Richard Eskow: How Shall We Remember Nelson Mandela?

Richard Eskow @ Campaign for America's Future - After democracy came, they tore down the prison where freedom fighters were held and used the bricks to build the nation’s first Constitutional Court.

Visitors to South Africa are often struck by the depth and breadth of that country’s affection for Nelson Mandela. I still have the newspaper I bought at a supermarket checkout counter there on the day of Mandela’s planned release from the hospital. The headline uses Mandela’s clan name and reads, “Madiba expected to return home today.”

20 years ago it would have been unthinkable to imagine kind words about an ANC leader, much less the use of an African clan name, in a supermarket tabloid. Times change.

But Nelson Mandela wasn’t a “personality” politician. He was the leader of a movement and a model for the world. We’ll be learning from his example long after the eulogies have ended.  Read more.