Let Madiba die … as he lived, with class & dignity.

[ If you Reach this post on or after December 5 2013 as Tata Madiba has died please go here for the last post on the hero .]

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, affectionately known as tata Madiba is in the hospital and the World turns to South Africa, fine! I share the feelings but at the same time, let the poor man die in peace?  History does not need this People’s phase at the end?

Let’s start over. Nelson Mandela is not a saint. Rolihlahla means the trouble maker and that he was. The young Thembu of royal family did follow customs and taboos of his Xhosa ethnie, became ritually adult ( circumcision ) at 16 as Dalibhunga and entered school to become a councillor to the  Royal House. The young man did not finish his first degree and his life changed upon returning home as he fled to Johannesburg to avoid an arranged marriage. In the ensuing year, he worked for a law firm, led by a Jew called Sidelsky that encouraged the education of young natives. During that time, he lived in a Township, those blacks “reserves” of sorts, Alexandra, which brought him to the racial conflict of the times.

Although pardoned for running away from the marriage and having passed his Bachelor of Arts degree, he simply did not find it in him to become councillor and returned to Johannesburg in 1943 at the Witwatersrand University to study law. That period saw him become a Founding member of the African National Congress’ Youth League. He slowly opened to Communism which his Christian faith had kept him from until then. He missed his Law degree and was jailed for Communist activities in 1950. Because two years before, the Afrikaaner Party had won the elections ( whites only ) and began to set forth the Apartheid. Under that system, four classes were instituted in 1950 by the Population Registration Act : whites, indians and coloured and blacks at the bottom with all sorts of nifty surrealistic little sub-divisions by language and so on.

Marriage and housing and buses, bathrooms or parks became segregated by the mention of class found on your identity papers. The government’s control was strict and Mandela got a suspended sentence of hard labor in 1952 for “communism”. Later that year he passed his exams and became a full-fledged lawyer, founding with Oliver Tembo the first and only African owned law firm in the land.

The times were though on the home front as he faced a divorce from his first wife but worse in general as he was again dragged to Court for treason in 1956 and again under martial law powers in 1960.

And at that point, out of despair for their rights, the ANC became more revolutionary and Mandela co-founded the Umkhonto we Sizwe ( MK ) that went on to carry attacks on government targets. That is the thing that Justice as it is understood in free democratic nations could reproach to the citizen Mandela. The MK did cause deaths for instance although when put in perspective, the victims from 1976 to 1986 numbered 260 as per governmental statistics while the 1976 Soweto riots alone came to 360 bodies? Still, for that participation, it was the proper process that leaders be arrested and brought in front of the Judge. Mandela was thus arrested in August 1962. Charged with leaving the country and inciting to riots, he was convicted and got 5 years.

While he was in jail, the police seized documents bearing his name and the Rivonia trial ensued. Found guilty of sabotage and conspiracy and despite the support of the International Community that had espoused the anti-Apartheid movement, he was condemned to life in prison on the 12 of June 1964, or upcoming Wednesday 2013 as I write.

It was during his prison time of 27 years that the dank conditions of his cell caused him to catch tuberculosis, leaving his lungs feeble and the reason of his presence in the hospital now. But it was another health problem that brought him his freedom back. South African President P.W. Botha suffered a stroke that put Frederik Willem De Klerk in his place. De Klerk was convinced at large that it was time to end the Apartheid and free the imprisoned leaders. The Fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 served as a symbol and on February 11 1990, Madiba was freed.

71 years old is decent for retirement but not for Nelson that went right back to fighting the unjust system of Apartheid. This time though, he had a partner more than an adversary in De Klerk. Between the two of them, these men brought about the change that materialized as the first non-racially segregated elections in 1994 and of course, the hero was elected by the freed majority.

The ANC joined forces with the Inkatha and the National Party to form a coalition government that then went on to terminate the Apartheid.

Mandela and De Klerk were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993 and in 1999, Madiba retired.

There go the essentials of our story. Of course, South Africa still has many demons to face and terrible woes such as poverty, rape and AIDS to conjure. Of course, the future of racial tensions was not solved around Cape Town forever. Of course, Madiba is now a Father figure to many.

I have personally known the pain of losing my father. I understand the importance of Mandela to his “children”, even if but spiritual ones. But in that view, one should respect their parents? When a loved one dies, they bring along a little of us. We are left with memories when we yearn for their presence. But their spirit lives on?

If we skip the difficult moments when life becomes unbearable and one wishes for the soothing of oblivion, we can concentrate on the spirit. My dad left me a life of examples and so did Nelson on the bigger World stage. I am in charge of turning these into my own accomplishments. What counts here, the anguish of the passing or the eternal spur of the shining beacon?

Was I to mourn but the frail, emptying vessel at the end, there’d be but night and fog on my mind!

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, Dalibunga called Madiba, was imprisoned for the crime of wanting to be free and have rights no matter his color of skin and endured it stoically, never relenting.

That, in my mind, is a dignified life story.

I do not want the press or TV to turn that into a horror story.

My sentiment having just been echoed in this piece that was published to the Web as I wrote my post :

http://tvnz.co.nz/world-news/south-africans-said-accepting-mandela-s-fate-5459997

I feel no shame whatsoever to ask that the dignity be celebrated and preserved as the man withers.

Yes, I know that R.I.P. is the state that one gets after death and certainly not often before it. But the Peace should not have to wait. Madiba has a Nobel PEACE prize, give him some back?

Or said yet otherwise, Nelson Mandela was, as we have seen, sentenced to life in prison on June 12th 1964. If he was to disappear on June 12th 2013, I for one would see it as a “positive omen” of the utmost sort.

Here is to the eternal tea time of the soul that Madiba should enjoy as his definitive freedom forever grins in tongue sticking out fashion at the temporary attempt of yore to silence his spirit.

My thoughts go out to you, papa Madiba but I’ll manage without the photos. Besides, my eyes could not encompass your dignity, sir! Only my soul can do so and it needs no media but that of the inspiration your example provided and shall provide for all times; all my times at least!

Ulale kakhule, Madiba & enkosi, Tay.