Mandela lives! (2)

Continued from Mandela lives...

Thinking about it, I couldn’t relate with this hiccup my bosses were bringing up. Sure I could understand it when they said he had not watched his children grow. Yes, I could concede that I would have no idea (having never personally experienced) of all the obvious and less obvious ways in which this would pan out in his home.

Yet, I also know that while his presence at home might have reduced the chances of certain ill occurrences taking place, it did not guarantee that they wouldn’t. His child could still have died of AIDS- ask folks who in good faith could genuinely ask themselves where did they go wrong.

Also, he could have still had a divorce- Is the probability of that even without a prison sentence even up for discussion? If a divorce doesn’t find an incarcerated spouse for an excuse, its treasure trove of justifiable and unjustifiable reasons and excuses are limitless.

Finally, twenty seven years of his youth doesn’t have to translate to twenty seven years of the most fruitful years of his life. If you ask me, Madiba did a lot before he was incarcerated- activism, his stand against apartheid, his fights even in youthful exuberance…

He did even more during his incarceration – his Law degree, his self-improvement, his decision to not be bitter, his faithfulness to his Cause, his immunity to prison walls and making sure they neither destroyed him nor limited him…

He did the most though after his incarceration – The actual practice of everything good he had become as his character shone forth in Strength and dignity, his ascension to and subsequent relinquishing of his Nation’s Presidency, his qualifying for the love of a strong woman saying more of him than a thousand mistakes could have, his position as an elder statesman maintained with dignity and integrity throughout his lifetime…

You can say any number of things about Madiba, what went wrong and what could have been. It is the human nature to make excuses and presumptions for what we do not understand as well as for what we wish were. The truth is none can say. It might have been worse or better with or without the factors we consider but none can truly say. We only have life as we see it, as we know it and as we expect it to be. To say it would have been better ‘if’ would be to subscribe to an illusion and settle for irrational and therefore unacceptable discontent.

As my boss would say, it is the same habits that take you to the Palace that would keep you there. In other words it is the habits that take you to the top that would keep you there. I agree completely with him. It takes character to keep and maintain the habits that took one to glory. I also go on to say, it takes even more character to know when to bow out than it does to attain glory. And in the style of Madiba, as in life so he did in death-  Madiba simply bowed out.

He lives on, not just in the way of the dead and in the hearts of all his loved ones and all who loved him. Madiba lives on in the Legacy he left behind that even as I speak pumps in the hearts of change agent Africans and Citizens of the world, the world over. The Legacy of Truth, Strength and Honour….

Mandela lives!