Rest in Peace Madiba... Thoughts for South Africa's future

Worldwide topic right now – the death of Nelson Mandela.

Sjoe, this is a tough one. I so easily rambled on for his birthday last year and received two great comments on the blog http://www.abctales.com/story/shannan/happy-birthday-madiba, which the abctales went on to erase in their doings (I was hectically bleak about that!)… now I’m not rambling on so easily… The Rand is sitting at 17 needed for one Pound. The Afrikaans activists are gathering themselves around the “Night of the Long Knives” propaganda, people are in churches praying for the future of the country, some are telling me that they hate, others are speaking hope, others haven’t changed their lives a stitch, and politicians and famous people/companies are using the moment to push their brands. I felt sick at how fast billboards, messages and articles went out. I know everyone has had the year to prepare for his death, but to be pushing your brand with a sign across your building less than 48 hours after the announcement? I don’t know, it just felt disrespectful to me… Some have fast-tracked their immigration, others are going to ‘safe-places’ and the rest are carrying on. I received an email from my old house-mate sending condolences and an ending clause of: If you are one of those who hated him, please pardon my email… It left me dumb-founded…

Still, God works in AMAZING ways, this I have learnt. One such path for me at the moment is the path of forgiveness. I finished that Grace course http://novel1eishlondon.wordpress.com/2013/11/29/14-november-2013/ I was on and the Saturday before it ended we spent a whole morning working through the last section of the course manual. I cruised it, read it, watched the DVD, thought: “that’s nice”… and then I got to the forgiveness section. We had to write out a list of those who we were holding grudges against… After prayer, it was pick up the pen and write, don’t think, just write.

OH MY WORD! I had over an A4 page of people! I took the list and broke it down from the ‘event’ to what part of me it had offended to make me so upset as not to be able to forgive. The feelings their actions had triggered in me were: rejection, feeling unwanted, controlled, unworthy, distrustful and disrespected. The 38 ‘people’/ ‘incidences’ all revolved around those feelings… Their actions had fed into my system of thought to reduce me to feeling worthless and the like. I have now set out on a 40 day quest to learn to forgive. Each morning asking God to help me forgive as He forgave… Then Madiba dies and all that’s going through my brain is: “See it can be done!” 27 years in prison and the political activist approach to solving problems was gone, the bitterness and anger of years of persecution and dehumanization were forgiven and Mandela walked out to tell the English and African singers NOT to exclude Afrikaans from the National Anthem! He walked out to add disabled people into the ‘new’ Constitution (which he signed in on the 10th December 1996, 17 years ago). He walked a long road where forgiveness gave him freedom… “It can be done!”

With this in my heart I replied by email to the friend London telling her that I have the greatest respect for the man who was able to forgive SO MUCH DAMAMGE, when I was battling to forgive 38 souls who had crossed my path. I also typed that I pray that those who don’t respect Mandela and what he did take a long deep look into their own souls to ask themselves why?

Fear? Jealousy? Arrogance? Self-righteousness? I wonder which their answer shall be…

This was a man who was awarded over 80 honorary University degrees and won a Nobel Peace Prize.

My other prayers were for God to still be with South Africa and KEEP US as different to Egypt, Syria, Nigeria, Congo, Zimbabwe and all the other African Nations that live in fear and political insanity. I prayed that the population of my country would realise how awesome we are, how the world sees our comradery as something to aspire to and something that is sorely missed by expats. I pray that we are not sitting in the silence before the storm and that Madiba’s omnipresence as an ancestor now will host a powerful stronghold for the nation to keep its foundation on.

I pray that we uphold the actions and goals that Madiba asked of us in his speech in May 1994:

“For we must, together and without delay, begin to build a better life for all South Africans. This means creating jobs, building houses, providing education and bringing peace and security for all. The calm and tolerant atmosphere that prevailed during the elections depicts the type of South Africa we can build. It set the tone for the future. We might have our differences, but we are one people with a common destiny in our rich variety of culture, races and tradition… Let us build the future together, and toast a better life for all South Africans.”

Now that Nelson Mandela has passed on, along with Mother Teresa, Lady Di, Audrey Hepburn, Gandhi and the great role models that I grew up inspired by, I am praying that new role models will come out of the woodwork from somewhere. Role models of the caliber that I looked up to as a child… right now it’s a worry that the selfish, power/fame hungry leaders and influential people around the world will not step up to be the Role Models the entire planet is so desperate for.

I blog in the hope that the souls of our youth are not left to be starved of the influence of visible love and intrinsically cultivated and expressed goodness.