Nelson Mandela: A Forgiving Father

By : Raditya Putranti Darningtyas

            The world sees him as a ‘moral authority’ with great concern for the truth. He is considered forthcoming and friendly toward everybody. Mandela always showed signs of hospitality by exhibiting his relaxed charms when speaking to others including his adversaries. He enjoyed talking with their staff despite his many friendships with personages, millionaires, and dignitaries, thanks to his mischievous sense of humor. He was also known for his fidelity and stubbornness. He could exhibit a hot temper which could erupt in certain situations.

            Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela is a politician who served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. He was born on 18^th of July 1918. Mandela was the first black South African to be a president and also the first elected in a multiracial, fully representative election. Being and African nationalist and democratic socialist, he also served as the President of the African National Congress (ANC) from 1991 to 1997. From 1998 to 1999 he was internationally the Secretary General of the Non-Aligned Movement. Long before being a president, he was also a South African anti-apartheid revolutionary and he is by no means an ordinary man. 

His persistency during years of constant struggle and the depth of his forgiving soul has amazed me greatly. Throughout his 67 years of exertion in fighting apartheid in his country, he served 27 years in prison. An international campaign lobbied for his release and was approved in 1990 in the midst of escalating civil discord. He faced many obstacles all through his struggle started from years ban from attending meetings or talking to more than one individual at a time,  travelled the country to organize the ANC’s new cell structure and a mass-stay-at-home strike by disguising himself as a chauffeur until life sentence imprisonment on Robben Island. He spent 18 years there, isolated from non-political prisoners in section B, imprisoned in a damp concrete cell with a straw mat to sleep. Mandela was verbally and physically harassed by several white prison wardens until being reassigned to work in a lime quarry. He was forbidden to wear sunglasses and the lime’s glare permanently damaged his eyesight. While at night he worked on his degree, but newspapers were not allowed and he was locked in solitary confinement several times for possessing smuggled news clippings. He was allowed one visit and one letter every six months though all mail was mostly censored. Those were situations when lots of people would most likely to lose hope yet he decided not to give up.

In spite of attending Christian Sunday Service, Mandela studied Islam. He also studies Afrikaans in hope to build a mutual respect with the warders and talk them into his cause. He held an African Tour, meeting supporters in Zambia, Namibia and so on. Then he went to London where he appeared at Nelson Mandela : An International Tribute for a Free South Africa concert. He encouraged foreign countries to egg on measure against the apartheid government. He was welcomed by many world leaders including President Suharto in Indonesia. Since then, Nelson Mandela fell in love with Indonesian Batik. Even one of his trademarks was his use of Batik shirts known as ‘Madiba Shirts’ including on formal events.

On December 1991, the Convention for a Democratic South Africa (CODESA) began. Finally on September, the negotiations agreed that a multiracial general election would be held resulting in a five year coalition government of national unity. After being elected as a President, Mandela took national reconciliation as his primary task heading over the transition from apartheid minority rule to a multicultural democracy. He has seen other post-colonial African economies smashed up by the disappearances of white elites, he worked to reassure South Africa’s white people that they were also represented and protected.

One thing we truly need to learn from him is that Nelson Mandela is a man who doesn’t hold grudges. No matter how terrible what some people had done to him, he never showed any move to take revenge. It was proven when Mandela personally met senior figures of apartheid regime. He highlighted personal forgiveness and reconciliation. He declared that "courageous people do not fear forgiving, for the sake of peace." Moreover, Mandela supervised the formation of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to investigate crimes done under apartheid by both government and the ANC. The Commission granted individual amnesties in returns for crime testimony committed in apartheid era. Mandela stated that it had helped them move away from the past to concentrate on the present and the future.

Mandela is considered to be”the father of the nation” and “the founding father of democracy” within South Africa. He was also renowned internationally. In 1993 he received the joint Nobel Peace Prize. In 2009, the United Nations General Assembly declared Mandela’s birthday 18 July as “Mandela’s Day” for his contribution in anti-apartheid struggle. Mandela’s Day calls on persons to bestow 67 minutes to doing something for others commemorating the 67 years that Nelson Mandela being a part of the movement. I personally do not believe in war and I do not want to be buried under any flag. When I died, I want Nelson Mandela’s words on my tombstone, “The winner is a dreamer who never gives up”