First of all, I am not going to recount his history all over again, Google has already archived all that information. However, I will write about the most fundamental part of being named after Mandela, from my own perspective.
The world today has no shortage of leaders, we find them everywhere like at the most basic level, the Heads of State. However, the world is short of leaders who have been able to change the world. It is amazing how every important leader has a record in history books but so few have been written in the records of our hearts. Men will always go down in history as having done a thing or two for the human race, but only a few will be passed on in our memories.
Mandela is one man who will certainly not be forgotten because of what he was able to communicate to the world. To be able to show the world that racial tolerance is possible after decades of intense hate is an amazing feat. Fighting for freedom is very important but to teach people that racial intolerance is slavery is an even greater liberation. The greatest freedom is the freedom from the jail of ignorance and hate. In fact mental freedom is more important than physical freedom or economic freedom.
Which brings me to the point that the greatest disease to plague the African continent today is not neo-colonialism but racism. We were liberated from colonialism 50 years ago but we are still colonized in our minds. Racism is simply a perception that a certain race is superior than another or in the African case, that Africans are inferior to the White Man. So we end up fighting the white man and the white man laughs at this stupid disease. We declare that the solution is to show that we are greater than the white man while in reality, we are all the same, none greater, none lesser. Even if we were to eradicate every white man from the continent, we would remain locked up in our mental cells with the keys in hand waiting for a Messiah to come. I guess that's the danger of low self esteem, the fruit being blaming and hating other people.
Mandela did South Africa a great favour by fighting for political independence while yet advocating for racial interdependence.Maybe we need a second Mandela to liberate us Africans mentally.
