The Long Walk to Freedom has completed

Nelson Mandela - the hero of the war on racial discrimination

The world has lost one of its finest men, and I for one is shedding the last tears for the man whom I adored, and someone I held as my personal hero over the years. I remember talking about him in one of my political science classes; how he inspired me in many ways. After dropping out of high school in 1995, I picked up a book "Long Walk to Freedom" at my brother's house which gathered dust on the shelve in the living room. This is the biography of Nelson Mandela. I had got this book during my most trying days at the beautiful quiet beaches of Kakabona. That book transformed me in  a personal way. I read it from cover to cover at least three times, and marveled at the kinds of experience he went through, and how he absorbed all that pain and suffering and his tremendous ability to forgive those who locked him up, and even sat down for a meal with the widow of the prosecutor who sent him to jail. His incredible story has carved a permanent spot in world history as a lasting testimony for what the world could do together in the midst of turmoil and brutality. In 2009, I went to see the movie 'Invictus' - a Holly Wood creation inspired by the history of President Mandela. This is a movie based on Mandela's experience, and no matter how many times you watch this movie, you always come out with renew hope for humanity. Below is Mendela's favorite poem - one that he claimed inspired him to hold his head up high in his more than two decades wrongful incarceration:

By William Ernest Henley 

This is a man who lived every principle he preached and led by personal example. He 'talk the talk' and 'walk the walk'. In one of the scenes of the movie 'Invictus' - Mandela told his black body-guard that he was going to have White guards around him working along with black guards at the 1995 Rugby World Cup. When his guard shot back that those were the same people who harmed him, he yelled - "Forgiveness Starts Here". What a man! I will forever grateful for the example this man had given to the world and for me personally, and I also hope that the world learns from his great examples. My thoughts and prayers with the Mandela family. May his soul "rest in peace" and may his country - South Africa - lives up to the standard and legacy he had left behind and proves worthy of his life's struggles.