Nelson Mandela Memorial in Nairobi

The South African High Commission in Kenya has provided an opportunity for the public to pay their last respects to former President Nelson Mandela on Tuesday, December 10. The memorial service will take place between 2:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m. at the St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church of East Africa (close to the Hotel Serena) along State House Road.

The memorial service will run concurrently with several similar services across South Africa in honor of Africa’s most revered statesman. The main service, however, will be at the 94,000 capacity FNB Stadium (formerly Soccer City Stadium) in Johannesburg where President Uhuru Kenyatta is expected to attend. It is at this very stadium that the late icon, Mandela, made his last major public appearance during the 2010 FIFA World Cup. The former president also gave his first speech at the stadium, after 27 years of imprisonment.

Nelson Rohihlala Mandela leaves behind a strong legacy for emulation especially by Kenyan leaders. Mandela’s pledge of genuine reconciliation for the Rainbow Nation rings true as one of the most touching acts of humanity in this era. “I learnt,” he penned in one of his memoirs, “that to humiliate another person is to make him suffer an unnecessarily cruel fate. I always sought to defeat my enemies without dishonoring them.” Mandela’s own first 75 years of life were plagued by the Apartheid era characterized by racial subjugation of black people in their own land.

Self sacrifice is another key lesson to be learnt from Mandela who kept off self interest. Most of Mandela’s younger days were those of a firebrand activist and lawyer keen to unshackle his people from oppression. Mandela spent many days on the run from the then powerful white regime. Mandela’s own family setup was scuttled by the Apartheid regime and his lengthy absence.

The last time most South Africans saw a young Mandela was when he was 46 years of age at the Rivonia trial where he was sentenced to life imprisonment in Robben Island for treason, which was a relief as the death penalty was a very likely option. He was seen almost three decades later as an ageing 71-year-old when he walked out of jail to be elected the first black President of South Africa in 1994.

Mandela was born in Transkei in 1918 among the Thembu clan of the Xhosa. His own father, Henry, was of royal Thembu derivation but died early. Mandela, however, lived to be almost a century old by which time he had become one of the most recognizable figures in world politics.US President Barack Obama was born in 1964 when Mandela was already serving life imprisonment but the two would share history as black men who triumphed in racially-ingrained societies. Obama eulogized Mandela saying: ”His journey from a prisoner to a president embodied the promise that human beings and countries can change for the better.”

Mandela will be laid to rest on Sunday, December 15, in his hometown of Qunu in Eastern Cape where over 50 Heads of State have confirmed attendance.

By Mark Namaswa.

Pictures courtesy of Wildhunt.