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The Mandela Statue: a symbol with many tales to tell
HIS POLITICAL life had been full of difficulties. That's well known. And only a few would not sympathise… yet can't help respecting Nelson Mandela for his immeasurable patience, combined with a persevering force, that wins over resistance.
Borrowing the title of his biography, I would say that the decision by the Westminster Council (to place Mandela's 9ft statue in Parliament Square, later this year) has been another long walk to freedom. Just along the path of the 2-year permission-seeking journey, the sculptor Ian Walters died (of natural cause, anyway) some few months before his work was approved a rightful place. May his soul rest in peace. As much as the statue is an honour to Mandela's good works, it would also frown or speak to some corrupt (particularly African) leaders to allow the rule of law, and welcome variant party politics, out of which the best leadership brain of a nation could come to bear. In popular terms, the principles of democracy and the safeguard of human rights would be the key symbolic message of the statue, I perceive.
Apartheid, the crude system against which Mandela thrived, is still being practised in different degrees in some African states. Zimbabwe for example fits the description of a sovereign state with millions of potential Mandelas - people of every status - suffering economic, social and political depravity. May the Mandelas rise and shine in the oppressed regions of liberal Africa.
I haven't the slightest doubt that people from all racial backgrounds in Britain have loved the announcement of the Mandela figure to be installed in the City's yard of prominence. The media greeted the news with a kind of joy akin to London's Olympic bid success, I observed.
Upon the general enthusiasm of the British public, I still would address the statue as recognition of the black race and for that matter the African in the heart of a predominantly white society. It's a form of acceptance that closes the wide margin of alienation set up by a belief, by inferiority complex, by man - since time immemorial.
For the thousands of friends and countrymen who stood with Mandela, here comes a shared tribute on, what I deem, the world's platform. The entire men and women of the African National Congress are moulded collectively into the image of one struggler who emerged the hero. Praise be to God.
Before I'm accused of making the wildest of abstract claims, just relate my words to that of Dennis Brutus, a South African writer. In his poetry Brutus wrote: "when the roll is called, those nameless unarmed ones would stand beside the warriors who'd secure the final prize". Poor me, when I read this verse in my late teens, I hardly understood its deep predictive logic other than the surface academic knowledge for which I studied.
I am convinced that the rest of the moral tale would be told when you stand before the speechless but inspiring form of this proud son of South Africa. Get ready for a visit to Parliament Square, where you won't just appreciate the bronze art of a professional. There's something else you would sense. Mark my word.
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