In that moment, I began to recount the events of the 1994 elections. I was just 6 years old and I remember how excited my parents were about voting. They hadn't been given the opportunity to vote before and they relished the fact that they were about to be a part of something so revolutionary. Even as a 6 year old, I felt how much this meant to them. I just wished that I could've voted.
When the results of the elections were about to be announced, my parents waited with bated breath. Was this the moment where they would finally be equal to their oppressors? Indeed it was. And as I stood there gazing up at the grins on my parents faces, my little heart swelled with joy. I don't think I fully understood what was really going on in that moment. But their happiness was my happiness.
As I got older, my parents would tell me about all the laws of segregation. How they would get chased from places because of their skin colour. How they had separate toilets and separate seating areas at parks or concerts. How they longed for all the luxuries that were denied to them- all because they looked different. All this seemed so foreign to me. So incomprehensible that I often asked them whether this made them sad. And strangely they said it didn't. They had never known what it was like to mix with other races and as my mom put it,"What you don't know, you don't miss."
The difference now is that we know the difference that Madiba has made. He served a lifetime in prison for all of us. People he never met. And he is the reason we can all exist as a collective. Take a moment to think about that. How many people today would sacrifice their lives for their beliefs? Let alone strangers? No one. And I write that with a heavy heart.
My blog is entitled 'Live. Loud.' and I write this post as a tribute to the life that Nelson Mandela lived. He lived a "loud' life that impacted the lives of many generations and those that are still yet to come. He was vocal about the injustices that were inflicted upon people of colour and if it weren't for his selfless acts of defiance, we would still be a country shrouded in darkness.
Rest in peace my Father.
You are truly an inspiration.
Nelson Mandela: 1918- 2013
