John, good point about the universal need for good leaderhsip.

Jonathan, mentioning the TRC you are touching on such a pivotal issue and one that is very close to my heart. My missiology professor in the early nineties was Piet Meiring, the only white Afrikaans member of the TRC.

Maybe you know about the following incident but other readers might also find it inspiring. Here Piet Meiring relates one of the good news stories of the commission: http://rec.gospelcom.net/MB-April00meiring.html

Although I was not a policeman or a soldier and although I never regarded myself a racist I still felt a heavy sense of guilt because it was my people who created apartheid and my church that sanctioned it theologically.

One of the most liberating moments for me was when I attended a week-end seminar by Mercy Ministries called Healing the wounds of ethnic division http://www.givengain.com/cgi-bin/giga.cgi?cmd=cause_dir_news_item&news_id=34783&search=&cause_id=1375

There I had the opportunity to stand before a number of black Christians confessing the sins of my forefathers and confessing that I had done nothing to speak out against the injustices of apartheid. I could also wash their feet and ask them for forgiveness.

It was one of the most emotional experiences in my life and also one of the most liberating moments. I will never forget the way that old man was weeping when he embraced me and forgave me.

Cobus, I think the experience I described above is perhaps one example of the type of things we can do make Madiba’s legacy part of our culture and our identity. Of course we need more than that but this is a good place to start.

In the weeks running up to the American Election some have said that maybe Obama can grow to become the type of leader Mandela was. So maybe the question we need to ask is how do we make the legacy of Mandela part of our culture, of our identity…

I think your observations of him moving past the injustice of the past is huge.