RIP Madiba

Today, I was going to chat about UCT's Biodiversity Conference and maybe that post will still come at some stage, but there is only one real piece of news today. 

I found out about Mandela's passing through a Whatsapp message from my sister +Tessa Hampton close to midnight last night. I checked Twitter, and you can imagine every post was carrying the same, breaking, heartbreaking news.

He was old, and has worked harder than anyone throughout his life to achieve something miraculous in South Africa. He was frail and the world has been expected this news for months already (he was in hospital in Pretoria while my family was going through its own personal tragedy, so it didn't really sink in at that time). He, more than anyone, deserves to rest in peace. And yet I can't help feeling completely saddened by the news.  And I have been trying to think why. 

I am going to try explain my own feelings of loss, however undeserved, with a story from years ago. In 2005, the first year of my MSc on African Penguins, I was very excited to have the opportunity to take my parents across to Robben Island to show them what I do. Unfortunately the Robben Island ferry was delayed, as it so often is. This time, however, no one in the world would have been annoyed by this inconvenience because the ferry was cancelled so that Mandela could meet the staff of the Robben Island Museum at the Waterfront offices. 

2005. The closest I have ever been to the great icon. 

My mom, dad and I were thrilled to be at the Waterfront for the occasion, well, hardly an occasion, he literally just walked through towards the office from the parking lot surrounded by body guards and admirers. I literally glimpsed his head and my dad managed this (treasure) photograph by holding the camera high above his head. 

I can't adequately describe the excitement I felt at glimpsing the top of an old man's head. And I think I can explain why. This is not the kind of mania surrounding other famous people, movie stars or sporting heroes. For me anyway, this man is the personification of hope. 

I think that one of the things that makes South Africans amazing people, and I unashamedly state that we are, despite what some of my foreign friends that have had to deal with Home Affairs think, is that we live in HOPE. We have had to. We have gone through an enormous change in this country, in politics, ideologies, economics, even being allowed to play sport with the rest of the world, and honestly it could have gone completely wrong. I suspect, that many people are still waiting for it to go completely wrong, but I hazard the majority of people continue to live in hope that this great social experiment, brought about by the vision of this extraordinary man, will work. South Africans are strong, resilient, positive people who have maintained hope through dark days of apartheid and (persistently) tumultuous days of forming a new country and he personified all of that. (Incidentally, we are also very good at laughing at ourselves and each other which is a very useful trait). 

So, I think that I feel sad for all the people that won't get to glimpse Mandela's head and that this living beacon of hope is no longer with us. I don't foresee that it will fundamentally change anything, but it is still a deeply sad day. Of course, I feel sad for his family and loved ones, but that sadness is the same, more distant sadness that I would feel, in passing, for the family and loved ones of any other person I don't personally know. 

That's my two cents worth of what I am sure will be the most spoken about topic for weeks to come. 

RIP Madiba!

PS UCT just had a gathering to mark the passing of Mandela. The Vice Chancellor said one thing that really stood out to me. (I may have the quote wrong but the just...) "The way you live your life will pay greater tribute to Mandela than anything we say today"