Tribute to Nelson Mandela

I cherish my own freedom dearly, but I care even more for your freedom. I am not less life-loving than you are. But I cannot sell my birthright nor am I prepared to sell the birthright of the people to be free. Only free men can negotiate. Your freedom and mine cannot be separated.

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela July 18, 1918 – December 5, 2013


History is replete with the stories of many who have conquered nations or the minds of people; Shaka Zulu, Hail Selassie I, Napoleon, Mahatma Gandhi, Marcus Garvey, Martin Luther King, Alexander the Great, but you, Tata, cradled the world with your humility, fight for freedom and love.

Rolihlahla the tree shaker, your imprisonment will remain a study of the indomitable flame of the human spirit that can never be extinguished. We remember your words, "In real life we deal not with gods, but with ordinary humans like ourselves: men and women who are full of contradictions, who are stable and fickle, strong and weak, famous and infamous," but Madiba, you were first among all men and more.

As you take your flight home, may your footprints on this world be never erased, may your words of inspiration and forgiveness be forever etched in the souls of mankind. My children and their children shall come to know you as I did, soar on mighty Madiba