Nelson Mandela did not, as many seem to believe, single-handedly end apartheid in South Africa. But he gave a public face and savvy leadership to the international movement that eventually dismantled decades of white-minority rule. And with his election as president in 1994, he transformed his country into a multiracial democracy.
Mandela died Thursday at age 95 after a long and extraordinary life.
He was imprisoned for 27 years for his role in organizing the guerrilla wing of the African National Congress. Even after he was freed, he continued to use the threat of violence. He also worked with the South African Communist Party and embraced dubious leaders from Fidel Castro and Yasser Arafat to Moammar Khadafy and Robert Mugabe. He denounced the war in Iraq as an example of US racism.
Unlike so many other revolutionaries, Mandela’s achievements were as impressive in power as out. He oversaw a peaceful transition when many predicted bloodshed. He made reconciliation his governing philosophy, including the white minority in his government and showing that majority rule would not mean their own subjugation. And he left elections that are fair and honest, unlike those in much of the rest of the continent.
If he’d wanted, he likely could have stayed in office as long as he wished, but Mandela served only one five-year term before stepping aside. He then devoted much of his time to fighting AIDS after his son died of the disease.
If South Africa is more troubled and less stable today, it’s largely because this great man’s successors have failed to measure up to his performance. Nelson Mandela, RIP.