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Mandela an exemplar for redemptive spiritual largeness

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Nelson Mandela ©  South Africa The Good News

Nelson Mandela has died, after a long goodbye during which his nation and those who have long loved and admired him have come to terms with the loss that was inevitable.

He has left the world with the unique gift of his own spiritual generosity, his ability to rise above wrongs done to himself, to his family and to his people and to put first the common good of humanity.

When Nelson Mandela was released from his long captivity on Robben Island, he could have put a match to South Africa.

He did not.

He formed an improbable and successful alliance – which became a genuine friendship – with FW de Clerk, the last President of South Africa’s apartheid-era, the man who went on to manage the end of that indefensible racist segregation and who became one of the deputies during Mandela’s own presidency.

Mandela’s grace, wisdom and lack of self interest saved South Africa from what had been an expected descent into bloodshed and anarchy. In this he saved innumerable lives that would otherwise have been lost; and gave his nation a chance to surprise.

His life and achievement gives the lie to the notion that the individual is irrelevant. He was indispensable and is irreplaceable.

He also single-handedly transformed what had become a symbol of white supremacy, the celebrated but whites-only national rugby team, the Sprinboks  – by turning up at an early match after his election as President, wearing a Springboks strip.

Only he could have done that.

From that moment, the Springboks belonged to and represented all of South Africa.

This sort of grace is given to few people and observing it in him somehow made it contagious.

Nelson Mandela lived by the principles he asked others to adopt.

The photograph above, of Nelson Mandela in 2008, is from South Africa The Good News and is reproduced here under the Creative Commons licence.


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