Mandela's gift

Chester Francis-Jackson, Contributor

My beloved mother, Frances Allison, has always nurtured her children with more than a liberal dose of reality! She was, at times, a killjoy, but never a party pooper. But she always had a maxim that spoke to the situation by framing it in its proper context.

Being a realist, she has always reminded her children that, in the midst of life, there is death. Another of her faves was the admonition of sorts that the young may die, but the old will die - vignettes, I supposed, she took from her constant companion, The Good Book.

Imagine my surprise, however, when I found myself weeping last week, when I got news of the passing of Nelson Mandela!

And wept I did - intermittently for days as I followed the international coverage. But as I pointed out to the South African high commissioner to Jamaica, my tears were not born out of sorrow. They were from a multiplicity of reasons, but all centred around the life and struggles of Nelson Mandela, and the people of South Africa, and the global village that he created and facilitated in his fight for freedom for himself and his people.

Those of us who were students of the '60s or young adults of the '70s and '80s can't help but recall the pivotal role Jamaica played through its elected political leaders. We led the world as one of the strongest voices calling for the freedom of Mandela and the end of apartheid.

CHAMPIONS OF UNDERDOGS

Retrospectively, Jamaica's reputation on the world stage and the respect it engenders cannot and will not be damaged by the antics of groups known as 'yardies', 'scammers' or whatever moniker we - or members of the international community - choose to label them. Our history is one of being champions of the underdogs, and in the '50s through to the '80s, there was no greater underdog to be championed than the cause of the freedom of Mandela and apartheid.

And so, while 95 and reportedly not in the best of health, Mandela's death should not have come as a surprise. And the truth is, it did not. My tears, however, I have come to understand, was more for the world he has left behind - a much better place for his living. Mandela was imprisoned a relatively obscure man, but his unjust detention made of him a unifying giant!

In arresting Mandela and keeping black South Africans under the yoke of apartheid, the minority South African government challenged those of us who were living in freedom to be better human beings. And Jamaicans rose to the challenge in not only identifying with those in bondage, but became a voice for their freedom and, in so doing, helped to stir the conscience of the world to move towards the ending of the oppressive regime!

We took the fight to the minority regime in boycotts while supporting the oppressed in song and dance. We became the stronger for it, as we, too, became a more unified people out of the experience.

TEARS FOR THE WORLD

And so, my tears were not for Mandela as, yes, his passing was inevitable. My tears were for this new generation of Jamaicans who are now growing up in a material world where one can come to harm because of an imagined slight - or be maimed or harmed because one's bashment car or shoe was accidentally damaged. We are now at a place where one's material accoutrements are deemed more expensive than human life.

I wept because too many of our children now resort to defacing themselves - bleaching because they no longer have the positive reinforcements that say black is beautiful. They scar themselves in pursuit of a foreign notion of what it is to be beautiful.

Too many of our people have stopped caring about fellow citizens, moreover to spend time thinking of others in distress in faraway lands! And far too many parents have abrogated their role to things and/or gadgets, thus leaving our children to be their own parents!

So, yes, while my tears were brought on by Mandela's passing, they were also because, sadly, the spirit of kinship, brotherhood and sisterhood that he and his struggles stirred in us, causing us to unify and become part of the global village - long before the concept or notion was a buzzword - is being lost on the 'me' generation.

But for a man who so inspired us by his deeds - and not since Jesus Christ has there been such a universal symbol of martyrdom - in forging those who wronged him and his people in order to build a greater and more unified nation, Mandela gave so much to the world. My fervent hope is that we the people, both here in Jamaica and elsewhere, be gracious and accept the gifts he has bequeathed us!