Mr. Nelson Mandela died in the evening of 5 December, local time, at the age of 95. The thought of him being no more makes me very sad. I cannot think of any other such person living at present. When I heard the news in the morning of 6 December, I happened to be reading writings of Gandhi. Then the voice of the Prime Minister of Britain began to come in, saying that 'Tonight one of the brightest lights of our world has gone out'. When Gandhi was assassinated 65 years ago, India's Prime Minister Nehru broadcast to the nation, 'the light has gone out of our lives and there is darkness everywhere'.
The whole life of Mandela is worth knowing. What interests me most, a humble student of Gandhi, is how Mandela, who had been of the view when he was imprisoned that non-violence was useless against apartheid in South Africa, was transformed into a firm believer in Truth and Reconciliation when he was out after 27 years in 1990. Indeed, it must be beyond our imagination how much the Commission by that name chaired by Desmond Tutu helped achieve to bring about inter-racial good-will and to make South Africa united, when the country could well have been thrown even into a civil war. At the time of the first election in 1994, people of different races were seen standing in the same lines to the voting stations, and giving food and drinks to one another. I felt then that we were witnessing history being made.
But in order to transform himself like this, he must have taken an enormous effort, maybe together with some of his co-prisoners. This experience was shared by Gandhi also, but in Mandela's case the period in jail was much longer, and 18 years of them he had to live in a small island named Robben. When he came out of prison, I was just beginning to think how difficult it would be for an aging person to be isolated from the world outside, particularly in a cell, without a hope to be released. But witnesses say that while breaking stones, he made friends of white jailors and even read Shakespeare, etc. Some one said on the BBC that 'he created himself' in the prison.
I had an opportunity to spend one day in Johannesburg in 1983 on my way to observe a newly-independent Zimbabwe just north of it. That one day was, of course, far from enough to understand the apardheid regime, but still it was much better than nothing. I saw "white only" carriages of a train which would stop by the "white only" stairs leading up to the white station, and the other carriages of the same train leading up to the non-white station, and these two stations were far away from each other overground.
The mention of Zimbabwe reminds us that the power does get corrupt. It was a real stroke of political genius that Mandela chose to serve as President for only one term of five years. He did not try to build a dynasty. This must be a lesson to all the people in power, including his successors in South Africa. May peace be with him.
The whole life of Mandela is worth knowing. What interests me most, a humble student of Gandhi, is how Mandela, who had been of the view when he was imprisoned that non-violence was useless against apartheid in South Africa, was transformed into a firm believer in Truth and Reconciliation when he was out after 27 years in 1990. Indeed, it must be beyond our imagination how much the Commission by that name chaired by Desmond Tutu helped achieve to bring about inter-racial good-will and to make South Africa united, when the country could well have been thrown even into a civil war. At the time of the first election in 1994, people of different races were seen standing in the same lines to the voting stations, and giving food and drinks to one another. I felt then that we were witnessing history being made.
But in order to transform himself like this, he must have taken an enormous effort, maybe together with some of his co-prisoners. This experience was shared by Gandhi also, but in Mandela's case the period in jail was much longer, and 18 years of them he had to live in a small island named Robben. When he came out of prison, I was just beginning to think how difficult it would be for an aging person to be isolated from the world outside, particularly in a cell, without a hope to be released. But witnesses say that while breaking stones, he made friends of white jailors and even read Shakespeare, etc. Some one said on the BBC that 'he created himself' in the prison.
I had an opportunity to spend one day in Johannesburg in 1983 on my way to observe a newly-independent Zimbabwe just north of it. That one day was, of course, far from enough to understand the apardheid regime, but still it was much better than nothing. I saw "white only" carriages of a train which would stop by the "white only" stairs leading up to the white station, and the other carriages of the same train leading up to the non-white station, and these two stations were far away from each other overground.
The mention of Zimbabwe reminds us that the power does get corrupt. It was a real stroke of political genius that Mandela chose to serve as President for only one term of five years. He did not try to build a dynasty. This must be a lesson to all the people in power, including his successors in South Africa. May peace be with him.
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