This is a letter I received just a few moments ago from my son, who is a Haitian born black man who immigrated as a child to North America, and who was special ops police officer for many years. He was with Madiba for four days on security mission… and the letter below is from my son’s heart. There are few heroes in our world, though many limelight seekers. Madiba, surely was a hero to so many men and women, including so many, many black men. That Madiba was alive during our lifetimes has meant so much, to see Madiba’s evolution as a person, as a man, as a soul, and now, as the legacy treasure of Africa.
Dear all,
It is with a heavy heart and great sadness that I announce to you all that ” My hero ” Nelson Mandela has died peacefully at his home [in Houghton, Johannesburg having recently been moved from the hospital in Pretoria, South Africa.]
I had the pleasure and the honor of meeting him and to spend 4 full days with him when he came to visit Canada in the late 1990’s. It was the greatest and the most memorable moments in my policing career. One that I will forever cherish. I was privileged to have led the whole Mandela security team where I was his main bodyguard when he visited Canada.
He was my childhood hero, my only hero. Being in his presence was an experience like no other and I will forever cherish that moment. He was the most recognized political leader in the world and he was to many, myself included, the perfect picture of humanity.
I had the privilege to hear some of his stories during the apartheid era from his own mouth and the wisdom he passed on to me was immeasurable.
I am really sad that he is no longer with us. He has single handedly made the world a much better place.
He fought and dedicated his life not only to and for South Africa but to and for the entire world. He was indeed the most remarkable human being I have ever met. I will forever cherish those wonderful memories I had with him. May he rest in peace and may God bless his soul.
Let us all continue to strive to live in his legacy. I love you all!
And so, [from Dr. E., here] we go on, NOT without Nelson Mandela, but WITH Mandela, the goodness of him, the vision he carried as a man, a human being, who put his trousers on one leg at a time just like any other man, but who also carried a beacon for humanity that was, in energy and reach, far beyond the ordinary. Far. Far.
This image is of Madiba with his hand on the FiFA trophy. Today (6 May 2010), nearly six years later, South Africa’s first democratic President, Madiba, again laid his hands on the Trophy at Johannesburg’s Nelson Mandela Foundation just 35 days before kick-off of Africa’s first FIFA World Cup. Madiba is the symbol of this new democratic South Africa. For us there was no way that the Trophy would arrive in the country and not be brought first to Mandela
And in all, this, for all who knew Madiba, for all who know his heart, for all who now walk with Madiba in their hearts forever:
INVICTUS
by William Ernest Henley
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.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
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.
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.
I love you Madiba. We won’t forget your message to planet Earth. You are written in the Book of Life, and we all will sing and dance and drum in gratitude that you came to us.
CODA
[the picture above is of two giants of Africa, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela]
Correction: The place of Madiba’s death was at home in Houghton, Johannesburg. The original article had stated the place of death as Pretoria. Madiba was in a Pretoria hospital several times in 2013, and for months at a time. Nine weeks ago he was brought to Johannesburg even though his condition was listed as critical and at times unstable. And his doctors asserted that Madiba would receive the same level of intensive care at home as he had in Pretoria. Thousands of well-wishers had visited the Pretoria medical facility during his stay there to leave flowers, cards and gifts.