His full name: Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela but the world knew him as Nelson Mandela and his people fondly also knew him as Madiba. He will be buried in his home village on Sunday 15th December.
More important is that even after his death, he will continue to live in the mind, heart and thoughts of the people not only in South Africa but on the continent of Africa and the world. He was a symbol of wisdom, an architect of non-racialism, an image of goodness, reconciliation and forgiveness.
He will go down in history as also a Peaceful Freedom Fighter. For twenty years he directed a campaign of peaceful and non-violent defiance against South Africa's Government and its racist policy. Nelson Mandela once said: " I hate race discrimination most intensely and in its all manifestations. I have fought it all during my life, I fight it now and will do it until the end of my life".
Even after his death on 5th December, his charismatic and magnetic image, not less than seventy Heads of State, hundreds of foreign diplomats, various religious representatives, thousands of his people in South Africa mourned his death. National and international TV Channels throughout the world, local and international radio stations were and are kept busy reporting all about this Great Leader Nelson Mandela.
He was a combination of everything, a student of law, a boxer as a keen sportsman, a politician, a revolutionary, a leader and a loving father not only to his children but to all the children without any discrimination what-so-ever. He fought the evils of apartheid and also suffered brutally in the hands of the professors of Racists South African Government for almost 27 years. He shunned revenge and instead he became the symbol of goodness.
If he suffered in the Robben Island for 27 years, he also learnt the difficult art of forgiveness.
He was bestowed the Order of Merit by the Government of the United Kingdom and Nobel Peace Award in 1993. Nelson Mandela will also go down in history as the First President of South Africa, a symbol of Peace-maker.
Story by Abdul Hai
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