Obama, Mandela: The dignity of reconciliation

[Undercurrent]

From Kenya Today Jul 19, 2008:
Cut from the same cloth? Mandela, Obama and the dawn of an era
By ALI A. MAZRUI

Nelson Mandela and Barack Obama are symbols of a post-racism age which is still unfolding. Mandela has become the most respected black man by other races in world history, while Obama stands a chance of becoming the most trusted black man in US history.

No African American has ever been so close to winning the US presidency. But no African American could have come so close without the unprecedented level of trust from a sizable part of the white electorate.

A major cause of this joint success by Mandela and Obama lies in their embodying a short memory of racial hate, and in their impressive readiness to forgive historic adversaries. They have both shown a capacity to transcend historic racial divides...
http://politics.nationmedia.com/inner.asp?sid=2169

--

From The South African, October 20, 2008:

Mandela, Obama and the post-racial age

http://www.thesouthernafrican.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3035:mandela-obama-and-the-post-racial-age&catid=110:opinion&Itemid=2


--

On Mandella and reconciliation:

Short article:

Truth, Reconciliation, Dignity - Nelson Mandela
September 21, 2007

...He (Mandella) gets elected president which is unreal if you think about it. Does he go around saying "we'll show the evilest of the evildoers what we are made of!"? No he says that there needs to be peace and reconciliation if there is to be healing.

I recently saw a quote that I wish I had access to at this moment. Basically it was saying that one act of violence sends forth reverberations of violence. One act of kindness or compassion - what does that send off? That was kind of Mandela's thing. Let's get away from the armed struggle.

So he goes off and makes nice with DeKlerk and all the others, which must have been like a shit sandwich (I am so not evolved, I know) for DeKlerk and his cronies. This guy who they have tried to beat down and demonize is being nice to them.

Sweet. I like that. More anger justifies those who want to perpetuate it.

There was a huge moment that is believed to have solidified the peace movement - after all there were a lot of angry black South Africans who did not want to make nice, at the 1995 World Cup. The national team, the Springboks - were white and hated by the black community as they represented what was wrong with South Africa. Mandela wishes for the whole country to get behind the Springboks... which they do. They win and Mandela, wearing a Springbok jersey, presents the Cup.

So I think we can all learn some lessons in humility, understanding and peace from the maybe-frail, but still living Mandela.

Because I think a lot of us would like to whoop Dubya's a-double-s if we got a hold of him. Doing that makes us just like him though.
http://festinalente-franiam.blogspot.com/2007/09/truth-reconciliation-dignity-nelson.html

--

Very long article:

Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu: living icons of reconciliation

...The philosophy upon which he based his commitment to reconciliation was that all people, even the most seemingly cold-blooded, have a core of decency, and that if their heart is touched they are capable of changing. He said of two warders, warrant officers Swart and Brand, "Men like Swart and Brand reinforced my belief in the essential humanity even of those who had kept me behind bars for the previous twenty-seven and a half years." (8) Despite his 27 years in prison at the hands of the former apartheid government, with its cabinet and parliament made up exclusively of whites, nothing can move him from the belief that all people were born equal, regardless of race, colour or creed, and should, therefore, be treated as such. Mandela believes that through reconciliation, racism can be eliminated. He himself has unre servedly reconciled with some of his former captors. (9) Therefore, after his victory in the first democratic election in 1994, he wanted a government of true national unity, (10)...
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2065/is_4_55/ai_111979985/pg_2?tag=artBody;col1

[Undercurrent]

1. Shameless self bump.