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Nelson Mandela has passed away


Cyril

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Nelson Mandela and I share a favourite poet. This is from one poem he read partly out loud in 1994 when they had the first democratically elected parliament and he called her Afrikaner ànd Afrikaan.

"The child is not dead.

The child lifts his fists against his mother
who shouts Afrika!"
..........
"The child is the dark shadow of the soldiers

on guard with rifles Saracens and batons;

the child is present at all assemblies and law-givings

the child peers through the windows of houses
and into the hearts of mothers."

"This child who just wanted to play in the sun at Nyanga is everywhere.

The child grown to a man treks through all Africa.

The child grown into a giant journeys through the whole world.

Without a pass."

from "Die Kind" - "The child is not dead" by Ingrid Jonker

RIP Nelson Mandela


Here you can listen to him reading part of the poem. ( I chose to post some he read and some of what he left out) Edited by page
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A friend sent this:

nelson-mandela-dead-south-africa-somewha

I've no doubt that the man had to have had a lot of bitterness/rage/etc impulses. Who wouldn't? But the true mark of character imo is not what impulses we have, but how we process them, and when the impulse to pass along hurt and hatred and damage is resisted and ultimately denied, that's one less link in the chain of human degradation and one more link in the chain of human dignity.

Nelson Mandela created enough of the latter links to be a whole chain unto himself. His was a spirit of constructive survival, not destructive succumbing.

Life's odds certainly seem to be against the progress of dignity, but sometimes the odds get beat, and then we have something to inspire. RIP, sir, and here's hoping that your spirit lives on, again against the odds.

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