Nelson Mandela

He has been called a saint, a savior, an icon, and a moral giant. He has been credited with the fall of apartheid and the reunification of South Africa, but Nelson Mandela would be the first to argue that “I was not a messiah, but an ordinary man who had become a leader because of extraordinary circumstances.” The world has embraced him as a modern day “Christ figure”, but does this ordinary man deserve this God like status. BBC commentator Brian Walden argued that Nelson Mandela, “perhaps the most generally admired figure of our age, falls short of the giants of the past.” The world loves a hero, but how much of the hero is myth and how much is real. Although Nelson Mandela’s achievements are heroic in their scope, he owes his many accomplishments to the great figures of the past.

A new UCSD research study into “wisdom” most assuredly shows that Nelson Mandeal was born with the attributes of a wise person. According to the study, “wisdom is not limited to a high IQ quotient or moral righteousness, but is a form of advanced cognitive and emotional development based on experience that can be learned and increased with age. Nelson Mandela was born into the Xhosa-speaking culture whose central concept is Ubuntu or fraternity which implies compassion and open-mindedness. He was fortunate to receive both African and European schooling, but his greatest life experience and education came from his 27 years as a prisoner. It was there that Nelson Mandela really began to absorb the teachings of the great philosophers and leaders from the past. From William Shakespeare, taking lines from Julius Caesar to stir rebellion, “Cowards die many times before their deaths; The valiant never taste death but once,” to the encouraging words of the English poet, William Ernest Henley who wrote Invictus “unconquerable” – these words would forever shape Mandela’s motivation:

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Out of the night that covers me,

Black as the Pit from pole to pole,

I thank whatever gods may be

For my unconquerable soul.

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In the fell clutch of circumstance

I have not winced nor cried aloud.

Under the bludgeoning of chance

My head is bloody, but unbowed.

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Beyond this place of wrath and tears

Looms but the Horror of the shade,

And yet the menace of the years

Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

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It matters not how strait the gate,

How charged with punishments the scroll,

I am the master of my fate:

I am the captain of my soul. (Invictus)

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Nelson Mandela’s greatest political influence came from the great Indian philosopher, Mahatma Gandhi who personified the triumph of the human spirit over the forces of oppression. Upon Mandela’s release from prison, he gave credit to Gandhi, “We must never lose sight of the fact that the Gandhian philosophy may be a key to human survival in the twenty-first century.” Mandela also modeled himself after his fellow prisoner, Jawaharial Nehru who was the first prime minister of India to introduce sanctions against apartheid.

Along with Shakespeare, inspiring poets, and great Indian philosophers, there were countless other individuals that shaped Nelson Mandela the “ordinary man”, and fortunately for all of us, Mandela had the wisdom to incorporate all of these great figures of the past.