Remembering Nelson Mandela.

I just learned that Nelson Mandela, former South African President, has passed away. Nelson Mandela has always been the greatest inspiration in my life. As a black man, he truly stand as the embodiment of what you can accomplish under so many hardships, his legacy is gigantic and he stands  as, and will always be, Africa's father. His greatest accomplishment will always be the creation South Africa as a democratic, free, and rainbow nation.

Before Nelson Mandela and the struggle to freedom, South Africa was a country in which the white minority held all political and economic power and marginalized other races and colors, their biggest oppression being the blacks. Mandela joined the African National Congress or ANC as young man, the organization was fighting for the rights of black to be represented in the government. The organization was declared a terrorist one in many western countries, and Mandela was arrested. He was imprisoned for 27 years from 1962-1990, 27 years of solitary confinement. Under international pressure, the South African government released him, and in 1994 he became the first black President of the new South Africa.

His greatest achievement was the fact that he held no rancor towards the whites who had marginalized blacks for so long. He actually signed a law that protected the whites from discrimination as a minority in his presidency. He was a visionary and his vision was of a multiracial (Rainbow) South Africa, a country were each race could participate in the democratic process and move on from the scars that the long, brutal, history of the country has left them with. His vision became the values that the South African Republic still holds today, at least on paper. His image is what has given and continue to gives the ANC legitimacy, that is sometimes undeserved.

His kindness and his willingness to forgive his oppressors is what makes him stand out from other historical figures. It was just outstanding to see him speaking to his black brothers in arms, inspiring them to refrain from a revenge, justified as it might, that would have brought nothing but more suffering. He instead urged the inclusion of the whites in the New South Africa and in the democratic process. He will be remembered forever, and as South Africans celebrate 20 years of democracy, let's hope they remember his vision and continue to strive to fulfill it. He will join a pantheon of great leaders like Abraham Lincoln, Mahtma Gandhi and Marthin Luther King. Rest In Peace, Madiba, father of Africa.

Nelson Mandela, 1918-2013