On a visit to South Africa I visited the tidy home of Nelson Mandela in the Soweto township, which is preserved as a museum. Just down the street sits Bishop Desmond Tutu’s house. A slum made famous by its bloody uprisings now boasts the only street in the world that has produced two Nobel Peace Prize winners.
Speaking like an Old Testament prophet, Bishop Tutu gives God the credit for the miracle 
of reconciliation in his country. “God does have a sense of humor. Who in their right minds could ever have imagined South Africa to be an example of anything but the most awfulness, of how not to order a nation’s relations and its governance? We South Africans were the unlikeliest lot, and that is precisely why God has chosen us. We cannot really claim much credit ourselves for what we have achieved. We were destined for perdition and were plucked out of total annihilation. We were a hopeless case if there was one.”
When black Africans finally got the vote and seemed certain to overthrow the white apartheid government, nearly everyone predicted a bloodbath. After all, 14,000 people had already died in violence between the time of Nelson Mandela’s release from prison in 1990 and his election to the presidency in 1994. Confounding the experts, however, the new regime did not yield to the politics of revenge. Even today, South Africans call it “the miracle.”
Nelson Mandela taught the world a lesson in grace when, after emerging from prison after twenty-seven years and being elected president of South Africa, he asked his jailer to join him on the inauguration platform. He then appointed Archbishop Desmund Tutu to head an official government panel with a daunting name, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Mandela sought to defuse the natural pattern of revenge that he had seen in so many countries where one oppressed race or tribe took control from another.
Bill Clinton recalled a conversation he had with Nelson Mandela, one that shows the tone of moral leadership that emerged from that “unlikeliest lot.” “Didn’t you really hate them for what they did?” Clinton asked, referring to Mandela’s twenty-seven years in prison.
Mandela replied, “Oh, yeah, I hated them for a long time. I broke rocks every day in prison, and I stayed alive on hate. They took a lot away from me. They took me away from my wife, and it subsequently destroyed my marriage. They took me away from seeing my children grow up. They abused me mentally and physically. And one day, I realized they could take it all except my mind and my heart. Those things I would have to give to them, and I simply decided not to give them away.”
Clinton pressed him. “Well, what about when you were getting out of prison? I got my daughter Chelsea up and we watched you on television as you walked down that dirt road to freedom. Didn’t you hate them then?”
Mandela said, “As I felt the anger rising up, I thought to myself, ‘They have already had you for twenty-seven years. And if you keep hating them, they’ll have you again.’ And I said, ‘I want to be free.’ And so I let it go. I let it go.”
With that attitude Mandela set a tone for the entire country. Black leaders urged their followers not to give in to their anger, however merited, but instead to let it go, to move forward in their newly won freedom. White churches, many of which had supported the oppressive white regime, were taken aback by the new spirit of cooperation. Gradually they let go of their own fear and anger, with renewed hope that they would have a share in the country’s future after all.
This week, Nelson Mandela “let it go” one final time. After an extraordinary life, he got his deepest wish: “I want to be free.”
(Partially adapted from What Good Is God?)
God bless you Nelson Mandela. Thank you for your life.
In also a response to Stephen, a fellow pastor also. Maybe Nelson Mandela was a cause of some deaths before his imprisonment and maybe not. But he changed his life, and also changed how to respond to negativity to change a country. Let us not forget, we all have a past and if we keep letting it define someone, after the grace of God or moral change of conviction, then we never have released forgiveness ourselves or forgot what we would be without Him. The article says nothing about his personal faith, and he is not honored by many for his personal faith whether in Christ or not, but for uniting a country under his moral standards.
Stephen. You sound very bitter. I am a South African too and crime effects all races badly. We all need to stand together now more than ever.
Dear Philip. I too am a white South African pastor living in South Africa. Stephan’s views are very warped.
In response to Steven
I grew up at the end of Apartheid.
This weekend has had a profound impact on me bringing up 20 or more years of memories, when I was in std 8 1985 I read cry the beloved country it changed my life…my parents had not grown up in South Africa so the racial conditioning of the time was never taught at home…when I studied at a small college in Athlone CEBI, the idea that God called me to be the difference started then, that God is the God of the struggle…I embraced the struggle, and conscientized my self for the liberation of all South Africans.
I fell in love with my best friend Joy 1993, at the time I stood the chance of being reclassified from white to Coloured (I’m a honorary Coloured now anyway!)
I chose to be the difference, and have worked in the Townships. The sad reality for our country is we are still defined black and white, I believe my children will play a great role in nation building. If all we do is complain about what’s wrong then nothing will happen, but if we take the hope we have in God, you and me in our small corner of influence can change the world, and so we work to impact one life at a time.
If I could in my lifetime do 10% of what Madiba achieved I will be overjoyed at having lived a fulfilled life
What Madiba did has allowed us to raise to wonderful daughters,( in a country teething in a new democracy), and so aptly so when we named Sian Destiny “God has favoured our Destiny” and Tiffany Joy The manifestation of The Devine…She is Devine Joy, Just like Joy her mom. Thanks Madiba for making it possible to live in freedom as people, and not to be judged by the colour of our skin… So we will continue to reflect Christ, like Madiba has, by caring for the least, forgiving the ignorant, and loving all people!