Father Michael Lapsley,SSM
Director of the Institute for Healing of Memories
Cape Town

“I am a product of the people of South Africa”

Imagine for a moment what would have happened if Nelson Mandela had walked out of prison
and said “It’s time to get them”. We would have died in our millions. It is said that revenge is
when you drink poison and hope that someone else will die. Instead he said: “Never, never and
never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by
another.”

The world was astonished if not gob smacked that when Nelson Mandela left prison after 27
years . There was not a trace of bitterness – no words of hatred or revenge crossed his lips.
Instead he repeated what he had said before going to prison for life – a commitment to a common
society in which we would live together in peace as human beings. The presence of his prison
guard in a place of great honour at his inauguration was a potent symbol of a nation in which
enemies would become friends.

Those 27 years were like a crucible, a refining fire. What Nelson Mandela did from February 11
1990 till December 5 2013 was to redeem the past, to bring life out of death, good out of evil.

Was it bad that Nelson Mandela spent 27 years in prison – yes of course it was an act of evil and
should never have happened. Nevertheless the fruit which came out of those years has been a
wonder to behold.

Madiba understood very early that the road to freedom lay through sacrifice, especially self-
sacrifice. We now know that those closest to him at the treason trial did not want him to say the
final words of his speech “…I am prepared to die” but he insisted.

There were and are countless Nelson Mandelas who are not characterized by hatred and
bitterness, particularly because those in the struggle were able to make sense of their suffering.

However even as we go about our daily lives countless South Africans continue to show signs of
multiple woundedness which crosses generations.

In the first democratic parliament the piece of legislation which was debated more than any other
was the Act which set up the Truth and Reconciliation commission led by the other moral icon:
Desmond Tutu. Madiba understood that he was president of a wounded nation The past would
have to be acknowledged and there was a need for us all to tell each other our stories and we
would all need to find ways of redeeming our past.

I am a New Zealand born South African. When I first arrived in South Africa in 1973 Nelson
Mandela had already been in prison for years and was portrayed in the media as a dangerous
terrorist – so dangerous that we could not read anything he had ever said and his photo could
not be published. On home leave in 1975, I went to the public library to borrow “No Easy Walk
to Freedom” by Nelson Mandela. How shocked I was to find out that the dangerous terrorist
was a revolutionary who was fighting not just for black people but also for white people. He
understood not only black hopes but also white fears. Nelson Mandela and later Oliver Tambo
were to become my lifetime heroes so that I would say: the struggle is also my life.

Three months after Nelson Mandela’s release from prison, my hands were blown off by a letter
bomb hidden inside two religious magazines. My years in the struggle, and the examples of
Mandela, Tambo and Huddleston had prepared me for the possibility of death although not
for permanent major physical disability. Nevertheless I could make sense of my loss even as I
grieved and felt the pain. Like Mandela how people responded to my bombing meant that my
story was acknowledged, reverenced and recognized. I was prayed for, loved and supported.

In the countless tributes crossing the world so many people have said that in their encounters
with Tata Madiba, they felt acknowledged and special.

In my own small way, inspired by Mandela and so many other heroic women and men, I try to
make all people I meet, feel special and of great value.

More than that, like Madiba, I surrounded myself with a collective and we created together an
Institute for Healing of Memories. Greatly encouraged by Mandela’s leadership in creating a
Truth and Reconciliation Commission, we seek to create safe and sacred spaces where healing
happens – because people feel acknowledged, reverenced and recognized.

A year after Nelson Mandela became President he officially opened the First Southern African
Solidarity Conference with Cuba which I chaired. As much as Madiba became a close friend of
President Bill Clinton he was a firm and close friend of President Fidel Castro who had a lifelong
practical commitment to our struggle. One of the Cuban 5, who are wrongly incarcerated in
US prisons is my close friend Gerardo Hernandez. He has a photo of Nelson Mandela beside
his bed. What a great tribute to the memory of Nelson Mandela it would be if the huge US
delegation at the funeral were to return to the USA and insist that President Obama must free the
Cuban 5 forthwith.

There is never a good day to become an orphan which is part of what we have felt these last few
days. We all lost a father. So we cry and we also laugh and party for the treasure we have been
given in the form of the greatest leader of our time.

How wonderful that we and people all over the world, especially our young people are listening
to and reading the words of Nelson Mandela inviting us to embody and exude peace, healing and
reconciliation.

I don’t believe that Nelson Mandela will rest in peace if we keep naming things after him. I am
sure he will rest peacefully if we live out our lives in the pursuit of a gentler, kinder, more just
and therefore more peaceful world inspired by his example.

Now it’s up to us.