It was 1968.
I was 19, young and idealistic. I went with a number of friends to London to participate in a demonstration calling for an end to Apartheid in South Africa.
As a white European, I remember being called a "traitor to my race" by some hecklers that day.
Water off a duck's back, as far as I was concerned.
You admire individuals for the quality that is inside their heads and in their minds, not the skin colour on their anatomy. The contents of the package matter far more than the wrapping.
I had also been told that democracy was the answer to all our problems. Curious that many of those who embraced that belief often also approved of the white dominated government in South Africa which could guarantee all the benefits of the lifestyle and its economy remained in the hands of 5% of the population, and 95% of the people did not even have the democratic right to protest.
Nelson Mandela was by any stretch of the imagination an intelligent man. At that time he had been in prison for four years.
It went on to be twenty-seven years in total.
Many of us would have hoped that he would have been released earlier. Few would have believed, though, that he would become an icon, a symbol of everything that could possibly be good in any leader anywhere in the world.
He also managed to become a great unifier, bringing people together the way that Apartheid had separated them. That so many white people of European descent have made so many comments reflecting their profound admiration of the man upon the day of Mandela's death speaks to this ability to bring people together. On the news last night I took note of the civil war in the Central African Republic. It could also be a tribute to Mandela if both sides would stop the fighting, stop killing each other and, in the spirit of what Mandela stood for, come together in unity and settle their differences.
Meanwhile I am not sure whether atheists are supposed to use the phrase RIP, but anyway - RIP Madiba. Thanks for the example, the courage, the warmth, the humour, the intelligence and the dignity. You are and will be missed.
