Nelson Mandela dies: The Lincoln of Africa and just as complex
The 'seamless convergence of magnanimity and power'
By Brian Stewart, CBC News Posted: Dec 05, 2013
Mandela shows then U.S. president Bill Clinton the view from the cell on Robben Island in which Mandela spent 17 of his 27 years incarcerated by the former South African government. (Reuters)
Mandela shows then U.S. president Bill Clinton the view from the cell on Robben Island in which Mandela spent 17 of his 27 years incarcerated by the former South African government. (Reuters)A member of the Internal Stability Unit points a machine gun at ANC supporters outside Durban in April 1994, less than two weeks before the election that month that brought Mandela and the ANC to power. (Reuters)
So much praise has been heaped on Nelson Mandela that it may be useful to pick out his defining virtues from all the dazzling emotional clutter.
Just seeing him as a wonderfully humane and even saintly leader misses the complex core of a master statesman.
