HAPPENING AT THE UN
INTERNATIONAL NELSON MANDELA DAY
Nelson Mandela wasn't called Nelson, and he wasn't even poor. He was born on July 18, 1918 into the royal family of Thembu, a tribe of Xhosa ethnicity who lived in a fertile valley of the Eastern Cape. His real name, in the native language, was Rolihlahla, but the teacher at the British boarding school of Healdtown could not pronounce it, but also did not know that it actually meant «troublemaker». Although the original tribal names were much more suitable for defining the character and aptitude of each boy, the colonials gave random names to the unfortunate, thus marking them for life, trying to impose a future on them as well.
It is probably just a coincidence, but even Nelson is not just any name. It means «son of Neil» and is used in honour of Horatio Nelson, the admiral who died at the battle of Trafalgar driving back Napoleon's fleet. A sailor, therefore, who didn't stop when danger arrived, who had a precise goal, and who achieved it, even at the cost of his own life. And it is certainly a coincidence, but at the trial following his umpteenth arrest, which would result in his long imprisonment, Mandela concluded his impassioned speech, which lasted 4 hours, with the words: «I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony… It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die».
He would have been willing to die and came very close during the 27 years he spent in prison for resistance to the South African apartheid regime, before being freed in 1990. Four years after his release, he was president of South Africa. His life has been completely dedicated to an ideal, to values that continue to inspire the world. For this reason, on July 18 of each year the United Nations dedicates an International Day to the memory of his struggle to protect freedom and human rights. The anniversary was established in 2009 by a resolution of the General Assembly, in recognition of Mandela's contribution to the promotion of a culture of peace throughout the world. But in 2015 the focus of the Day was broadened, so as to become an opportunity to focus attention on the issue of human rights in prisons. To this end, a further resolution adopted the so-called «Nelson Mandela Rules», which concern the minimum standards to be respected for the treatment of prisoners. The aim is to promote humane conditions in prisons, raise awareness of the status of prisoners as an integral part of society and recognize the role of those who work in prisons and carry out a particularly important social service.
The "troublemaker" has achieved his goal, his legacy is fruitful and perhaps can be summarized in a single sentence: «There is no easy road to freedom», as he said on May 10, 1994 in his inaugural address as president of South Africa, of which we have published an excerpt on the adjoining page.
INAUGURATION SPEECH, PRETORIA, MAY 10, 1994
Today, all of us do, by our presence here, and by our celebrations in other parts of our country and the world, confer glory and hope to newborn liberty.
Out of the experience of an extraordinary human disaster that lasted too long, must be born a society of which all humanity will be proud.
Our daily deeds as ordinary South Africans must produce an actual South African reality that will reinforce humanity's belief in justice, strengthen its confidence in the nobility of the human soul and sustain all our hopes for a glorious life for all.
To my compatriots, I have no hesitation in saying that each one of us is as intimately attached to the soil of this beautiful country as are the famous jacaranda trees of Pretoria and the mimosa trees of the bushveld.
That spiritual and physical oneness we all share with this common homeland explains the depth of the pain we all carried in our hearts as we saw our country tear itself apart in a terrible conflict, and as we saw it spurned, outlawed and isolated by the peoples of the world, precisely because it has become the universal base of the pernicious ideology and practice of racism and racial oppression.
The time for the healing of the wounds has come.
The moment to bridge the chasms that divide us has come.
The time to build is upon us.
We have, at last, achieved our political emancipation. We pledge ourselves to liberate all our people from the continuing bondage of poverty, deprivation, suffering, gender and other discrimination.
We succeeded to take our last steps to freedom in conditions of relative peace. We commit ourselves to the construction of a complete, just and lasting peace.
We understand it still that there is no easy road to freedom.
We know it well that none of us acting alone can achieve success.
We must therefore act together as a united people, for national reconciliation, for nation building, for the birth of a new world.
Let there be justice for all.
Let there be peace for all.
Let there be work, bread, water and salt for all.
