'Rainbow Nation' mourners swarm Mandela's mansion
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| Mourners from Nigeria, sing outside the home of former president Nelson Mandela in Johannesburg, South Africa, Monday, Dec. 9, 2013. Along a street lined with walled mansions shaded by graceful jacaranda trees, mourners black and white by the thousands rubbed shoulders Monday outside the villa where Nelson Mandela died, placing flower bouquets and condolence notes on top of piles already knee-high. Others danced while singing praise for the anti-apartheid leader _ a vivid example of the “Rainbow Nation” unity of race-blind multiculturalism championed by Mandela for South Africa. |
JOHANNESBURG
(AP) -- Along a street lined with walled mansions shaded by graceful
jacaranda trees, mourners, black and white, by the thousands rubbed
shoulders Monday outside the villa where Nelson Mandela died, placing
flower bouquets and condolence notes on top of piles already knee-high.
Others danced while singing praise for the anti-apartheid leader - a
vivid example of the "Rainbow Nation" unity of race-blind
multiculturalism championed by Mandela for South Africa.
As
players for the nation's top Kaizer Chiefs soccer team were escorted
inside the villa in one of the city's most exclusive neighborhoods to
grieve with Mandela's relatives, hospital receptionist Nelson Jabulani
Dube said the crowd of black, white and mixed race mourners transforming
a street corner into a makeshift shrine was evidence that Mandela
succeeded in breaking down barriers in a country defined for generations
by race-based hate.
"It's all because of him,
because he forgave the enemies at that time, they no longer are the
enemies," said Dube, 33. "For me the outcome is really stunning and
unites us, and what you see here is a reflection of that."
Michele
Marija, an elderly white Johannesburg resident, spontaneously hugged a
black woman, calling her "my sister," after the woman made space for her
so she could get a better view of the shrine. Then Marija's daughters
also hugged the woman.
Marija insisted that
her daughters and granddaughters visit Mandela's house, saying his
decision to forgive his white oppressors after being released from 27
years in jail saved South Africa from brutal bloodshed.
"We
could easily have had a revolution and here we are now all living
happily together which is something like a miracle and it's all due to
Madiba," Marija said, referring to Mandela by his clan name.
Diane
Mathabatha, a 60-year-old member of Mandela's Xhosa tribe visiting
Mandela's house with her grandsons, remembered in the 1990s being bent
on revenge along with much of her generation until Mandela got out of
prison and said that would be wrong.
"He came
out and embraced everybody and taught us that, you know, sometimes with
your enemy, when you bring him closer, it's much better than fighting
him," Mathabatha said.
Mncedisi Xego, related
to Mathabatha by marriage, came to the shrine with his wife Lesley, who
is white, and their children. Their 9-year marriage wouldn't exist
without Mandela, he said, adding that their children needed to see the
shrine.
"It was very important for them to
come and say `thank you' to Mandela because today, they can have the
kind of lifestyle that they chose," Xego said. "There are no
restrictions in terms of where they can go, which schools they can go
to, whom they can be friends with, who they can marry."
As
mourners danced in a circle singing "Mandiba, you are the holy man" in
the Sesotho language, retired white school principal Johann Nel struck
up a conversation with 29-year-old medical salesman Ricardo Louw,
recounting how he managed to keep his marriage to his black wife Maria
secret during apartheid.
Nel and his wife
Maria married in Swaziland because apartheid prohibited mixed marriages.
She went to live in Mozambique, and he drove there weekends to visit.
They went on to have two children, but in 1975 worried that he wouldn't
be able to visit anymore as Mozambique neared independence from
Portugal.
So they decided to smuggle her and
the children back into South Africa so they could live separately, but
secretly visit each other.
To make it by South
African border police, Maria Nel got out of the car and walked through
on her own since she would have been prevented from entering with her
husband. He laid down their baby boy on the floor of the passenger seat
covered with newspapers and had their 3-year-old son lie on back seat
covered with a jacket and clothes.
Johann Nel
cracked his window to slip paperwork to the border control police
stating he was the only person in the car, praying the officer wouldn't
demand to look under the newspapers or the clothing.
"But it was as if God had blinded that policeman's eyes," he said.
The
officer waved him through and he reunited down the road with his wife.
They lived separately in secret until they could finally be together as a
family until more than a decade later.
Louw,
who is black and has a white girlfriend, listened in awe and then said
that Mandela's work and legacy "spared us those kind of frustrations."
"She says if it wasn't for this man we wouldn't be together," Louw said.
But
some South Africans who came to pay their respect outside Mandela's
home said the gathering was meaningful but a rare kind of event in the
country.
Yvette Babb, a 30-year-old white
economist who decided with her work companions to do a jog by the house
during their lunch break, said the last time she has seen something
similar was when the country banded together as one during the 2010
World Cup. "It's something we don't experience often enough."
