the Challenge

The challenge in writing about Nelson Mandela is not so much about what to include but about what not to include. A Google search of his name pulls up 17, 900, 000 results in 0.39 seconds. If we so chose we could filter our selection to find out what every journalist, politician, and world leader has had to say about Rolihlahla Nelson Mandela between the year 1956, the year of his first trial for treason, and 10 December 2013, the date of his memorial service in Johannesburg.

Even Stephen harper, Canada’s Conservative Party Prime Minister, with questionable links to the former Northern Foundation (NF) of which ‘’the exclusive mandate was to counter the serious efforts of the Canadian government of brian Mulroney to pressure the South African government to release Nelson Mandela from prison and to end apartheid’’, (Murray

Dobbin, 16 Dec 2013, TheTyee.ca) called Mandela ‘’the most powerful symbol in the world for the struggle and success against racial discrimination’’.

It is clearly unrealistic to draw from the well of history all that we know vaguely or profoundly about Rolihlahla Nelson Dalibunga Mandela (affectionately known to his family as tatomkhulu, and to the rest of the world as Madiba) but we may, perhaps, arrive at some appreciation of his accomplishments by examining, as closely as the constraints of time and space permit, certain aspects of his remarkable life that led him along the road to iconic status.

In a time of trinidad and tobago’s history, where disrespect for authority is endemic, corrupt practices seem to be an accepted way of life, many young people appear to have adopted immorality in word and deed as a sound philosophical basis for justifying dysfunctional habits and our young men, especially, are frequent perpetrators and victims of crime, it is appropriate, as we commemorate the life of Nelson Mandela on 18 July 2014, the 96th anniversary of his birth, to focus on the years of his childhood in the hope and expectation that the examination will illuminate the path leading our nation’s young people to more enlightened ways of thinking and doing.

From an address to the National Executive Committee of Chama Cha Mapinduzi (ruling party of Tanzania)

Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, November 17, 1998