Daily Inspiration: Nelson Mandela

“It is music and dancing that makes me at peace with the world. And at peace with myself,” said Nelson Mandela, South Africa’s first black president and greatest son, who died today at 95.

December 05, 2013


Nelson Mandela, South Africa's first black president and greatest son, has died. Mandela, who was 95, led the peaceful emancipation of South Africa from a white minority government in in the early '90s, after spending 27 years as a prisoner of that government. Explaining to the New York Times how how he'd managed to live and serve, undeterred by anger or anguish, he said, "Hating clouds the mind. It gets in the way of strategy. Leaders cannot afford to hate." As Jody Rosen points out, in 1999, Mandela appeared onstage with Johnny Clegg, a UK-born, South Africa-residing musician who played with a bi-racial band throughout the '80s. After Clegg plays "Asimbonanga" ("we haven't seen him"), a 1987 song which called for Mandela's release, Mandela takes the mic. "It is music and dancing that makes me at peace with the world. And at peace with myself," he says. Then he sweetly chides the crowd's back rows for not moving enough, and asks the band to start again.

Daily Inspiration: Nelson Mandela