Madiba Mandela:

Man who moved mankind

by Kalakeerthi Edwin Ariyadasa

“In Africa there is a concept known as ubuntu – the profound sense that we are human only through the humanity of others; that if we are to accomplish anything in this world, it will in equal measure be due to the work and achievements of others.”

-Nelson Mandela
1918 – 2013

Nelson Mandela, registered an indelible dent in the history of our time by traumatising a good part of mankind, through the process of instilling the pangs of his imprisonment into the world at large.

Prisoner number 46664 of Robben Island was transformed by history into an epic embodiment of mercilessly thwarted human freedom.

In real flesh-and-blood terms, this impersonal, soul-less number is deciphered this way:

Madiba Rolihlahla Nelson Mandela.

Madiba was the name he earned as a member born to the Xhosa clan of the Thembu Royal family. It is a term of deep respect. He was also known by the honorific 'Tata’, which meant “Father of the Nation.” At birth he was given the Xhosa term Rolihlahla – which meant “Tree-Shaker.” At folk level, this name implied “The mischievous fellow.”

Baptised

“Nelson”, was the English first name he was given, on being baptised a Methodist.

The appellations he earned at various stages of his growing up, trace the evolution that was taking place within him. As a child tracing his ancestry to a ruler of the Thembu people, his childhood was privileged.

Traditional influences dominated his early years. “Custom, ritual and taboo” played a significant role in his formative years. The tales told by the doting elders to entertain the 'young prince’ contained a staple of heroic deeds, celebrating the adventures of the ancestors. Young Mandela, as a scion of the Thembu ruling family exulted in the clan way of life that nourished him. The rural chores filled his days.

The carefree passage of time, would have been profoundly satisfying to young Mandela, as he did not have – at that time – ambitions beyond his home territory.

Necessity – once again tribe – inspired, by and large – took him to the cities for higher education. He needed to acquire those qualifications, that would ensure the status of Privy Councillor for the Thembu Royal House. But, the stark reality of racism, assaulted his freedom-loving soul.

He was shaken to the inner recesses of his being. The conviction etched itself within him, that from then on he would never have even a moment's respite, until his land was totally rid of the institutionalised system of torture, that earned a despicable notoriety as apartheid.

Mandela's initial preoccupation was to wage a peaceful struggle, to remove the devastating canker of apartheid. He was, at first keen to operate within legal and constitutional parameters, without worsening the mass privations brought on by those inhuman practices of diabolical racism.

But, when he found that such peaceful options would not work at all, Mandela felt that the oppressed “had no alternative to armed and violent resistance.”

Harrowing path

This decision led him along a harrowing path, in which, at each turn, he became the victim of relentless persecution. Destiny pushed him along this harsh roadway, to eventually convert him into the most-spoken about prisoner of recent history. The 27 long years at Robben Island and other jails, brought to the attention, even of the disbelieving world, that here was a man, for whom human freedom mattered more than his life.

Rescuing the pathetic victims of racism became his unerring goal and the total mission.

In his autobiography Long Walk to Freedom, he has produced a work, the kind of which mankind has rarely seen. It is the manifesto of tortured days of a man who endured torment to champion the cause of humanity. His words, recorded in heart-rending detail, cannot help but bring tears to many. An excerpt: “The cell walls were perpetually damp. Many mornings a small pool of water would have formed on the cold floor overnight.

When I raised this with the commanding officer, he told me our bodies would absorb the moisture. I could walk the length of my cell in three paces. When I lay down, I could feel the wall with my feet and my head grazed the concrete at the other side.”

He was compelled to work in a lime quarry. The glare of the lime nearly blinded him. But, miraculously his eyesight remained unscathed. The outcome was his tear-duct dried up. He could not cry.

In a recent article, Bono, the musician, dwells on this phase of prison-punishment:

“Mandela could still see, but the dust-damage to his tear-ducts had left him unable to cry. For all this man's far-sightedness and vision, he could not produce tears in a moment of self-doubt or grief.

He had surgery in 1994 to put this right. Now he could cry.

“Today, we can.”

Many members of mankind cried with or without tears, at the demise of this human sufferer. That was mankind's tribute when he passed away at 95.

Autobiography

Prisoner 46664, redeemed mankind, to an appreciable extent. (Incidentally Mandela explained in his autobiography, how this number came about: “Each cell had a white card posted outside of it with our name and our prison service number. Mine read N. Mandela 466/64 which meant I was the 466th prisoner admitted to the Island in 1964”.

Mandela is a human hero, not because he suffered in prison. And, it is not only because he became the first black president in the white – minority dominated South Africa.

His heroism is not measured even by his opting to hold office for one tenure. He is a human hero, who at the height of untrammelled victory, upheld compassion and reconciliatory mercy. His motto was, 'courageous people do not fear forgiving for the sake of peace.” His personality evolution has a vague semblance to the life of Prince Siddhartha who suffered self-mortification. Nelson Mandela, suffered torture inflicted by others.

Mandela, advocated a middle-path. His ways were learned by metta (compassion).

I do not rashly compare him with the supreme ascetic Siddhartha. But, Mandela's views had a remarkable Buddhist semblance.