Filling Our Hearts

Pictures of Madiba on my office wall,
revelling in the thought that Nelson
Mandela’s Rivonia speech is one of
the most famous speeches of all time

That his letters to his wife, the faithful
Winnie, are some of the most beautiful
love letters in the English language, that
Madiba’s inner life was in the public eye

Since his incarceration on Robben Island,
being purged in the fires of discrimination,
yet his spirit soured to produce the most
wonderful thoughts on great concepts like

Freedom and Forgiveness, his studies of
other freedom fights led him to conclude
violence is not an option, studying the
Afrikaner nation, the enemy, led him to

The Anglo-Boer war; he understood this iron-
hard nation better than they did themselves,
he realised killing them would rob the world
of its cultural diversity

And would entail total destruction, razing 
all evidence of civilisation, leaving a smoking
relic of the erstwhile Apartheid land with its
infrastructure, farms and suburbs in flames

He decided political freedom at the cost of
a conflagration would be an empty victory –
though victory is assured given the superior
numbers of the oppressed Africans, yet

They would have to start from scratch, a scorched-
earth policy is guaranteed to bring results at the cost
of everything civilisation wrought in this lovely land,
the world would pitch in to support the African cause

The enemy would be annihilated, leaving a burning
country to start anew without the guidance of the few
who knew how to use technology - newly freed men and
women would need guidance on good governance –

His hand stretched out with an olive branch had been
ignored before but as South Africans were forced to
their knees, the hand was taken by the oppressor who
saw the evil of its ways with institutionalised crime

Where criminals led the fight against freedom conscious-
ness, the small group of privileged enjoying that status
solely by the colour of their skin - and not merit - the
white population treated like little children

Not allowed to hear or see the oppression and pain, brain-
washed by church and state into regarding the status quo
as God-given rule - had to be freed from an artificial
golden cage - Madiba saw everyone would lose

In a righteous game of justified vengeance against white men;
Nelson Mandela was big enough to realise that receiving a
hesitant hand from the enemy with a tearful request to spare
their lives in a new South Africa, meant they were ready

To accept democracy, losing power and might for the price
of their lives spared and the beautiful, beloved land saved
from rivers of blood and bombs exploding everywhere -
killing civilians while the works of man would be replaced

By the smoke of cities razed – how privileged the beloved
country, our exquisite South Africa, that one Quixotic man,
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, came to share the dream for
the land and promised to save their lives if they shared

Everything - how miraculous that the oppressor chose life,
stripped from the political power which they had misused
for so long, stripped from propaganda and exploitation by
religion to keep white people docile while enslaving

The majority of Africans in this land, Mandela patiently
repeated his request for freedom until the oppressor was
on their knees, he waited and did not force it to do so at
the cost of annihilation of the small white community

Mandela is our Moses who led the imprisoned, enslaved
people into the promised land where all are free to prosper
as well as they can; where all decide who should govern and
everyone is free to go anywhere; the former slavery

And lack of human dignity finally gone, the white oppressor
unarmed and overawed by the great, Messiah-like quality
of a group of silent holy men, led by a giant whose legend
continues the fame of the Old Testament’s prophets

Whose forgiveness equals seventy-times seven as the group
followed Mandela into suffering, losing everything, family,
income, safety, making the ultimate sacrifice for the freedom
of all in South Africa; today Madiba towers over our land

A man so big everything shrinks into insignificance beside him –
thank you Madiba for waiting patiently until the old regime were
forced into non-violent submission, not storming the oppressor’s
citadel earlier because the fires would have been burning still

The minority group massacred and the land reduced to ashes –
thank you for your skill in leading the nation to reconciliation
filling our hearts with love for you and all you represented…

[8 January 2014]