Eleven Mandela Moments

It´s been several days since Nelson Mandela died, and the tributes, analyses and discussions continue. I spoke on Saturday with former Truth and Reconciliation Commissioner Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela, who said that people are mixing grief with celebration in Mandela´s homeland of South Africa.

Today, at the presentation of Chile´s annual report on human rights, Director Lorena Fries took a moment to honor Mandela and the work he did throughout his life to advance the cause.

I´ve been thinking about Mandela moments myself for a couple of a reasons.

The first is that a series of minutes show many of the man´s different sides.

The second is that, in fact, we live minute to minute, and that the accumulation of these discrete instances are indeed what makes up a life.

Here are 11 points in Mandela´s life that have stayed with me during the nearly 30 years that I have learned from him and the sources of information from where they came.

I. From Boy to Man

Mandela was circumcised at age 16, marking his transition from boyhood to becoming a man. He describes the experience in Long Walk to Freedom, talking in typical fashion about how he felt other young men responded more promptly than he did:

I looked down and saw a perfect cut, clean and round like a ring. But I felt ashamed because the other boys seemed much stronger and firmer than I had been; they had called out more promptly than I had. I was distressed that I had been disabled, however briefly, by the pain, and I did my best to hide my agony. A boy may cry; a man conceals his pain.

I had now taken the essential step in the life of every Xhosa man. Now I might marry, set up my own home and plough my own field. I could now be admitted to the councils of the com­munity; my words would be taken seriously.

II. Young Firebrand

Mandela has a section in Long Walk to Freedom in which he talks about telling Chief Albert Luthuli, then the president of the African National Congress, that he is afraid to confront the government.

I´m afraid to confront the government, Luthuli replies to the then-leader of the ANC Youth´s wing. I resign. You are now head of the ANC.

Mandela backed down.

III. Implacable and Unbroken Apartheid Opponent

Mandela appeared in full cultural garb for his closing statement at the Rivonia trial, at the end of which he and the other defendants were sentenced to life in prison.

He ended with the following words, which he repeated after his release in 1990, 27 years later:

“During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.” [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CNewYDzeDg&w=420&h=315]

IV. Responding to Surprise Attacks.

In 1991 Mandela and the ANC engaged in negotiations with F.W. deKlerk´s National Party. In a speech deKlerk attacked the ANC. Mandela strode to the front of the World Trade Center and responded in icy tones.

I said I would like to raise a matter of national importance, and I am happy you have given me the opportunity to do so. I am gravely concerned about the behaviour of Mr. de Klerk today. He has launched an attack on the African National Congress, and in doing so he has been less than frank. Even the head of an illegitimate, discredited, minority regime as his, has certain moral standards to uphold. He has no excuse, because he is a representative of a discredited regime, not to uphold moral standards.

The members of the Government persuaded us to allow them to speak last. They were very keen to say the last word here. It is now clear why they did so. And he has abused his position because he hoped that I would not reply. He was completely mistaken. I am replying now.

V. Enduring Personal Pain

In 1992, after his release from prison and before his election as South Africa’s president, Nelson Mandela announced that he and his wife Winnie Mandela were separating.

It was a remarkably public and poignant moment that concluded with Mandela’s saying, “Ladies and gentlemen – I hope you will appreciate how painful this is to me. And I would appreciate it if we could have no questions,” before walking stiffly out of the room.

VI. Pleading for Peace in the Face of Violence

Mandela took to national television in 1993 after charismatic and much-loved Communist leader Chris Hani was killed. His comments included the following:

"Tonight I am reaching out to every single South African, black and white, from the very depths of my being. A white man, full of prejudice and hate, came to our country and committed a deed so foul that our whole nation now teeters on the brink of disaster. A white woman, of Afrikaner origin, risked her life so that we may know, and bring to justice, this assassin. The cold-blooded murder of Chris Hani has sent shock waves throughout the country and the world. ... Now is the time for all South Africans to stand together against those who, from any quarter, wish to destroy what Chris Hani gave his life for – the freedom of all of us."

VII. On the Verge of Victory

Mandela entered FNB Stadium in Johannesburg shortly before the elections in April 1994 that would see him complete the journey from prisoner to president. The following song greeted him. The words mean, "Nelson Mandela, he brings us peace." For those who want to see more, go to Lee Hirsch´s impressive film, Amandla: A Revolution in Four-Part Harmony.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9g-VmqgRsaY&w=560&h=315]

VIII. Articulating the Hopes of a Nation

Mandela delivered his inaugural address in a blue three-piece suit shortly after winning the presidency and danced his trademark dance afterward.

He concluded his address with the following words:

We are both humbled and elevated by the honour and privilege that you, the people of South Africa, have bestowed on us, as the first President of a united, democratic, non-racial and non-sexist South Africa, to lead our country out of the valley of darkness.

We understand it still that there is no easy road to freedom.

We know it well that none of us acting alone can achieve success.

We must therefore act together as a united people, for national reconciliation, for nation building, for the birth of a new world.

Let there be justice for all.

Let there be peace for all.

Let there be work, bread, water and salt for all.

Let each know that for each the body, the mind and the soul have been freed to fulfill themselves.

Never, never and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another and suffer the indignity of being the skunk of the world.

Let freedom reign.

The sun shall never set on so glorious a human achievement!

God bless Africa!

Thank you.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnVffzyaf-Y&w=560&h=315]

IX. Embracing the Symbol of the Former Enemy

As part of its reintegration into the world´s sporting scene, South Africa hosted the 1995 World Cup. The home team won a dramatic 15-12 overtime victory against the vaunted All Blacks of New Zealand. Mandela donned the green Sprinbok jersey that previously had been the symbol for black South Africans of the oppressive apartheid regime.

His handshake with Springbok captain Francois Pienaar, the sicon of French Hugenots, is an iconic image to this day.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SL8WX7a-H2k&w=420&h=315]

X. Disarming Sense of Humor

This is an excerpt from a 1999 New York Times article that noted that Mandela called some of the opposition ¨Mickey Mouse parties":

`After the ''Mickey Mouse'' crack, one opposition leader, Tony Leon, shot back that Mr. Mandela was ''running a Goofy Government'' that had failed to deliver services.

A few weeks later, Mr. Mandela was visiting a friend in the hospital when he heard that Mr. Leon was also there, recovering from heart bypass surgery.

He approached Mr. Leon's bed from behind the curtains. ''Mickey Mouse,'' he called out in a deep voice, ''this is Goofy come to see you.''`

XI. Final Major Public Appearance

A beaming Mandela, then in his early 90s, made a dramatic appearance at the 2010 World Cup that South Africa also hosted. It was his last major public appearance.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXq7-hRbv9k&w=420&h=315]

Chilean Chronicles, Part 96: Pamela Betancur's Unvanquished Dream

Pamela Betancur’s face still fills with light when she starts to recount the dream that drove her in 1999 to borrow money from her friends and cousin to leave her home town of Los Angeles in Southern Chile for the big city of Santiago.

“I wanted to study and to gain a profession,” said Betancur, who stopped attending school around eighth grade.

Her father had never been an active presence in her life.

Her mother had died of uterine cancer when Pamela was just 10-a wound that is still fresh more than two decades later. “You have many other relationships in your life, but only with your mother are you a daughter,” said Betancur, who has dark black hair that flows below her shoulders.

She could barely contain her excitement on the bus.

All she had was the money for the trip and the sack her cousin her cousin had bought for her. She had packed the fewest clothes necessary and hidden them under her bed.

Pamela snuck out of the house where she was staying and caught the 6:00 a.m. bus-the only one that was available for the day.

Her enthusiasm continued when she arrived and stayed at a friend’s house.

But after a week the friend told her she had to leave and her troubles began.

She found work as a housekeeper for an Arab family who made her work from 5:30 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. and yelled at her for her inability to cook the food they wanted.

“I didn’t know,” she said, wincing slightly at the memory.

One day, about two months into her time there, Pamela started crying uncontrollably.

I couldn’t do it anymore, she said, simply.

After staying wherever she could-a period that included sleeping at a social service agency-Pamela found a campamento, or shantytown, in Santiago’s La Florida community. The once-established neighborhood had been devastated by a flood in the late 90s.

Little remained but rock and rubble.

Pamela started to build a house.

She’s been in La Florida since.

She got a major boost about 10 years ago. That’s when her brother Rubis, whom her mother named after a famous singer, moved to Santiago and joined her.

Together they’ve expanded the house, which is built from sheets of wood from wherever they can find them and powered by electricity diverted from the local power grid. The family drinks water from a poached source. They’ve saved and scrimped and installed a television, bought a computer for her son Juan Jose, her eight-year-old son, and purchased a washing machine.

We met Pamela while we were visiting the campamento to observe the work of TECHO, a Chilean-based non-profit that works with vulnerable communities to diagnose, and then help them meet, their needs.

After a while she invited us behind the wall that encases the two-story house. We walked into the yard. A cousin was washing and rinsing a rug by hand. An empty barbeque grill stood against one of the walls.

The ceilings are quite short-I am 5’8” and easily touched the ceiling with my hand-and the kitchen is cozy and clean. A wooden staircase leads up to the second floor.

Juan Jose sat on a living room couch, playing a game on the computer as the television droned in the background.

A picture of Pamela’s mother, his late grandmother, a luminous smile on her face, hung above him.

We talked for a while in the house, which had a quiet hum of activity.

Rubis, who has thick hands, a firm handshake and a scruffy beard, explained how he had learned to install electricity by himself. The mother of his son came in, holding their round-cheeked, serious-looking boy who will soon celebrate his first birthday.

One cousin dropped by, then another.

Then a niece who lives next door.

Pamela told us that she had just returned from visiting her hometown. Life there is tranquil, the pace of life slower.

But as before, she could find no opportunities in one of the country’s poorest regions.

Pamela always tells her relatives that everything is going well for her in Santiago so that they don’t worry. She brought back a home-grown vegetable specialty that tastes like a mushroom.

Along with other children, Juan Jose is getting tutored through TECHO. Pamela attends weekly meetings as a member of the local board that represents the campamento with the city’s government. She’s excited about the construction of the elevated blue and white community center with an elevated roof built by volunteers wearing blue and red t-shirts.

Work has been erratic for Pamela. The school’s aren’t great and have far fewer resources than those in other Santiago neighborhoods.

But Pamela still holds firm to the vision that propelled her from her home and into the world.

“I believe I can do it,” she said.

The Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting supported this story.

Previous Posts about Nelson Mandela

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HSahOZqYpQ&w=420&h=315] In the day since Nelson Mandela died, I looked into my archives of the blog and realized that I had written about the man known the world over as Madiba before.

A lot.

Here are links to some of my earlier posts about the late, great South African leader:

*On Nelson Mandela's Hospitalization and the State of South African society. Dec 5, 2012

*Happy 93rd Birthday, Nelson Mandela. July 18, 2011

*Nelson Mandela's Conversations with Himself. October 14, 2010

*Invictus and the Love of Country. May 23, 2010

*Fatima Meer on Nelson Mandela. March 12, 2010

*John Carlin's Playing the Enemy the Basis for Invictus Dec. 6, 2009 Includes an excellent comment by friend Dany Fleming.

*Nelson Mandela turns 91 Years Old July 20, 2009

RIP, Nelson Mandela

I have had the honor to learn from Nelson Mandela in innumerable ways during the past 28 years. In the mid-80s, I learned about the personal sacrifices he made to fight for the liberation of his people and the country. During this time I first became involved in taking the often awkward steps from considering injustice to doing something about it after being exposed to the brutality of apartheid during the state of emergency. Grappling with guilt at my various levels of privilege in American society, I somehow felt soothed by what I saw as the unalloyed moral clarity of black South Africans fighting against the evil white oppressive government. I hungered to go there and know that land.

In 1990, shortly after his release from Victor Verster prison, I took part of the afternoon off from selling Green Monster and Bleacher Creature t-shirts at Fenway Park to head down to the Esplanade with my best friend Vinnie D’Angelo. Hearing the unbowed Mandela thank, in his firm formal and heavily accented tones, “the peo-ple of Mass-a-shoe-setts” for their role in the anti-apartheid movement helped me understand humanity’s interconnectedness and the ceaseless struggle for justice that he continued to wage until his final breath.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2n3PTV7nElE&w=420&h=315]

In 1991, I learned about his fierce determination as he strode up to the front of the hall where negotiations were being held between Mandela’s African National Congress and F.W. deKlerk’s ruling National Party and answered the leader’s attack against the ANC.

“Even the head of an illegitimate, discredited, minority regime as his, has certain moral standards to uphold,” Mandela said in icy tones. “He has no excuse, because he is a representative of a discredited regime, not to uphold moral standards.

“And he has abused his position because he hoped that I would not reply. He was completely mistaken. I am replying now,” Mandela continued.

In 1994, I wept as I watched 89-year-old women being carried into voting booths they had waited a lifetime to enter. Dressed in a blue three-piece suit, Mandela demonstrated the importance of a leder’s words in articulating the hopes and standards of a wounded country emerging from its darkest time when he delivered his often-quoted, if not fully realized, injunction that, "Never, never and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another."

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnVffzyaf-Y&w=560&h=315]

In 1995, I realized a decade-long dream by living in Alan Paton’s Beloved Country. I taught and coached at the Uthongathi School, one of the nation’s first private multi-racial educational institutions.

It was one of the most important years of my life, and learning from Madiba was at the core.

My Fulbright exchange partner Vukani Cele got to meet then-President Bill Clinton.

I didn’t have the equivalent experience, but my education from Mandela continued nevertheless.

I had the privilege to witness the nation opening its wounds and delve into seemingly unspeakable public pain during the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that was a central element of Mandela’s effort to help move the nation forward, and, later, a model for the world.

This would not have been possible had Mandela not been able to master himself and his anger, to study the language of the Afrikaaners who imprisoned him for close to 30 years so that he could understand them, and to reach out not just to their leaders, but to their heart in his embrace of the Springboks, the rugby team who won an improbable victory over New Zealand’s mighty All Blacks just months before I arrived in August 1995.

I saw Mandela in person at a soccer tournament, and could scarcely believe the childlike joy he elicited in the tens of thousands of people who practically burst with joy at the sight of their leader driving around and waving to them.

I watched him dazzle English royalty during a fundraising trip with his dancing while wearing one of his many famous multi-colored shirts, his fists moving from side to side as he swayed to the music.

I also learned about his sense of humor, not the least of which was his ability to laugh at himself.

That quality was on full display in 1998, when he traveled to Harvard to become the first African to receive an honorary degree from the country’s oldest, most prestigious university.

He concluded his remarks by telling the audience who had gathered in the Yard about a cheeky 5-year-old girl who had called him a stupid old man.

If you agree with her, I would ask you to be a bit more diplomatic than this young lady, he said with a smile.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Zh8otC-c3s&w=420&h=315]

Mandela continued to teach in how he retired from politics, leaving the presidency after one term when he could have easily won a second term because he wanted to strengthen the nation’s fledgling democracy.

He showed and lived the importance of speaking about even most taboo topics, talking about AIDS after he buried his son Makgatho, who had died of the disease.

He published a book of watercolors, supported dozens of charities and served on the global Council of Elders.

He even taught in his death.

Last December, Dunreith and I were with dear friend Ntuthuko Bhengu, whom I met during the year Vukani was working in Newton, when Madiba was going through yet another death scare.

Each time prepares us for the inevitable, Ntuthuko told me.

Today, mercifully, it came.

And, with it, the beginning of the sleep in the permanent peace he has so richly earned.

Of course, Mandela was not perfect.

No one is.

But, perhaps more than anyone during my close to half-century of life, he lived a near-perfect blend of service, integrity, leadership and humanity.

The world, and we, are better because of him.

Siyabonga kakulu, Madiba.

Usi Letela Uxolo.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9g-VmqgRsaY&w=560&h=315]

Chilean Chronicles, Part 95: On Claudio Contreras, Soccer and Staying Single in Politics

“It’s important not to be married to anyone in politics,” Claudio Contreras declared, the mid-afternoon sun glinting off his aviator sunglasses and his slicked back black hair as he turned to look at me from the front seat of his taxi.

Contreras was driving me to meet Jorge Reizin, a successful businessman of Russian Jewish descent and a self-described extreme right winger (He later modified that label, calling himself center-right.)

Although perhaps the most iconic cab driver of all was Robert DeNiro’s Travis Bickle, in my experience there is an intimacy between what the Chileans call “taxistas” and customers the world over, the space that comes from the anonymous and finite time you spend together.

In Chicago, many of the taxi drivers come from other lands–Dunreith and Aidan often groan and roll their eyes when I tell them, “I’ve never been to your country.”-and I’ve found that many appreciate a connection to their homeland in a nation where few customers know where they are from.

Here in Santiago, many of the taxi drivers we’ve met are garrulous and hard working. (We took a ride with one gentleman who told us he works between 15 to 17 hours per day seven days per week.)

And, like Contreras, their desire to secure a fare leads them to tell us that they know our destination is, even when that is patently untrue. On our way to a Thanksgiving Day dinner hosted by Deputy Chief of Mission Steve Liston and his wife, we were treated to a passionate discourse about Chilean indigenous history and the lack of journalists’ knowledge and interest in subjects that matter by a pony-tailed driver who left us miles from our ultimate destination. My lack of giving the entire street name might have played a role in our troubles, and the man appeared to have no idea of where we were going or how to get there. This, however, did not stop him from keeping the meter running while he asked a bike courier for directions.

For his part, Contreras issued his proclamation about political deep into a ride in which the dominant focus had been listening to, and talking about, the waning minutes of Chile’s friendly match against England.

The Chileans were up by a goal when I got into the cab.

Contreras asked my permission to continue to listen to the game on the radio.

I granted it, of course, and his question seemed more like a formality that a sincere request.

We drove north to the tony Las Condes neighborhood.

Contreras kept pointing out people peering through bar windows to watch the game.

They’ve been drinking, he said. If I had stayed home, I would have had five beers, he said, a trace of longing filling his voice as he described his hypothetically-consumed drinks.

I told him I was grateful that he had not drunk any beers before picking me up. I did this both out of a genuine appreciation and to gauge whether he had indeed knocked back a few.

Claudio affirmed that he had not.

It was just about this point when Alexis Sanchez, Chile’s top player who had scored the team’s first goal, took a pass, dribbled once and lifted a gentle chip over the helpless English goalkeeper and into the left side of the goal.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OppqUhbE9dg&w=560&h=315]

Chile 2, England 0.

Sanchez jogged back toward his team’s side, tapping his chest and pointing to his jersey in a comparatively subdued celebration.

Not so the announcer, who erupted in a torrent of Spanish exulting Sanchez’s skill and talent, speaking with such force and conviction that it would not have been surprising had he proposed erecting a statue of Sanchez to go alongside those of iconic Chileans such as Bernando O’Higgins, Diego Portales and Salvador Allende.

Claudio responded, too, honking his horn at passing cabs and pointing out celebrating Chileans with even more vigor and enthusiasm. He also launched into a lengthy discourse about the victory Chile had earned at England’sfabled Wembley Stadium 15 years earlier, describing in great detail the golazo, or beautiful goal struck by Marcelo Salas. “The Matador” took a pass from midfield on his left thigh right outside the box and then volleying the ball with his left foot so that it rippled the right side of the net.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ix2jW0UItb4&w=420&h=315]

The goalie had no chance.

More honking and discussion of beers.

After the tide of exultation subsided, we moved the conversation to politics. Claudio issued his denunciation of being wedded to a person or party.

It was an intriguing notion, particularly in a country where party loyalties have run very high.

Claudio explained that he and his family, who had supported Michelle Bachelet in 2006, had spoken together about who they felt would be best for the country. They liked the work that conservative billionaire and current President Sebastian Pinera had done, and thus were going to stay the course with Evelyn Matthei, the sole right-wing opponent in a crowded field of nine opponents.

Claudio estimated that 50 to 55 percent of Chilean voters felt the same way, that they were not particularly interested in the nation’s dark past or the personal histories of Bachelet and Matthei, but rather in who would be the best person to lead Chile into the future.

“The best poll in the country is in my backseat,” he told me as we pulled into the parking lot of the Starbucks where Jorge and I were meeting.

I ran upstairs, found Jorge and zipped back down to pay Claudio.

We shook hands and each went on our separate ways.

An image of the frothy beers Claudio would drink when he got home floated into my head as he rumbled away.

The Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting supported this story.