Last Sunday, July 18th, was Nelson Mandela's 92nd birthday. Celebrations, well covered on the Independent Online (IOL) website, included an appeal from President Zuma for national unity in the spirit of Mandela, a Madiba (Mandela's familiar nickname) "Fan Walk" in Cape Town to oppose xenophobic violence, and prayers that he reach his 100th year.In an unfortunate twist that recalls an earlier post (see May 30th), armed gunmen attempted to rob Mandela's daughter Zindzi and her four children in their driveway as they returned to their home in Johannesburg. Here's the article in the British Mail Online (note the vigorous debate raging in the comments posted in response to the article).
A front page he
adline in yesterday's Cape Argus announced the news that South African icon number two, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, has decided to scale back his involvement in - and ultimately retire from - public life. 
According to a brief article that accompanies a video of Tutu's press conference on IOL, "The 78-year-old cleric and Nobel Peace Prize winner announced at a press conference today that after his birthday on October 7, he would start limiting his time in the office to one day per week until the end of February 2011. After that, he said, he would withdraw entirely from public life."These moments hint at an uncomfortable reality for both figures: their remaining time is limited. It is hard to imagine South Africa, or the world for that matter, without the voices of these two great men who have been so instrumental and influential as South Africa has sought to emerge from and move beyond its dark apartheid past. Their voices have been exercised so eloquently, so effectively, and with such great moral authority that they have inspired millions and changed our world. Who, I wonder, will step into the void? A momentous question, especially in South Africa.
No comments:
Post a Comment