Higher than hope

Nelson Mandela has Indeed become a living legend. Just as the gaoling of nationalist leaders like Mahatma Ghandi and Jomo Kenyatta invested them with a unique aura and helped galvanize resistance to the colonial power, so, we believe, the imprisonment of Nelson Mandela is a self-defeating course for the South African Government to take. ‘He [Mandela] impressed us as an outstandingly able and sincere person whose qualities of leadership were self-evident. We found him unmarked by any trace of bitterness despite his long imprisonment. His overriding concern was for the welfare of all races in South Africa in a just society; he longed to be allowed to contribute to the process of reconciliation. We all agreed that it was tragic that a man of his outstanding capabilities should continue to be denied the opportunity to help shape his country's future, especially as that is so clearly his own profound wish. ‘A very remarkable man, a man of unshakeable principle and extraordinary courage ‘Nelson Mandela … we are all very conscious of the fact that until you are free no man, woman or child, whatever their colour or the culture they come from, is really free … oppression of anyone is oppression of everyone.’