Masi Noor, a psychologist researching
forgiveness, considers the nature of Nelson
Mandela’s main achievement and argues that it is something to which we can all aspire.
 |
| Love your enemy? Easier said than done. Photo: World Economic Forum |
Death unites
people. Mandela’s departure has certainly done so. In the wake of the storm of
the public messages, obituaries, tweets and blogs I wonder though, if something
profound may be missing and potentially trivialising of Mandela’s character and
legacy.
The dominant
theme is one of veneration. This is unsurprising given Mandela’s achievements.
But to canonise him as a super-human is to close the door to him as a source of
inspiration to us and in the realm of the small and the ordinary. History is
full of such deified Mandelas. Sometimes they are called Buddha, Jesus,
Einstein, Mary, Mohammed or Maslow. Whatever the name, they remain inaccessible
to most of us, so that their lifetime achievements eventually dissolve
into mystery. The possibility of emulation becomes extinct. This would be tragically counter-Mandelan.
By his own
admission, Mandela never had an epiphany moment. Instead, he was ordinary,
struggled to sustain romantic love and to find ways to remain human within Apartheid’s dehumanising context (and almost 30 years in prison). At times
he was angry, stubborn, fragile and unsuccessful in his pursuits of his academic
studies. At other times, he was a shrewd strategist who knew when to boycott,
when to use threat of militancy and when to offer personal forgiveness. And
sometimes he got all of them wrong. I’d suggest that this not only made him the
Mandela we idolise, but more importantly someone we can emulate.
