People respect him for all sorts of reasons. One that always struck me as making him particularly fearless is to have undergone circumcision with a blade, concious and without any medical assistance as a young man.
I'm pretty sure all the blokes reading this are wincing at the thought of a tribal chop job, so it goes to prove what a double-hard bastard he was!

Nothing wrong with that.

The truth is simply that if you were black and living in Africa (or anywhere) during the 40's - 60's then your standard of life was pretty poor. It still lasts today in some places.

At the time when Nelson Mandela came to the top of the ANC apartheid was implemented in Africa and after holding sit ins and other non-violent protests the ANC found themselves to be getting nowhere. Like many revolutionists both before and after Mandela decided that the way to be heard was to begin fighting with weapons after they felt words and actions had failed them.
This lead to much of the western world viewing him as a terrorist - which at the time he basically was. I do not condone his and the other members of the ANC's actions, but if it were me I would probably do something similar.

I believe he was very lucky during his life not to have been beaten to death, shot or otherwise killed during his time up to the early 90's, but he survived many arrests and a long time in jail. He annoyed many people and the US plus much of Europe saw him as a problem that needed to be dealt with.

After release he worked hard with many others at trying to make a better South Africa. He took office after winning the elections in the early 90's.
Once in power he and the others with him worked towards free education, better housing and medical care. He believed in democracy to such an extent that he did many things, such as not nationalising the banks and mines in Africa, because it was voted against.
The problem for them was they chose to do everything in house, and none of them had any real idea of how to rule a country, so they made many mistakes that still haunt Africa today.

In all I am sure he always had the heart for Africa and its people, but he never really accomplished anything of note for myself and I still view him as a racist terrorist. Mostly because when he came to power he told the people that all would be welcomed, but he failed to bring everyone in under this "Rainbow Umbrella". Which lead to the drive of Afrikaners out of Africa and the following accepted murder and torture of white farmers, their workers (black and white) and other white people. Infact Africa became a bed of criminal activities as more people found themselves poorer and poorer.

His legacy is mostly built on the backs of others as he was a good front man, but he appeared to lack any real leadership abilities. He was at his best when fundraising, and getting people to show an interest in the things that really mattered personally to him.


The above is a very brief and rough understanding of his life. If you want to learn more you can go look up his Wikipedia page or Youtube posts on him.

Yeah. That's definitely the most accurate, factual and objective source of information anybody can get on a topic.

Didn't mean to imply that, I just can't keep myself from making such a comment when I hear/read about a politician/activist etc. praise someone else for things he/she (arguably) doesn't represent himself. :P

Ironic, isn't it? And the reason I posted it in the first place ;P

RIP to a great man

To be honest I was expecting a bit of hate mail. People tend not to like comments like that.

He was an inspirational man to be sure. This would could use more people like him.

Thank you, Nelson Mandela.

Rest in peace, Nelson Mandela. You will be remembered. Always by the many that you've helped.

Rest In Peace, Nelson Mandela. You were an honourable man who did what he could for others and I wish you a peaceful and well deserved rest. I hope he did not suffer in his final hours, that man deserved, as much as anyone, a passing with as little pain as possible. The world is a sadder place with his departure, and I hope many learn from the things he did while in this life. :)

"Probably the last politician that will be truly missed after passing away."
I think I read that somewhere about Mandela.

I rarely get moved by someone's death, its a natural thing. Everybody dies.
Nelson Mandela have lived a long life and more importantly a life that was significant for many others. Because of this I'm happy for him.

A great man. Say what you like about him, but there was no better face to put on South Africa post 1994.
Google 'Mandela, Francois Pienaar'
I wish he was still president :'( the country has been bleeding ever since he left office and I seriously don't know what is going to happen now

Hopefully, Yoko Ono is still on there. Not only for breaking up the Beatles, but for that ghastly music of hers I had the misfortune of hearing.

Kind of late for posting but I have mixed feeling about Mandela.

He did help bring an end to state-enforced racial segregation in South Africa and he did successfully resist totalitarian temptation by refusing to make himself tyrant. The last part is big since not many revolutionary leaders have been able to resist such temptations. Mandela could have made himself like Robert Mugabe but fortunately he followed a similar path to George Washington.

The part of him that makes me reluctant to support him had to with his association with Marxists and anti-white terrorists. The ANC had militants who were all for the murder and repression of white South Africans and Mandela went along with it earlier in life. Also, when he and others of the ANC came to office, they (as already mentioned by another post) did not seem to understand how to run a country and South Africa ended up with severe issues related to violent crime worse than before. I've heard about murdering of white farmers and how people have had to live in gated neighborhoods and pull together resources to hire armed security contractors to protect them.

Overall, Mandela did manage to do quite a bit of good in the end and I give him credit for favoring reconciliation over collectivist-based revenge.