Nelson Mandela

As the world remembers the remarkable life of Nelson Mandela (everyone except those at Fox News, which is still busy attacking Obama), allow me to comment on what is so striking to me about him as a writer: the narrative of his life is so unusual.

His life story does seem like something out of fiction. A revolutionary who is imprisoned for 27 years, including several years at Robben Island at hard labor, becomes a symbol of the fight for freedom while in prison, then emerges a world-wide celebrity, becomes president of the country that imprisoned him, and becomes a transcendent figure.

The crime that Mandela was imprisoned for, sabotage, had a death sentence, and he did not fight it. Had he been executed, history would of course see him much differently. He would have been remembered in South Africa, of course, perhaps as a figure like Medgar Evers is here. But Mandela outlived the narrative. Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King both fell to assassin's bullets, but Mandela escaped martyrdom and lived out a long life. Not too many revolutionaries live to be 95.

He also did not succumb to the temptation of power. Unlike someone such as Fidel Castro, Mandela served his five-year term as president, without controversy, and then retired. During his tenure came the Truth and Reconciliation hearings, which instead of hunting down oppressors and punishing them, offered absolution. As shown in the film Invictus, Mandela was keen on uniting black and white South Africa, turning the other cheek.

The transformation of South Africa over the last thirty years is pretty stunning, if inevitable. I followed the issue closely in the '80s, as did most of the world, reading quite a bit about it and even attending a rally in Central Park. As writer William Finnegan pointed out, the numbers reflected the future: because South Africa was predominantly black, it was just a matter of time before full freedom came, while in the U.S., the numbers indicated that racial equality would always be a problem (and it still is). That apartheid just vanished, though, is a testament to the good of people (and despite the efforts of the administrations of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, who dragged their feet in knee-jerk anti-communist posturing).

I suppose there is a temptation to deify Mandela, but most accounts seem to be measured, not granting him sainthood but instead understanding he was a man, albeit a transformational one. He had his faults, but he never fell from grace (as did his wife, Winnie). He was one of the great men of the 20th century, and his legacy is long and sturdy.