Men like that don’t show up more than once a century. His life was an exaltation of the highest human values. This strange combination of Nelson Mandela: was he certainly a man of power, a?Political animal? Even the bones. But he also knew how to keep ethics in the cold calculation that usually accompanies the great mass leaders.
Nelson Mandela was above all an example of tenacity, his incredible courage and immeasurable perseverance have shown the world that the impossible can be achieved, a few decades ago his struggle was an idealistic and lonely effort, which seemed to have no greater chance. Today he says goodbye to life after undergoing a complete unprecedented historical transformation in his country and the whole world mourns his death.
- He was 44 when he was sentenced to life in the dark Robben Island prison in South Africa.
- Accused of sabotage and other underversion-related crimes.
- For many years.
- Mandela was part of a group that fought fiercely to end apartheid in his country.
During the first nine years in prison, Mandela was virtually isolated from the world, it was a loneliness she felt in a more than narrow cell, where she slept on a straw mat, was forbidden to speak. He was allowed to receive a half-hour visit every six months and write a maximum of two letters per year.
A few years before his first daughter, still nursing, had died and detained had to face the death of his first child, following a car accident.
In these heinous conditions, Nelson Mandela won his first great battle, did not sink, did not succumb. Instead, he gave way to a profound process of reflection on his beliefs and actions. Imagine after how much thought violence was rethinked as a method and then began knitting a new way to deal with their struggle. He also graduated as a lawyer, studying by correspondence.
From those long nights of loneliness and isolation was born a Nelson Mandela full of serenity and wisdom, who concluded that only peaceful means could take their country to the other side, would not be eliminating the whites that blacks could occupy the dignified place they were denied. If South Africa had been different, it would have achieved it through persuasion, negotiation and tolerance.
After 27 years in prison, he was finally released in February 1990. Thinking at this time, he had already worked hard to convince his cellmates of pacifist ideas, crossed the prison and was soon found by members of the African National Congress (the group where he led his activism) and then by the white minorities, until now airtight to the rights of blacks.
Nelson Mandela’s popularity has reached unsuspected proportions, not just a political leader: he had become the spiritual leader of his country, the legitimacy of his struggle has become indisputable. His strength was the power of ideas and he managed to overcome any skepticism.
When he was released, he became the natural interlocutor of President Frederik de Klert. The two negotiated South Africa’s process of democratization and used a new era for their country. They won the Nobel Peace Prize together in 1993. The following year, Mandela. He was elected as the first black president in his country’s history and the dreams of reconciliation he touched in these uncertain times have come true.
Nelson Mandela, proof of the power of ideas and words. Proof of the magnitude levels that the human species can reach. One of those people who leaves a better world than he did when he was born.