Beth A. Broadway is the executive director, InterFaith Works of Central New York.
By Beth A. Broadway
InterFaith Works joins the world community in mourning the death and celebrating the life of the great spiritual and social leader, Nelson Mandela. Under Mandela's leadership, the South African government focused on dismantling apartheid through tackling institutional racism, poverty and inequality, and fostering racial reconciliation. His Truth and Reconciliation Commission opened a new way of redressing horrendous crimes in a way that led to true forgiveness and healing.
Our world will never be the same because he was in it - willing to sacrifice, lead, humble himself, and uplift the people. We speak of him with reverence and admiration because he was able to stand firm to principles of equality and justice, and to put those principles into practice for his country in ways that have influenced the whole world. Rod Amner, a white South African Journalist recently told me, "There is no accounting for the melting in the white heart of South Africa that occurred in the face of Mandela's humanity. Redemption has occurred. Mandela's life and service will forever remind us that if you are prepared to align yourself with justice, people will embrace you. I have come home to my own country."
While in jail, Mandela was given several opportunities to cut his 27 year sentence short, first if he agreed to sequester himself in his native Transkei, (he declined). Thirteen years later, he also declined freedom, unless segregation laws were scrapped and the government negotiated with the ANC. And so he endured what he called "the long, lonely wasted years," and instead used that time to develop his soul. Mandela said, "People tend to measure themselves by external accomplishments, but jail allows a person to focus on internal ones; such as honesty, sincerity, simplicity, humility, generosity and an absence of variety. You learn to look into yourself."
His country learned to look inward during this time as well, and finally ended its brutal racial segregation. The wounds of this internal strife run deep, across generations, and Mandela created a system of reconciliation that has become an international model.
Though he only served as his country's president for five years (1994-1999) it is as if he was the father of all nations in this work to create racial justice. His sense of humor shone when he joked at the end of his term, "I must step down while there are one or two people who admire me."
His life and his work will remain a beacon of hope, and of the possibility of sanity and of justice even in the worst of what humans do to one another. We will continue to learn from his life and his teachings throughout human existence, and in the words of one of his countrywomen:
"The spirit of Mandela will continue to live, the legacy of Mandela will always be there. His name will never vanish," says Khanyisa Sinque, a black South African journalist. "He will never die in the hearts of the people. Even our money has his face on it and so we all carry him in our pockets every day, and we celebrate his life every day."