It’s hard to believe Nelson Mandela was a mere mortal.
Just from the physical standpoint, it’s a miracle a body and mind subjected to 27 years in prison could emerge whole and in fact once again thrive into a very old age.
Mandela was sentenced for life, much of it at the remote prison on Robben Island for conducting an armed campaign against apartheid. For anyone else, the sentence would signal the end of life. He was allowed one visitor a year, for 30 minutes. In his small cell, the floor was his bed. A bucket served as the toilet. In the prime of his life, Mandela, then 41, held on to the belief that he would one day be released and used those 27 years in prison to further develop himself into a world class leader. Doubtless, few of us could have kept that fervor alive year after year after year.
Mandela risked his life to fight apartheid, South Africa’s system of white domination.
In 1990, Mandela was released from prison. He was 71.
Four years later he was elected as president of South Africa, the first non-white head of state.
That he served for only one term, despite widespread support, spoke of his conviction that South Africa’s fight for freedom was not about him, but about his country.
Mandela was real fresh and blood. “Just like you,” he might say, helping to stir the untapped potential in us all.
Nelson Mandela: no mere mortal
