Young people should line our streets to welcome the greatest liberator of humanity since Abraham Lincoln, argues Deaglán de Bréadún, Foreign Affairs Correspondent
In an age that's short of heroes, Nelson Mandela may be the only one left. Fidel Castro locks up non-violent dissidents, Robert Mugabe brutalises his political opponents, Bill Clinton is stained by sleaze, Yasser Arafat has been sidelined. Only Mandela, one month short of his 85th birthday, remains secure on his pedestal.
Shortly after his Irish engagements, the former president of South Africa is due in London's Savoy Hotel, where the rich and famous will queue up to shake his hand and exchange a few polite words with the great man, paying £15,000 each for the privilege. French actress, Juliette Binoche, is reported to be one of 30 well-heeled admirers who have paid for this exclusive audience with Mandela, the proceeds of which go to the orphans of AIDS victims in Africa. It's an example of the work of the Nelson Mandela Foundation which takes up much of his time these days.
Such a glittering event is another indication, if one were needed, of Mandela's status as the most revered human being alive today. David Beckham also shook hands with him recently: one star to another. The line-up for his scheduled appearance at the Croke Park Special Olympics World Games opening features U2 and the Corrs.
But in a culture that is often marked by shallowness and hype, Nelson Mandela is no Polo-mint celebrity. He is a man of real substance who liberated his people and reconciled oppressor and oppressed in a peaceful, stable and democratic South Africa.
Ireland will stand still for his words during his visit here. This is the most eloquent leader of the downtrodden since the late Martin Luther King, whom he may well decide to quote.
Mandela talks the talk, but in the past he walked the walk, serving 27 years in prison, many of them in solitary confinement. There were no rock stars or movie idols on Robben Island, where he did most of his time. Instead, he had for company fellow-revolutionaries such as Walter Sisulu, who originally brought Mandela into the movement and died only last month.
It's an indication of Mandela's eminence that so many people admire him who would not necessarily admire each other.
Long a hero to the Left and liberals, who campaigned against the apartheid system of systematic discrimination, he is even admired by elements on the Right, who concede he engineered a successful transition from white minority rule to genuine democracy and averted the chaos and race war that everyone feared. His recent opposition to the Iraq War showed he still had not lost his radical edge.
Next week he will receive an honorary doctorate of laws from NUI Galway, the latest in a long list of awards and distinctions, chief among them the Nobel Peace Prize, which he received jointly in 1993 with the then-leader of South Africa's whites, F.W. de Klerk. Friday's conferring will be broadcast on the web at www.nuigalway.ie/mandela representing the first live "webcast" from the university.
Mandela caused a stir during a previous Irish visit in 1990 by suggesting that the British government should negotiate with the IRA to end the "mutual slaughter" in Northern Ireland.
He got little thanks at the time for suggesting the elements of what became known as the peace process.
Mandela was never a pacifist and, after the infamous Sharpeville massacre of 1961, he became the first commander-in-chief of Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation), the military wing of the African National Congress. He had been assiduously promoting non-violent action prior to that, but the gunning-down of 69 peaceful protesters forced him to rethink his strategy.
Fortunately for Mandela's cause, the violent activities of Umkhonto we Sizwe did not attract much attention internationally over the years. Victimhood is an essential prerequisite for a successful liberation struggle in the modern era and the Afrikaner regime bestowed that on black South Africans with freehanded cruelty, e.g., in the notorious attacks on schoolchildren in the Soweto township in 1976, when 600 youngsters were killed.
South Africa's apartheid rulers made themselves the undisputed bad guys in the eyes of the world, with resultant economic, sports and cultural boycotts. Remember the odium which attached to rock musicians who performed to whites-only audiences in Sun City?
Even in a small, faraway country such as Ireland, South Africa could be a turbulent issue. The all-white Springbok rugby team was met by thousands of demonstrators and, when a group of Dunnes Stores' workers went on strike after refusing to handle South African produce, it led to a Government import ban.
Mandela's incarceration became an international scandal. A song, Free Nelson Mandela became a hit in the pop charts and the discos. For treating non-whites like pariahs, members of the racist Pretoria regime were becoming lepers on the world stage.
Eventually they had to let him go. Who can forget the famous "Mandela Walk" of February 11th, 1990, when Nelson emerged into a waiting world, hand-in-hand with his wife Winnie? Mandela was 44 when he went into jail; he was now 71.
There were no photos from his prison years and, after wondering what he would look like after all that time, people were pleasantly surprised by his comparatively youthful appearance.
There were surprises for Mandela also in those days: unfamiliar with the latest technology, when a fleece-covered microphone was thrust at him, he did not know what it was.
The rest is history: the negotiations with de Klerk, the ceaseless search for unity with other political parties to ensure a peaceful transition, the widespread violence which suggested the country was spinning out of control. Then the election of 1994: the long lines in the black townships as people queued for hours to exercise a right they had been denied all their lives.
Installed as president, he wisely made reconciliation one of his main priorities. The violent far right was still trying to lure away the whites and it was a test of Mandela's statesmanship to hold the new society together.
A telling anecdote from the following year illustrates his approach. South Africa had made it into the final of the Rugby World Cup which was being held in Johannesburg. Rugby is a favourite game of the sports-mad Afrikaners. According to New York Times journalist Anthony Lewis, Mandela astonished the Springboks by appearing in their locker-room before the game started, wearing the No 6 green jersey of their captain and wishing them luck. In a great upset, the Springboks beat New Zealand for the Cup, 15-12. When the president walked out on the field to present the trophy, still wearing the green jersey, the Afrikaner crowd broke into a chant: "Nelson, Nelson, Nelson."
Rolihlala, Mandela's name in the African Xhosa language, means "someone who brings trouble on himself". It has certainly been true of his political career.
Sadly, his commitment has taken a toll on his personal life, particularly his marriage to Winnie. They were divorced in 1996 and, though still apparently revered by the grassroots, she has been involved in two deeply unsavoury court cases, the first when one of her bodyguards murdered a young teenager, Stompie Moeketsi and, more recently, when she was convicted of fraud and theft and sentenced to five years.
His relationship with his two children has inevitably suffered also because of his long imprisonment.
In 1996, Winnie told the writer Anthony Sampson: "My children still wait for the return of their father. He has never returned, even emotionally. He can no longer relate to the family as a family. He relates to the struggle which has been his lifetime."
Mandela has since married Graca Machel, widow of Samora Machel, former president of Mozambique.
If there is an Irish equivalent of Mandela, it is probably Éamon de Valera, at least inthe years after he decided to end the policy of Dáil abstention and get involved in normal politics. Dev's career showed elements of the same generosity and vision, although he did not have the same level of respect for human rights as Mandela.
While Mandela succeeded in averting a possible race war in post-apartheid South Africa, the still country has many problems both economic and social, not to mention the continuing AIDS pandemic. The lifelong revolutionary proved to be quite pragmatic and cautious in his management of the economy and there is little in today's South Africa to frighten off the most ardent capitalist.
Although there was strong Communist influence in the African National Congress, the collapse of the Soviet system seems to have helped the comrades to accept the harsh realities of survival in a competitive, globalised international economy - at least for a while.
So let the word go forth: Mandela is coming to town. Young people should line the streets, because this is something to tell their children, and their children's children. The greatest liberator of humanity since Abraham Lincoln will shortly be in our midst. Let freedom ring.