Nelson Mandela Has Gone Home
In South African indigenous cultures, death is only reserved for animals. The human spirit lives on so it is said that Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela has passed on, he has gone to join the ancestors, he has gone home. I have spent the last few weeks mourning this inevitable fact, along with the rest of the world. Madiba (his Xhosa clan name) represents so much more than a political leader to me. The brutal inhumanity of apartheid that he and his people braved, from being torn from his ancestral land to being imprisoned for 27 years because he had the audacity to protest, is inspiring not because he survived but that he refused to surrender his dignity or humanity during the process. He goes down in history for his formidable feat of forgiveness and reconciliation but he was also a seasoned fighter who knew when to wage a battle and when to fall back. My own political awareness began with images of the children of Soweto fighting off armed police, posting "Free Mandela" poste
