Dignitaries and members of the public gathered at the Nelson Mandela Foundation to pay tribute and honour the life and legacy of reverend Jesse Louis Jackson, a towering figure in the global struggle for civil rights, human dignity and justice.

CEO of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, Dr Mbongiseni Buthelezi, noted that the evening was not only important to honour Jackson’s life but also to honour his leadership and his enduring call to keep hope alive.

Chairperson of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, Dr Naledi Pandor, said the foundation was implementing a three-year strategic programme under the theme Rolihlahla, meaning ‘making good trouble’.

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“We recognise that the globe is confronted by deeply complex and dangerous circumstances which require men, women and youth who will provide leadership by making good trouble as Mandela did. Mandela strongly believed that human beings exist not merely to live but to do things and to make a difference.”

Pandor added that a lot of what Mandela said and wrote encouraged us not to be passive and to be robust in advancing justice, equality and freedom.

She noted that the former president suggested in one of his talks that if you were not making a difference, you were not living, “We acknowledge that while Mandela utilised the ‘making good trouble’ call and cordoned us to shake the tree of liberty, he joined a leader who had originally made that call for the need for people to make ‘good trouble’, John Lewis, who was the co-leader of the Civil Rights Movement and worked along Reverend Jessie Jackson and reverend Martin Luther King.”

The Civil Rights Movement in the United States played an important role in the international anti-apartheid solidarity.

The First Deputy Secretary-General of the ANC, Nomvula Mokonyane, noted that President Cyril Ramaphosa had flown to the US to celebrate the life of Jackson.

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“We are gathered here to celebrate the life of a fighter, who never stayed silent when people were hurting, a fighter who walked with comrade Mandela, who drew fire from Martin Luther King, who carried the spirit of Oliver Tambo and Rose Parks,” said Mokonyane.

ANC’s long-serving activist and diplomat, Barbara Masekela, said it was fitting that the foundation paid tribute to the towering figure.

“Today’s memorial service is something that Mandela would’ve done himself because he had an abiding admiration and respect for Reverend Jessie Jackson, whom he considered his son and his leader. It was not surprising that he was the first of our brethren from the US to arrive in South Africa when Mandela was released from jail because he supported Mandela in every journey he took.”

The evening ended with guests signing and leaving a tribute in a book for the Jackson family.

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