Although he had been seriously ill on and off for the past several months and was close to death more than once this year, it is still not easy to grasp the passing of Nelson Mandela. There has never been anyone like Mandela and the sad truth is that there will probably never be anyone like him again. This was a man who spent an astonishing 27 years behind bars when he just as astoundingly didn't have to. All he had to say was one short sentence: that he had renounced violence, and he would have, at any time during his incarceration, been released. But he never said it, never wavered in his cause to rid South Africa of that monster system called apartheid. The next part of his life was no less extraordinary. Mandela left prison to become president, the first black president of South Africa. In that high post, Mandela could have avenged what had been done to him and his African people by the ruling white minority. In the process he could have also ignited a civil war conflagration. But Mandela's message was of reconciliation, not vengeance, and that inspired the world. He urged forgiveness for the white government that imprisoned him. It was during those two periods of Mandela's life, as prisoner and as president, that he was an inspiration, not just to blacks in South Africa but to those the world over who were wronged by injustice and oppression. He did things that few if any politicians would ever contemplate. There are few leaders who would even consider making peace with their sworn enemies. And there are fewer still who would hold to their promise and serve just one term as president, unlike so many others who have stayed well past their due date. It was his defiance of white minority rule and long incarceration for fighting against segregation that focused the world's attention on Mandela and apartheid. People who had never heard of apartheid or knew where South Africa was on the map had heard of Mandela. What followed was mounting world pressure to free not just Mandela but to free the people of South Africa from that legalized but ugly racial segregation enforced by the South African government. Though Mandela was acclaimed as the force behind ending apartheid, the commitment by FW de Klerk to do the same must not be overlooked. As South Africa's last white president, it was de Klerk who ordered Mandela's release and who pledged to negotiate an end to apartheid. The allegiance and alliance of the two men led to the Nobel Peace Prize they shared. In his early days of civil disobedience, Mandela said the dispute between the government and his people would end up being settled in violence and by force, but when the time came for him to rise to power, he was preaching peace, reconciliation and democracy. This was an amazing journey by an amazing individual - from militant freedom fighter, to prisoner, to unifying figure, to revered statesman. It is easy to go overboard when eulogizing Mandela with so much praise in danger of turning into platitudes. But this is because the man was such a towering figure, the symbol of the struggle against racial segregation who brought an end to apartheid, preached reconciliation, and delivered the nation from the brink of civil war. For this lifelong commitment to breaking the shackles of segregation, Nelson Mandela's life is being celebrated with the sad news of his death.
