One Good Man

The movie Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom has just been released and this fundamentally good man, whose life it depicts, dies at home after a long illness. Although each of us live our lives alone, through our constant 'inner life', we also live it with others in the world. What was his private  'stream of consciousness', his inner life, really like? 

 As an octogenarian, I do remember snippets of Mandela's public life - or what the news of the day told us about him.  Mandela was the founder of the African National Congress and its Commander-in-Chief. His name was not removed from the U.S. list of terrorists until 2008! As a young law student he opposed racial segregation and became an anti-apartheid (separation) activist, he was married twice but Winnie his second wife, and true love, ultimately became more militant than he. Truly a tragic love story.  I remember her trial in the nightly news and the accusation that she approved of 'necklacing' i.e. burning people alive using tires soaked in gas!

As a freedom fighter intent of bringing down the racist regime of South Africa, the young Mandela was accused of being involved in blowing up a power station and bombing some government buildings. His actions led to his conviction of sabotage and treason. Sentenced to life imprisonment he spent 27 years in prison, 18 of them on Robben Island in Table Bay. The trade-union movement was eventually able to mobilize mass campaigns, including economic boycotts and  international resistance, to eventually obtain his release from prison.

He started writing his story while on Robben Island. Some of it was smuggled out by released prisoners; some he buried in the prison yard. Eventually it was published and became an important resource for the recent movie.

The man we have come to respect and love today, was able to move beyond violence and hatred. Obviously it was not a part of his 'inner self'.  He once wrote, "Resentment is like drinking poison and then hoping it will kill your enemies." Even during his trial in 1961 he tried to make it clear that he was not anti-white, he was against supremacy.

In June 1990, right after his release from prison, he visited the city of Toronto. As Chair of the North York Committee on Community Race and Ethnic Relations I was invited to a  dinner in his honour at the Westin Harbour Castle. At the end of the dinner  he and his entourage came down among the  guests on their way out of the building. It so happened that he walked right past where I was standing. Unconsciously, I reached out and touched his sleeve! I don't know why, and I had never done anything like that before or since! Was it an unintended and spontaneous response to genuine goodness?

It was a reaction I will never forget, and over the years came to believe, that there was something exceptionally and basically 'good' about that man. In philosophy someone wrote  "Bonum diffusum sui"- good diffuses itself. Have you ever observed light reflecting through frosted glass, or crystal snow flakes diffused in the sun light on a cold day? And that is why we honour and respect what this good man was able to accomplish.

And that's Dick's View of the World this Week