The End of a Chapter for Africa

Spanish Translation of the Week

South Africans have long known that the day would come when they would have say farewell to Nelson Mandela, the man who built a nation from the ashes of apartheid. This was especially clear following a stint of repeated hospitalizations and the 95 year olds increasing physical frailty, Now that Madiba has reached his final resting place, the time has come for South Africans to learn how to live without their paternal figure, their mentor, without the reference of Mandela, who had been away from public life for almost a decade, choosing instead to live modestly in his home town.

Hace tiempo que los sudafricanos habían asumido que algún día tendrían que dar el adiós definitivo a Nelson Mandela, a fuerza de contemplar en sus repetidas hospitalizaciones la absoluta fragilidad física y el ensimismamiento del hombre que construyó una nación desde las cenizas del apartheid. Con ese momento, aquel en que Madiba, al borde de los 95 años, ha ganado en paz el descanso final, ha llegado para Sudáfrica la hora crítica de aprender a vivir sin la figura paterna, sin el mentor y referente que Mandela seguía siendo, pese a llevar casi una década alejado de la vida pública, en la modesta casa de su terruño.

This article has been translated from Spanish. Click here to read the original version on El Pais.

Not everyone can change the fate of a country and transform the perception of an entire continent. The former guerrilla became the first black president of South Africa in 1994, after having spent almost thirty years in prison. He was known for his magnanimity and patience, and for his commitment to the people. All of these attributes helped him to avoid bloodshed and to transform South Africa into a source of light for the rest continent.  Under Mandela's leadership, South Africans patiently waited for their moment to rightfully assume their place in history.

However, the South Africa that bids Mandela farewell is vulnerable. Today's political leaders have not inherited Mandela's passion and moral superiority. While Madiba devoted his life to reconciling grievances within a racially divided nation, successive presidents, who have all been leaders of the African National Congress (ANC) party, are set to lead South Africa to an uncertain destiny. Thabo Mbeki's ignorance, for example, led to the death of millions of people, as he tragically considered that HIV was invention of white colonialism. Then there's the proven corruption and authoritarianism of Jacob Zuma, the current head of state, a man who presumably will be re-elected in next year's elections.

The ANC party has ruled South Africa since the first multiracial elections in 1994.  Although most people still view it as Mandela's party, the party of liberation, it has in fact become a conglomerate of interests and ideologies made-up of the newly rich, black nationalists, populists, liberals and union members. The nature of a single party state, the disputes between members and the rampant corruption in South Africa – these conditions do not differ much from the armed struggles in Africa that have shaped the transition to more or less, although usually less - democratic governments.

For the first time, almost twenty years after the end of apartheid, South Africa has a black middle class, and many who live a life of privilege in the most developed country on the continent. But South Africa's education system is in ruins, the gap between the poor and the rich is one of the largest in the world, its crucial mining industry is shaken by strikes and clashes, and growing unemployment and violence continue in the country of 53 million. The serious social and economic problems that South Africa faces require a difference ideological approach from the ANC.

Nelson Mandela, the most important of all national myths, has departed quietly, just like he lived quietly after returning dignity to South Africa. It is time for his countrymen to uphold his important legacy and prevent the death of the dream that he so valiantly fought for.

Article translated by Natalia Diaz, Staff Intern for the Mexico Institute at the Wilson Center.

Photo credit: A poem for the former South African President Nelson Mandela outside Parliament in Cape Town. Attributed to GovernmentZA on Flickr/Commons.