The link between sage historians and revolutionaries

’He is now at peace’: Nelson Mandela dead at 95

A revolutionary passes on. When I was a youth, I could hear the color television set hum in the background with things I was too young to know about and fully understand. To give some perspective on my recollection, in those days, at least in the south, most people still used rotary dial telephones, and cable television was in its infancy. It was 1980's to 90's-ish, I believe; rather I'll say, so as not to give away the proverbial farm of age. I was a curious sort, and an inquisitive sponge of a child. Some of the images I saw on the television new broadcasts impacted me so that to I will always remember. One story I heard was of the terrible treatment of people who black like me. African people. And the face of a man they called Nelson Mandela.

The serious looking news anchors told stories of South Africa, imprisonment, apartheid, and revolution that I didn't yet comprehend, but my wise grandmama Alice Bernice Cooper, was an teacher's resource and educator in the public school system, and her news clippings that she saved from decades past explained it to me as it grew. Stories of Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, from carefully preserved, archived original news printings. She was a treasure, and contributed so much to her community in Southeast Newport News. I am forever grateful to her for making sure that got to see the news, read the stories, and gain the knowledge of events in history that would shape the history of the world that I live in today. Yesterday was her birthday. She passed on in 2007. I don't like to say that I miss her, because she is with me in spirit always.

Today, Nelson Mandela went on from his journey in this life with us, after fighting a good fight for his country. His storied struggle for racial equality in Africa is the spirit of activism, risking life and limb, and suffering a long, arduous incarceration on Robbin Island by refusing to accept a fate that was not his, a calling beneath him. He was a leader, and he would not renounce his people their right to humanity and dignity from oppression. It was around 1990 when he was finally released https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIV3kV4aQxA, and light of his leadership shined brightly for the world to see. The rest, is legend.

Rest in peace Madiba.