International Day of Recognition for Nelson Mandela

WE REMEMBER NELSON MANDELA - JULY 18, 2022

“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”.

(Words of Nelson Mandela during the days apartheid)       

The United Nations declared July 18th (the birth date) as Nelson Mandela Day and encouraged people engaged in the struggle for justice to celebrate this day in honor of “Madiba.” The initial celebration, held on July 18, 2009, was a gathering of peoples across South Africa and around our world to recall how one person made a difference for both black and white communities in South Africa.   Today, in 2022, voices continue to be raised around our fragile world as the struggle for equality for all peoples is indeed not yet equally shared as we watch the evening news.   

I personally have admired Nelson Mandela for years in his passion and commitment to help bring about a just solution to the racial discrimination that he and many others lived through in his beloved country. Madiba’s long struggle for right relationship and for a just South Africa FOR ALL- came at great cost to him and his family.  I suspect that the journey to freedom was not an easy one for him. Nelson Mandela lived among the daily injustices he saw around him and oftentimes caused a negative response to the situation.

“When a man/woman is denied the right to live the life (s)he believes in, (s)he has no choice but to become an outlaw”.  (Words from Mandela as he faced a long jail term for his actions)

Madiba was arrested in 1963 and found guilty of conspiracy and sabotage to overthrow the government of South Africa which meant he would be facing an extensive jail term which was a way the government used to silence him and the movement that was coming into its own!  After 27 years of incarceration, with many of those years in solitary confinement, Nelson Mandela did not show hostility or anger toward his oppressors and in the upcoming election was selected as the first black leader of the Rainbow nation.   

In his autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, we are able to see some of the attitudes Nelson chose to live by to survive this difficult time in his life…his transformation time…his time to live in a liminal space.  Perhaps each of us will take courage as our own personal journey of transformation continues to unfold from his insights:

1. Believing that things would get better – There were many dark moments when my faith in humanity was sorely tested but I would not and could not give myself up to despair.

2. Oppression was character building – The policy of apartheid created a deep and lasting wound in my country and my people.

3. Focusing his hatred on the system not the PEOPLE running the system – In prison, my anger toward whites decreased, but my hatred for the system grew.  I loved even my enemies.

4. Finding beauty in unexpected places fueling hope – Some mornings I was in the courtyard and every living thing there, seemed to smile and shine in the sun. I knew that someday my people and I would be free.

5. Tending a garden became a metaphor for Life and Leadership – I saw the garden as a metaphor for certain aspects of my life.  A leader tends his garden; plants seeds, and then watches, cultivates and harvests the result.  A leader, like a gardener, must take responsibility for what is cultivated – mind his work, repel enemies, preserve what can be preserved and eliminate what cannot succeed.

6. Reading survival stories of others – In reading classic Greek plays, I learned that character was measured by facing up to difficult situations and a hero would not break under the most trying of circumstances.

7. Leaning on the camaraderie of others – Prison is designed to break one’s spirit and destroy one’s resolve, by stamping out that spark that makes each one of us a unique human being. We supported each other and gained strength from each other.

The home of Nelson Mandela, Soweto, South Africa, where Nelson Mandela lived from 1946 to 1962.

While working with Scarboro Missions in Malawi, our return flight was diverted to Cape Town, South Africa and there was not a connecting flight to Malawi for two days.  Being in Cape Town meant that there might be a possibility of visiting Nelson Mandela’s home located in the heart of the city - and right down the street from the residence of Desmond Tutu! My travelling companion, Brian Swords, a member of the Scarboro Leadership Team, was coming for a visit to our Mission in Malawi.  He was open to venturing out and finding the neighborhood where Nelson Mandela lived, and healed, after his years in confinement.  Upon crossing the threshold I noticed that his home was a small, humble dwelling – yet these were the words that came to mind as we stood on holy ground that day. 

All are welcome in this home where a new reality for the people of South Africa was born and continues to be lived out even to this day. 

-Sister Ann MacDonald, csj

A Man of Integrity

People in South Africa celebrate Freedom Day on April 27 to commemorate the first democratic post-apartheid non-racial elections that were held on the day in 1994 and saw Nelson Mandela elected.  On 10 May this anti-apartheid activist, lawyer, and former political prisoner was inaugurated as President of South Africa. 

Photo: Matthew Willman

My friend Matthew Willman, a renowned South African photographer, is known for his amazing photos of President Mandela.  One day, while visiting his friend Madiba, he was inspired to ask if he could take his red office chair out into an open field. In the photo he took out in the field you can see children run by the chair into the distance, to symbolize the impact Mandela would have on future generations of South Africans.  What might these children, now adults, most remember about the great Mandela? This well-known story, shared many times on social media and elsewhere, illustrates what made this exceptional man so great.

“After I became president, I asked one day some members of my close protection to stroll with me in the city, have lunch at one of its restaurants. We sat in one of the downtown restaurants and all of us asked for some sort of food… After a while, the waiter brought us our requests, I noticed that there is someone sitting in front of my table waiting for food. I told them one of the soldiers: Go and ask that person to join us with his food and eat with us. The soldier went and asked the man, so the man brought up his food and sat by my side as I asked and began to eat. His hands were trembling constantly until everyone had finished their food and the man went.

“Go and ask that person to join us with his food and eat with us”

The soldier said to me: the man was apparently quite sick. His hands trembled as he ate!! “No, not at all,” said Mandela. “This man was the guard of the prison where I was jailed. Often, after the torture I was subjected to, I used to scream and ask for a little water. The very same man used to come every time and urinated on my head instead.”

Credit: South Africa Archives Online

So, I found him scared, trembling, expecting me to reciprocate now, at least in the same way, either by torturing him or imprisoning him as I am now the President of the State of South Africa…

But this is not my character nor part of my ethics.” (SoulAlchemy Facebook)

Every year on 18 July, we mark Nelson Mandela International Day not only to commemorate this great man but to emulate his amazing accomplishments by making a difference in our own communities. Perhaps we are not as magnanimous as Mandela as depicted in the story above, but we all have the ability and responsibility to change the world for the better, especially during this pandemic.

-Sister Magdalena Vogt, cps

Weekly Pause & Ponder

Poverty is not an accident.  Like slavery and apartheid, it is man-made and can be eradicated by the actions of human beings.

 - Nelson Mandela

Weekly Pause & Ponder

For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains,

but to live in a way that respects and enhances

the freedom of others.

- Nelson Mandela

For Freedom, Justice and Democracy: Nelson Mandela Day

“Make every day a Mandela Day” and be involved in action that will inspire change to promote a better world for all.  Mandela himself rooted in a sense of decency, democracy and forgiveness engaged in a conversation with “the next generation” and spoke about the challenge of leadership to address the world’s social injustices when he said that “it is in your hands now.”  As a black revolutionary leader, he was imprisoned for 27 years by the racist white South African regime.  Upon his release he promoted his convictions for a just peace that moved him beyond the status quo to reconciliation. In that way, he continued his revolutionary trend of not accepting the status quo to become a person of peace with a capacity of love that enhances one another even when there are challenging disagreements.  

Enjoy renowned South African photographer Matthew Willman’s photo of Mandela’s red office chair. One day, while visiting his friend, he was inspired to ask if he could take the chair out into an open field where he had children run by it into the distance, to symbolize the impact Mandela had on the future generations of South Africa.

Mabel St. Louis, CSJ

This is Maya Angelou's poem for Madiba. "His Day is Done". Listen to her words as we celebrate the United Nations International Day of Nelson Mandela.