{UAH} Mandela showed that no hero is bigger than the nation
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Mandela showed that no hero is bigger than the nation
Mandela showed that no hero is bigger than the nation
Published on : 8 December 2013 - 8:00am | By RNW Africa Desk (Photo: Alexander Joe/AFP)Who is Rosebell Kagumire?
Rosebell Kagumire is a Ugandan journalist and blogger who focuses on issues of conflicts and peace in eastern Africa.
The passing of Nelson Mandela marks a time for Africa to reflect and to learn from, writes a Ugandan blogger.
By Rosebell Kagumire
I was barely 11 years old when Mandela was released from 27 years of inhuman incarceration. At home we didn't have a TV and I bet that my day – that great day in history – went on like any other day of an 11 year old in rural Uganda.
Many years later, I would read of President Mandela saying: "The curious beauty about African music is that it uplifts even as it tells a sad story." It reminded me of my childhood and how music introduced many of us to the apartheid and the evils in South Africa. The songs of Miriam Makeba and Lucky Dube would be danced to in my village, but they also sparked passionate discussions.
That said, death is inevitable and, in the end, the difference is only how much a person has been of service to others. And Mandela made this point with his life – both as a prisoner of the apartheid regime and as the first black president of South Africa. Many of his contemporaries never survived the chains.
On being a freedom fighter
Once president, Mandela set the country's reconciliatory tone in the wake of unforgivable crimes.
He might be criticized by many who saw him as soft on minority rulers and giving Africans a bad deal. But who said freedom is something you get in a lump sum? Certainly, the impact of decades of segregation and injustice was never going to be erased by one man coming from close to three decades of imprisonment.
Mandela ended his presidency at the right time. He set an example for Africa of what a freedom fighter means: serving your people but also having the wisdom to know you are a mere microsome of a society. And when the time comes, you need to let go in order for that society to move on healthily.
On a continent where yesterday's revolutionaries have turned guns on their own people in the face of criticism or disagreement, Mandela will be venerated for many decades to come. He could have easily chosen the Mugabe or the Museveni way – holding power and defending it against all odds and using the country's unfortunate history to serve oneself. He could still have been president at the time of his passing, leaving the ANC scratching their heads for a possible replacement. But he chose the honourable way.
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Even if South Africa and the ANC are struggling to deliver to ordinary people, Mandela left South Africans a legacy: no hero is bigger than the nation. By letting go at the right time, he gave room for the people of South Africa to start seeing beyond hero-worshiping and struggle for better governance, even within the ANC.
Mandela was part of the nation, a uniting icon without standing in the way of the future of the nation. He remains one of the few African leaders we can look up.
The Africa left behind
His passing marks a time to reflect and to learn from. In many countries, it seems easier to stand up to oppression imposed by someone perceived to be from outside your own society. But Mandela has left behind another kind of Africa. The kind of Africa where we are grappling with how to stand up against the people we see as our own. The kind of Africa that needs more self-criticism and inward reflection on what democratic path or paths we want to take. The kind of Africa that Obama said doesn't need big men but big institutions.
Mandela was cut from the same clay as the rest of us, as Ugandan journalist Don Wanyama once described. That means that we have the power to fight against oppression, home-grown or foreign-imposed.
Mandela might be gone but his life's journey, like that of many of our forefathers and foremothers, will be told for generations to come. His fight was worth it, but will be of much more worth if we play our part in advancing the values he fought so hard for.
In the words of Chinua Achebe, another of the continent's greatest who passed on earlier this year: in Africa age is respected, but achievement is revered. You are achievements will never cease to be revered! Rest in power, Madiba.
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