To Mandela with Love

It always seems impossible until it’s done.
– Nelson Mandela

25 years ago, I hovered in the narrow opening of the Door of No Return gazing out to sea. I tried to imagine the horrors that lay ahead for shiploads of Africans bound for the New World. Situated on Goree Island, just 3 km off the coast of Dakar, Senegal, The Maison des Esclaves served as the point of final transport for the Atlantic Slave Trade. With President Obama’s visit to the House of Slaves in June, Goree Island has once again come to the attention of the world. When I stood in that doorway on my first trip to Africa, I never dreamed that one day we would have a black President in the U.S, that one day I would have a biracial son, or that one day I would have the honor of teaching the work of Toni Morrison. Morrison’s haunting novel Beloved dedicated to “sixty million and more,” has given the world a more profound sense of the atrocities of slavery than most history books could ever convey.

Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009, President Obama continues to strengthen cooperation between peoples. On his recent trip, he visited the prison cell occupied by South Africa’s first black President. President of South Africa from 1994-1999, Nelson Mandela, “South Africa’s Great Black Hope,” was sentenced to life in 1964, for four counts of sabotage. Imprisoned for over a quarter of a century for his anti-apartheid stance, he spent 18 years on Robben Island before being transferred to Pollsmoor Maximum Security prison, and finally to Victor Verster Prison, until his release February 11, 1990. In my country we go to prison first and then become President, he said. In 1993, Mandela was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace. In the same year, Toni Morrison received the Nobel Prize for Literature, raising the consciousness of the world to the appalling injustices of racial prejudice and misplaced power.

Mandela attributes the last verse of his favorite poem, Invictus, as a source of inspiration and strength during his long years of incarceration – a testimony to the power of words and creativity.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
– William Ernest Henley

In 1988, with increased pressure from around the world, dozens of international artists gathered at Wembley Stadium in London to perform the Free Nelson Mandela Concert that helped to obtain his release from prison. A global television audience of 600 million watched the Anti-Apartheid 70th birthday tribute. The attention garnered for Mandela’s plight demonstrates the enormous power of creativity linked with action. Over the years many artists have performed tributes to Mandela, such as Stevie Wonder, Beyonce, Whitney Houston, Will Smith, Leona Lewis, Amy Winehouse, Queen Latifah, Wycelf Jean, Tracy Chapman, Bee Gees, Natalie Cole, Peter Gabriel, Neil Young, Lou Reed, Youssou N’Dour, Steven Van Zandt, Eric Clapton, Dire Straits, Sting, UB40, Miriam Makeba, and more…

In 1994, leading the ANC (African National Congress), Mandela negotiated the abolition of apartheid, created the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to investigate human rights violations, and established multi-racial elections. In that same year he published his autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom. As elder statesman, Mandela worked to combat poverty and HIV/AIDS through the Nelson Mandela Foundation. His lesson to the world – I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear. Not only do we recognize his courage, perseverance, and patience, but we also honor his longevity. On July 18, he celebrated his 95th birthday!

As a Birthday Tribute to Mandela, I would like to share his words, not mine. Words to inspire us all.

• There is no passion to be found playing small – in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.
• Live life as though nobody is watching, and express yourself as though everyone is listening.
• Nothing is black or white.
• Do not judge me by my successes, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again.
• It is what we make out of what we have, not what we are given, that separates one person from another.
• There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered.
• Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.
• As we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.

– Nelson Mandela