It was not the weekend glory that made Nelson Rolihlala Mandela (1918-2013) great, but his humanity. It is quickly done to forget all of Mandela's weaknesses.
(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
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Memory While. Following Tuesday's grand memorial ceremony in Johannesburg, Nelson Mandela's coffin was driven through the streets of Pretoria on Wednesday.
Until Friday 13. December in South Africa you will have the opportunity to say goodbye to the 20. the last major leader of the century: For Mandela stands in the tradition of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., as Barack Obama pointed out in his memorial Tuesday.
Gandhi, King and Mandela are then also connected through precisely the fight against discrimination, against social injustice and for human rights. Their struggles seem so obvious today that even their former opponents must now praise them.
With Mandela's death 5. December is the ring in many ways closed. For it was his stay in South Africa that was the spear in Gandhi's non-violence struggle around the turn of the last century.
On Sunday, December 15, Mandela will be buried in his native village of Mvezo, 95 years and five months after he was born there on the East Coast, July 18, 1918. Many wonderful words have been said about Mandela's recent days. And rightly so. One thing is that he forgave his abusers and created reconciliation after his release after 27 years in captivity on February 11, 1990. And another thing, he created that reconciliation in his own country in the 1990s and became the symbol the world needed, at the end of the 20th century. Equally impressive is that in 1999 he voluntarily relinquished power after one term as president. Such statesman art makes him a role model for many, in the tradition of Solon 2500 years ago.
At the same time, it is important to remember that Mandela's victim was not unique, as author Guro Sibeko points out in this week's edition of Ny Tid. There are many "almonds" in South Africa. Many who have sacrificed years of their lives in prison, or who have given their own or their children's lives.
condescension
A lesser known aspect of Mandela is probably his aristocratic condescension, as a kind of combination of his chieftain background and his British-inspired legal background. The undersigned was also dazzled by Mandela's mythical greatness in the 1980s – which was also reflected when we were a dozen anti-apartheid activists who welcomed him at the VIP exit at Fornebu Airport on a sunny August day in 1990. Also during the meeting at Folkets Hus 17 In May 1992, Mandela appeared to many as an almost inhuman revelation.
But the undersigned also saw his more bitter and unwelcome sides, which became more visible as he approached the pinnacle of power. As it turned out at the press conference, for example, when he received the Nobel Peace Prize in December 1993: Mandela then refused to take the first step towards greater reconciliation with Zulu leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi and his rival Inkhata Freedom Party. Admittedly, the violent conflicts of the day were directed by the apartheid regime. And possibly it was strategically right of Mandela to play some high stakes at such a time, before the first free election in 1994. But it also shows that he could be an assertive and at times stubborn statesman.
For Mandela, no Gandhi was in a robe, nor was a pastor like King. Mandela was the lawyer who came to lead the ANC's armed wing Umkhonto we Sizwe, in order to move away from the Gandhi philosophy of non-violence in its fight against the apartheid regime. Mandela was the left-wing socialist who stood firm on his principles and who grew with the task.
But Mandela often disliked critical questions. And he could be condescending in private, almost upper-class British in his appearance, especially when the conversation did not turn where he wanted. But appearing pleasant is then also not a lasting or important quality. The worst dictators can be nice. The key is what you do to others, not how you present yourself. And in action, Mandela has done both his country and our world a great service.
Many almonds
For the weaknesses in Mandela's personal character, as his wife Winnie Mandela could also experience, are rather a strength. For it shows that Mandela was a human being, after all. And that is exactly what makes him bigger. He overcame both the outer and inner demons.
That's how he became a legend. Few people in world history will be able to achieve the same role model status and get the symbolic power Mandela managed. In this way he became a role model for the many. And it is needed. For more important than one large Mandela, they are many small mandelas. And there are many of them in South Africa.
Therefore, it may soon happen that the former dictatorship, which now has an exemplary constitution and progressive rights for gays, will do better without Mandela than with him.
It is now both South Africans and most Norwegians can show if we have learned. We are left alone now, without Mandela among us. But at the same time, more people get the opportunity to emerge as new role models. Or as the slogan read: "Amandla awethu!", Power to the people.
(This is an excerpt from Ny Tid's weekly magazine 13.12.2013. Read the whole thing by buying Ny Tid in newspaper retailers all over the country, or by subscribing to Ny Tid -click here. Subscribers receive previous editions free of charge as PDF.)