As a young revolutionary, no one questioned Mandela’s capacity for bravery, but it took 27 years behind bars for him to forge the courage to forgive. He was imprisoned in 1963 because he advocated armed insurrection to achieve freedom and equality in South Africa. But when set free in 1990 prisoner No. 46664 was determined to forgive his jailers and resolved to destroy apartheid through reconciliation.
That South Africa has transitioned into a democracy that constitutionally recognizes equality and acknowledges the dignity of all its citizens is a testament to the strength of Mandela’s character and political guile, but moreso to the power of forgiveness. He taught a nation that anger and bitterness lead only to more pain. Then he showed that through forgiveness, through a genuine commitment to pardon and mercy, it is possible — indeed liberating — to rise above vindictiveness to achieve physical and spiritual freedom.
In Mandela’s South Africa, forgiveness and reconciliation became public policy. He oversaw constitutional change to guarantee human rights and, with Desmond Tutu, launched the Truth and Reconciliation Commission which granted leniency to both blacks and whites for past crimes. He invited F. W. de Klerk, the last leader of an apartheid government, into his first cabinet, he publicly forgave his jailers, he pardoned those who had enforced apartheid, he ensured non-blacks kept their jobs in public service, and he purged vengeance and hatred from the affairs of state.
After Mandela left jail and his rise to power became inevitable, white South Africans feared retribution from the majority black population. But far from being driven into the sea, as some predicted, the former colonizers, whose capital and skills were essential, were shown clemency and integrated as equals into a multi-racial, black-ruled South Africa. Mandela accorded his former oppressors the grace they denied him most of his life.
Mandela showed that forgiveness is not an abstract concept, but it is real and can be revolutionary. It can change minds, heal wounds, open hearts and spark transformation. That is Mandela’s legacy. He was not perfect and neither is his South Africa. Mandela had human failings, as we all do. But by the way he lived his life he proved that forgiveness is powerful.
More than 100 heads of state attended a Mandela memorial in Johannesburg held, fittingly, on international Human Rights Day. They heard him eulogized as a profound leader who transformed South Africa by elevating forgiveness and reconciliation above vengeance and violence. The world will become a better place if even some of those leaders take the message of Mandela to heart. The world needs to learn to forgive like Mandela.