Today is Nelson Mandela’s 94th birthday.
You can read more about the activities that took
place this Mandela Day at: http://www.mandeladay.com
Twenty-four years ago, 72 000 people attended a concert
at Wembley in London to celebrate Mandela’s 70th birthday. I wonder
how many of the thousands of people at the concert, or watching it at home,
would have imagined – or dared to hope – that Tata Madiba, as he is affectionately known to so many South
Africans, would still be the father of a democratic South Africa well into his nineties. And that his birthday would have become an
annual international day (known as Mandela Day) on which to honour his commitment
to justice and equality in South Africa.
As a teen in South Africa, I could only read about the
concert in Number One, one of my
favourite music magazines. However, as Mandela was banned and imprisoned, I wasn’t allowed to
see any pictures of him. How ludicrous that I could read about him but not see
him – and that someone actually had to black out his face in every copy that
was sold in South Africa..!
You have to laugh... and appreciate just how far we’ve
come...
Well, at 25 pounds a ticket, the concert raised 3 million pounds
for children’s charities in South Africa.
On Mandela Day, we're all urged to give 67 minutes of our time to a charity or to someone in our local community – to take a small step towards
improving the lives of others, and arguably our own.
“It always seems impossible,” Mandela once said, “until it’s
done.”
What a gift and an inspiration he has been, not only to South Africans, but to so many people around the world.
