no ‘ordinary love’
It is almost impossible to describe in words what Nelson Mandela meant to us as South Africans. Someone akin more to a king than a leader or a statesman, we clung to him because he defined our new identity. What held us in awe was not his political mind, but the power and the breadth of the accommodation of his personality. I grew up surrounded by all the arguments against him, yet how could there ever have been an argument against the power of his humility. As near to a Man of Sorrows as a politician can be, he did not retaliate against the old oppressors, but offered them a home and an African home-coming. He set us free in our own land. I think this is why the world stands in awe of him, and the reason we celebrate his life.
Hamba Kakuhle Tata Madiba!
“The sea throws rocks together, but time leaves us polished stones” (“Ordinary Love” by U2)
