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Our Monday meeting with the digital minds of eNitiate had to start by reflecting and asking ourselves what we are doing to honor what #NelsonMandela stood for.Not usually how we start our usual meetings but it was only right that we do so.With humbling thoughts flooding,the realisation of what an impact this man had on me as an individual was evident. It was never about being FREE of oppression, it’s always been about being FREE to dream and be,walking that long road to make your dreams a reality,believing in YOU and never giving up.Would i be here ,would i be on this journey am on,a black woman finding my feet in a digital sphere, contributing to a fast growing digital South Africa, expanding my knowledge with the rest of the digital world? One black man’s patience, as he sat in a cell for over 2 decades, his dreams, vision and certainly big heart made all this possible.That movement spread and nudged other nations who in turn hopped onto a dream that is NOW a beautiful reality for so many BLACK young people. Dr Maya Angelou wrote such a beautiful poem as tribute to Tata Nelson Mandela and you can listen to it here in the video attached or if you prefer reading here it is below.
Dr. Maya Angelou – His Day Is Done – A Tribute Poem For Nelson Mandela
His day is done.
Is done.
The news came on the wings of a wind, reluctant to carry its burden.
Nelson Mandela’s day is done.
The news, expected and still unwelcome, reached us in the United States, and suddenly our world became sombre.
Our skies were leadened.
His day is done.
We see you, South African people standing speechless at the slamming of that final door through which no traveler returns.
Our spirits reach out to you Bantu, Zulu, Xhosa, Boer.
We think of you and your son of Africa, your father, you’re one more wonder of the world.
We send our souls to you as you reflect upon your David armed with a mere stone, facing down the mighty Goliath.
Your man of strength, Gideon, emerging triumphant.
Although born into the brutal embrace of Apartheid, scarred by the savage atmosphere of racism, unjustly imprisoned in the bloody maws of South African dungeons.
Would the man survive? Could the man survive?
His answer strengthened men and women around the world.
In the Alamo, in San Antonio, Texas, on the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, in Chicago’s Loop, in New Orleans Mardi Gras, in New York City’s Times Square, we watched as the hope of Africa sprang through the prison’s doors.
His stupendous heart intact, his gargantuan will hale and hearty.
He had not been crippled by brutes, nor was his passion for the rights of human beings diminished by twenty-seven years of imprisonment.
Even here in America, we felt the cool, refreshing breeze of freedom.
When Nelson Mandela took the seat of Presidency in his country where formerly he was not even allowed to vote we were enlarged by tears of pride, as we saw Nelson Mandela’s former prison guards invited, courteously, by him to watch from the front rows his inauguration.
We saw him accept the world’s award in Norway with the grace and gratitude of the Solon in Ancient Roman Courts, and the confidence of African Chiefs from ancient royal stools.
No sun outlasts its sunset, but it will rise again and bring the dawn.
Yes, Mandela’s day is done, yet we, his inheritors, will open the gates wider for reconciliation, and we will respond generously to the cries of Blacks and Whites, Asians, Hispanics, the poor who live piteously on the floor of our planet.
He has offered us understanding.
We will not withhold forgiveness even from those who do not ask.
Nelson Mandela’s day is done, we confess it in tearful voices, yet we lift our own to say thank you.
Thank you our Gideon, thank you our David, our great courageous man.
We will not forget you, we will not dishonor you, we will remember and be glad that you lived among us, that you taught us, and that you LOVED us all.
