True North, Bill George (Nelson Mandela’s story)
I just finished reading Bill George’s book, True North. He tells this story about Nelson Mandela …
The next time you feel sorry for yourself, think of the example of Nelson Mandela, who led protests against the unjust apartheid policies of his South African government. Of all the leaders I have met, his journey of transformation is the most dramatic.
In his younger years, Mandela organized boycotts and demonstrations against the apartheid government that often erupted in violence. In 1956 his government arrested him for high treason in causing violence. He endured a four-year-long trial and was eventually declared not guilty. Not satisfied, the government had him arrested for political crimes. A magistrate sentenced him to five years in prison without possibility of parole.
Mandela spent the next twenty-seven years of his life in prison, doing hard labor in spite of his advancing age.
… Mandela was finally released from prison in 1990 at the age of seventy-one.
If ever a person had a right to be bitter toward his captors and the injustice done to him, it was Mandela. How then could he find it in his heart to honor the prison guards who looked after him and to forgive the judge who had sentenced him many years before?
… When Mandela was elected president four years later, how was he able to cast aside calls for revenge and instead offer reconciliation to his oppressors?
… Mandela realized that his greater purpose was to save his nation from civil war and to reunite the people of his country. The day of his release, he told the massive crowds who greeted his freedom:
“I stand here before you not as a prophet but as a humble servant of you, the people. Your tireless and heroic sacrifices have made it possible for me to be here today. I therefore place the remaining years of my life in your hands.”
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