IRONY: a state of affairs that appears perversely contrary to what one expects (Oxford Concise Dictionary).
South African history – and more specific it’s political history – is steeped in irony.
Probably the biggest of all is the ‘Mandela Dossier’.
Whichever way you look at it, the irony is that had the apartheid regime not incarcerated the great man for 27 years, he would at most have reached the status of a high profiled revolutionary leader.
It was exactly because of his Robben Island banishment and personal suffering that he emerged as the world’s greatest icon and statesman of our time.
It was almost if fate ordained it. South Africa, after centuries of colonial-and nationalist-induced ethnic division and maltreatment, needed nothing short of a miracle maker to rein in the troubled land’s warring factions mindlessly hurtling towards the abyss of self-destruction.
So Mandela, on a quest to gain freedom and equal rights for his downtrodden people, was selected by – and in a sense became a victim of – ‘future history’, having to be tempered by fire to develop steely resolve to do the job.
Nothing else but wisdom shaped by denigration, channeled fury, despair and great personal sacrifice could produce the perfect catalyst for forgiveness, peace and a healed nation. The world stood in awe as the impossible became possible.
And as an aside, perhaps it was even ordained that the All Blacks would not win the 1995 Rugby World Cup final against the Boks. The iconic moment when Madiba and Francois Pienaar joined hands in a definitive symbolic gesture of unification simply had to happen.
Spiritual comfort History only failed us on one score. It should have gone about its business more rapidly so that we could have had the Madiba magic earlier to drive the process longer.
Although failing health steadily forced him to retreat, the mere fact that he was still with us served as some form of spiritual comfort handle that his influence still permeated through our lives.
Now he is gone – and with his departure a finality that we collectively have to now find our own magic to keep his legacy going in the face of great adversity. Let’s not beat about the bush here.
To suggest that the current crop of mainstream leaders – bereft of integrity and honest compassion for their people (with due apology to the exceptions) – will successfully take up Mandela’s legacy baton, is akin to hoping for a lottery win. It will be up to us – the ordinary folk on the streets, factory floors, farms and everywhere else – to soldier on as a unified and prejudice-free nation according to the Mandela principles.
Our individual actions must ensure that his sacrifices and teachings were not in vain. And while we toil hard to rise above the current incompetence and short-sighted political gamesmanship sowing ethnic discord, exactly what Madiba fought so furiously against, we pray that future history is already busy, with much haste, shaping for us another leader of substance.
