US Loses Last National Hero

The country does not treat Mandela as a foreigner, but more as a reference to its own national perception.

Among the photos currently adorning the Oval Office, there is one, taken in 2005, where Barack Obama is bent over Nelson Mandela — who is seated on a couch, his mobility already limited — to hear the first and last pieces of advice he would receive from him directly. He did not meet him as president: When Obama traveled to South Africa this summer, Mandela was extremely ill. However, this photo taken eight years ago suffices in demonstrating the enormous influence Mandela had on Obama and the United States, which was fundamental to the defeat of apartheid and the creation of the legend.

Next week, Obama, his wife Michelle, and the other U.S. presidents who are still alive will fly to South Africa to attend Mandela’s funeral. Never before has the main world power demonstrated such a degree of involvement in and affection toward the passing of an international figure. It shows that the U.S. does not treat Mandela as a foreigner, but more as a reference to its own national perception. Mandela is not only a hero to the South African community — a substitute for Martin Luther King, Jr. — but also an emblem of the idea of freedom, on which this society is based.

However, it has not always been so. One of Obama’s predecessors, Ronald Reagan, fought to the point of exhaustion to maintain the apartheid government. Intense public support and firm parliamentary action — headed by the late senator, Ted Kennedy — were necessary to defeat Reagan, and the U.S. approved sanctions against the Pretoria regime in 1986, which led to its demise.

This required an exceptional act in North American politics: With a combination of Democratic and Republican votes, Congress achieved a majority capable of invalidating the veto Reagan had stubbornly imposed on the sanctions against apartheid.

For Reagan and many Americans at the time, Mandela was a Communist, who headed a terrorist organization, the African National Congress. As a result, some historians have suspicions that the CIA tried to capture him at various times. What is certain is that the ANC was on the terrorist group list. Mandela and some of his colleagues were declared terrorist targets until 2008, when, as a birthday gift to him, the U.S. government decided to formally exclude them. The secretary of state at the time, Condoleeza Rice, and current Secretary of State John Kerry, who was senator then, concurred that the U.S. had put an end to one of the most embarrassing episodes of its history with this gesture.

Today, everything is very different. The moment the news of Mandela’s death was announced, thousands of people passed by the South African embassy, on Massachusetts Avenue in Washington, to express their pain and thoughts for the man who had passed away.

Losing Mandela has impacted the whole world, but it has left a particularly big hole in the United States, where around 14 percent of the population is black, of whom the majority have ancestors who were slaves sent from Africa. This is also the only country outside Africa governed by a black president with an African name.

All this makes Mandela a figure who can stand at the top of the great national heroes. With the loss of Martin Luther King, only Mandela was indisputably able to unite the African-American community, with the possible exception of Mohammed Alí.

Furthermore, Mandela’s achievements that made him a legend in the U.S. lie in his message. Far from the suspicions of his radicalism, which came from the obtuse minds of those who persecuted him in the past, what has survived of Mandela’s example is his ability to pardon, reconcile, and tirelessly defend his ideas, but with the wisdom to back down when the situation calls for it.

Today, these lessons are more necessary than anything in a country where polarization and inequality are growing, as the economic gap is increasing, separating not only blacks and whites, but also another community, where, in this case, the subjects are of different races: Hispanics are also fighting with strength for the recognition of their rights and full integration.

Just as Mandela served as stimulus to the generation that participated in the fight for civil rights for decades, today, he is an example to those who understand that this fight is not over. “Young Afro-Americans who look at Nelson Mandela should view him as someone who sacrificed himself and surrendered his life to make things better for everyone and eliminate segregation in his country,”* states Harry Shelton, director in Washington for the NAACP, the largest black organization in the United States. “People pay a price for defending their convictions and, sometimes, such as in Mandela’s case, the price is very high. Young people need to know this and should be conscious of what others offer them in the fight for their rights, and it will determine the way that they will control the world and live their lives,”* says Willis Loden, president of Operation Crossroad Africa, the first American group fighting for equality.

This week, Obama gave a difficult speech, denouncing the increase in inequality, which is not viewed much in terms of race but social class today. There is no doubt that the battle for a better society is in full force. It will probably always be like this. The search for justice, just like any other aspect of human perfection, is endless. However, today, the U.S. lacks — the world lacks — a figure able to lead this battle. The world has become more global and collective. Individuals fade away in a more horizontal structure. However, Mandela — like Gandhi, Martin Luther King, or John Kennedy — brings to the forefront the necessity for individual leaders capable of galvanizing the feelings of a society, of an era.

Despite its strength as a national community, the United States has always recognized the importance of national heroes, from its Founding Fathers to the Obama of “Yes We Can.” With all its errors and doubts, the work of governing then deprived Obama of this status. Adopted as their own hero, Mandela will always live in the pantheon of national legends with no one able to succeed them on the horizon.

*Editor’s note: Correctly translated, this quote could not be verified.