The Legacy of Nelson Mandela.

The eminent transition of Mr. Nelson Mandela (former president of South Africa) on December 5, 2013, has been generating a lot of internet frenzy. Globally, people with access to the cyberspace are falling all over themselves to make one comment or the other about the late sage.

Typical of human nature however, it is an easy guess to state that only few among the commentators actually know or care to know the full details of Mandela’s life --- beyond his incarceration in Robben Island.

To many, he was simply a celebrity! And in view of this narrow-minded status therefore, the man will be forgotten as soon as his remains are interred. That is what happens to mere celebrities.

However, Nelson Mandela was no ordinary celebrity. He was a great man, a leader ahead of many leaders and a humanist of the highest order. These qualities, among others, constituted the foundation on which the man built his legacy. 

In his life time, the first black president of post-apartheid South Africa was a multifaceted individual. In a nutshell, there was a Nelson Mandela, the person and there was a Nelson Mandela, the legacy. 

Primarily therefore, Nelson Mandela, the person has gone the way of all mortals and will be buried as a symbolic end to his earthly sojourn.

But Nelson Mandela, the legacy will live forever.