Held Hostage at Home, He lived for Freedom

Held Hostage in his homeland, He lived for freedom

Many of us are not old enough to have been politically active and socially aware during the fight against apartheid in South Africa. It was happening so far away, so far removed from the fight black Americans were waging for freedom and equality in this country. Here we were trying to find a home in a foreign land, attempting to convince our oppressors that we were worthy of equal rights in the land they conquered and brought us to. If you were lucky you had some socially aware and conscious parents who told you all about the ills of the country of South Africa, starting in 1948, implementing a policy of Apartheid when Nelson Mandela was just 30 years old. How the people of South Africa, native to the land, had been reduced to 3rd class citizens in their own country. How white people had come in, taken all things of value and profit for themselves, designated all land their own and created a rule of law that made the native sons and daughters of the land unequal under the law. In fact it made them less than. Pushed into what would become slums without voting rights, proper education, blacks in the country were forced into abject poverty and despair. Humiliation, degradation and oppression. That is what Mandela was fighting against. He took the stance of our fallen warrior brother Malcolm and decided to seek freedom for his sisters and brothers in their homeland "by any means necessary". The means led to him spending 27 years in a work prison charged with attempting to overthrow the government. Having walked through the prison and stood in front of the cell on Robben island, I was blown away to know he spent, what equaled more than my entire life in years at that time, in a jail cell. He missed raising his children, he missed a life with his wife. He had to fight from the inside with the only tool he had, his life. He had to live, he had to survive. Lessons learned from the struggle for equality in America. As long as he was alive, the fight was still happening. Those here in America had to give their lives. Each and every one of them. They had to die a bloody, violent and tragic death for the cause of equality in a country that brought them here. Mr Mandela had to live, in prison, in order to free his people in their own home. He and all blacks in South Africa were being held hostage in their own homeland. Someone had to get tired. Someone had to get fed the fuck up. Someone had to decide to fight. He did. His house was bombed, his life was threatened. He was forced into hiding. And when he stood before a judge with the chance to cower and waver to minimize his sentence, he did not. He stood strong in his beliefs and purpose. He accepted the harsh sentence of life in prison. He did so knowing he may never get out of prison. He did so because the fight for freedom was that much of an emergency. Someone had to stand up, someone had to sacrifice. He did. And when he took office just 4 years after being released from prison, he did not use his power to enact revenge on white South Africans who had for so long perpetrated the worse kind of atrocities against black people. Instead he called for unity and peace. That is the measure of the man we celebrate and honor today. 

There will never be enough words to speak on the legacy of Nelson Mandela. All this world can say is thank you, for we are all lucky to have witnessed him, near or far.