Nelson Mandela International Day (NMID) shines a light every year on the legacy of a man whose monumental achievement changed the 20th century and shaped the 21st. The Nelson Mandela International Day, also known as Mandela Day, is an international observance in honour of the revolutionary, celebrated annually on his birthday on July 18. The day was officially set by the United Nations (UN) in November 2009, with the first observance of Mandela Day on July 19 2010. Mandela was a human rights lawyer, a prisoner of conscience, an international peace-maker and reconciliator. He was the first democratically elected President of a free South Africa.
The legacy of this iconic leader lives on in the hearts of a nation and a global community who find inspiration and hope from the way he lived his life and led his country. What constitutes a life of meaning and significance? How do we know that we have really lived? For what will we be remembered? Mandela convinced the people of the world, that the planet would be a better place, but only if we worked together to make it one. He firmly believed that what counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we lead.
A father of 5 young children when he was first taken to prison, Mandela was not allowed to see his children until they were 16 years old. Letters became a vital tool of his parenting. Unlike prisoners who had committed “common law” crimes like rape, murder, theft and assault, they were classified as ‘C’ grade and sometimes as ‘B’ grade status on arrival. Political prisoners were classified as ‘D’ grade. The lowest possible classification with the least privileges. Unlike today’s political leaders, Mandela did not shy away from facing the rigours of imprisonment, as well as the consequences of the rigours of criminal trial. For 27 years he bore silently the harsh conditions of prison life. Today the moment our politicians are arrested do they not complain of chest/body/heart pains and get themselves admitted in 5 star hospitals? In Goa there are political leaders who have got themselves certified as mentally deranged in order to beat the law. During his prison years, Mandela mingled with other prisoners and was a role model for them. He never asked for any privileges.
The period when Nelson Mandela was eventually released was also a period of momentous changes in major parts of the world which in no less measure contributed to an epical breakthrough in the campaign against apartheid. Historically the fall of the Berlin wall in 1991 and the end of the Cold War both helped spur a democratic revolution not only in South Africa but around the world. Between the start of the 1990s and 2005, the number of democracies on the planet increased from about a third of nations to nearly half. Mandela himself was a global icon not only of democracy but pluralism, and his triumph seemed to spell the end of an era of authoritarianism and ethnic nationalism.
Nelson Mandela Day celebrates the idea that each individual has the power to transform the world and the ability to make an impact. Till this day Mandela remains a symbol of power by resisting oppression. In times of turbulence, Mandela’s legacy teaches everyone to choose dignity over humiliation, speak up during injustice, and forgive rather than hate. Everyone has the ability and the responsibility to change the world for the better. Mandela Day is a day for all to take action and inspire change. Just because you face difficulties and frustration does not mean that what you are fighting for isn’t right. In 1993 Nelson Mandela was jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize with his former adversary, President F W de Klerk South Africa’s last apartheid leader. The two leaders were a symbol of collaboration and compromise from bringing a peaceful termination to apartheid and laying the foundation for a new democratic South Africa. This activist who was the world’s most famous political prisoner dedicated his life to dismantling racism.
In 1995, President Mandela created the ‘South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission’ (TRC), which was a public commission to look into the roots of apartheid and racial injustice. That was the truth part. The reconciliation part was that people could come forward and confess their crimes and receive amnesty. Many white policemen and security officials did so. The commission electrified South Africa and became a vehicle for transcending the country’s deep divides. For Mandela, it confirmed his belief that forgiveness helps both the forgiven and the forgiver. Indeed, it was powerful to see the relatives of men and women who were murdered by the old apartheid government forgive their former oppressors. Mandela often said, it’s never too late to do the right thing. He understood that while it was impossible to truly forget the past, we must relinquish its hold over us. Let freedom ring wherever the people’s rights are trampled upon. For Mandela, freedom and democracy for his people were the single highest undeviating goal which justified the use of any means to get there. He often said, “If you talk to a man in the language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language that goes to his heart.”
(The writer is a social scientist and a senior practicing criminal lawyer)
