela was a banned person, little did he or anybody know that his imprint decades later was going to be indelibly stamped in the annals of South Africa.

I did, however, through the progressive tertiary institution that I studied at in the Cape, have many opportunities of learning about the man, albeit through clandestine literature and smuggled information.

Fast-tracking to February 1990, I, like millions of other South Africans, felt the goose bumps as I watched this stately gentleman walk into freedom that cast light into the darkening horizons of a country destined for impending doom. With his incarceration over, he unleashed his own brand of humanity that was admired and respected the world over.

Like Martin Luther King jr, Mahatma Gandhi and Mother Teresa, who served the cause of humanity with their humanitarianism, our very own icon began chiselling into our history his remarkable niche. He imbued hope, restored faith, cherished a oneness and forsook revenge so that we all could live better.

In many ways, he made his dream ours and in so doing bequeathed an idealism that he so desperately wanted to make a reality.

Much has been written about his heroic fight against a despicable system of legislated discrimination, and much more will be written in the years to come I suspect, as our unfailing gratitude to his magnanimous contribution to a new democratic order is appreciated and acknowledged.

In what would have been his 100th year on earth and on the occasion of his birthday month I, like countless others, will reminisce with absolute gratefulness that the once faceless man whose unrelenting belief and faith that all mankind was one was loaned to this country so that all our lives became better for it.

Thank you Mr Nelson Mandela – thank you very, very much! NARENDH GANESH

Durban North