Barack Obama remembers Mandela

“The world thanks you for sharing Nelson Mandela with us.”

These were the words US president Barack Obama said to the crowd at the FNB Stadium and to millions of people listening and viewing the memorial service of former South African president Nelson Mandela.

“His struggle was your struggle. His triumph was your triumph. Your dignity and hope found expression in his life, and your freedom, your democracy is his cherished legacy.”

Obama says that Mandela, who was born during World War I and far from the corridors of power, was raised herding cattle and tutored by elders of his Thembu tribe.

“Madiba would emerge as the last great liberator of the 20th century. Like Gandhi, he would lead a resistance movement – a movement that at its start held little prospect of success.

“Like [Martin Luther] King, he would give potent voice to the claims of the oppressed, and the moral necessity of racial justice. He would endure a brutal imprisonment that began in the time of [John F] Kennedy and [Nikita] Khrushchev, and reached the final days of the Cold War.”

Obama continued by saying that Mandela who emerged from prison without force of arms would – like [Abraham] Lincoln – hold his country together when it threatened to break apart.

“Like America’s founding fathers, he would erect a constitutional order to preserve freedom for future generations – a commitment to democracy and rule of law ratified not only by his election, but by his willingness to step down from power.”

Given the sweep of his life, and the adoration that he so rightly earned, it is tempting then to remember Nelson Mandela as an icon, smiling and serene, detached from the tawdry affairs of lesser men.

“But Madiba himself strongly resisted such a lifeless portrait. Instead, he insisted on sharing with us his doubts and fears; his miscalculations along with his victories. “I’m not a saint,” he said, “unless you think of a saint as a sinner who keeps on trying.”

Obama says Mandela showed us the power of action; of taking risks on behalf of our ideals.

“Perhaps Madiba was right that he inherited ‘a proud rebelliousness, a stubborn sense of fairness’ from his father. Certainly he shared with millions of black and coloured South Africans the anger born of ‘a thousand slights, a thousand indignities, a thousand unremembered moments’… a desire to fight the system that imprisoned his people,” continues Obama.

“But like other early giants of the ANC – the Sisulus and Tambos – Madiba disciplined his anger; and channelled his desire to fight into organisation, and platforms, and strategies for action, so men and women could stand-up for their dignity.”

Obama also spoke about Ubuntu.

“That describes his greatest gift: his recognition that we are all bound together in ways that can be invisible to the eye; that there is a oneness to humanity; that we achieve ourselves by sharing ourselves with others, and caring for those around us.” He remember the gesture introducing his jailors as honoured guests at his inauguration; taking the pitch in a Springbok jersey; turning his family’s heartbreak into a call to confront HIV/AIDS.

“That revealed the depth of his empathy and understanding. He not only embodied Ubuntu; he taught millions to find that truth within themselves.

“It took a man like Madiba to free not just the prisoner, but the jailor as well; to show that you must trust others so that they may trust you; to teach that reconciliation is not a matter of ignoring a cruel past, but a means of confronting it with inclusion, generosity and truth. He changed laws, but also hearts.”

Obama says that the world will never see the likes of Nelson Mandela again.

“But let me say to the young people of Africa, and young people around the world – you can make his life’s work your own.

“What a great soul it was. We will miss him deeply. May God bless the memory of Nelson Mandela. May God bless the people of South Africa.”