ON February 10, 1990 I departed the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA), Timehri on a flight to London. I arrived many hours after at Heathrow International Airport on February 11 (the next morning). It was indeed a long journey, as I talked with my father face to face on family issues.On the television, we both viewed with awe from my father’s home in West London, the release of Nelson “Madiba’ Mandela. I can never forget the feeling I got sitting with my father who also made history, when he became the first Black Mayor of Hammersmith, London in 1975. At that time I never thought that this man Nelson, would in four years, become the first black president of a divided South Africa.

Today, I went into my library to search through scores of books to find the authorised biography of Nelson Mandela – ‘High Than Hope’ first published in 1988 in Johannesburg, South Africa: then again in 1990 by Hamish Hamilton – London.
Permit me to quote from this epic composition written by Fatima Meer – page 11 Nelson told the court at his trial in 1962, quote: “Many years ago, when I was a boy brought up in my village in the Transkei, I listened to the elders of the tribe telling stories of the good old days, before the arrival of the white man. Then, our people lived peacefully under the democratic rule of their Kings and moved freely and confidently up and down the country without let or hindrance. Then the country was our own. We occupied the land, the forest, and the rivers: we extracted the mineral wealth beneath the soil and all the riches of this beautiful land. We set up and operated our own government, we controlled our own armies and we organised our own trade and commerce. The elders would tell tales of the wars fought by our ancestors in defence of the Father-land, as well as the acts of valour by our generals and soldiers during those epic days.
“The structure and organisation of early African societies in this country fascinated me very much and greatly influenced the evolution of my political outlook. The land, then the main means of production, belong to the whole tribe; there was no individual ownership whatsoever. There were no classes, no rich or poor, or no exploitation of man by man. All men were free and equal and this was the foundation of government. Recognition of this general principle found expression in the constitution of the council, variously called, imbizo or pitso or kgotla, which governs the affairs of the tribe. The council was so completely democratic that all members of the tribe could participate in its deliberations. Chiefs and subjects, warrior and medicine man, all took part and endeavoured to influence its decisions. It was so weighty and influential a body that no step of any importance could ever be taken by the tribe without reference to it.
“There was much in such a society that was primitive and insecure and it certainly could never measure up to the demands of the present epoch. But, in such a society are contained the seeds of evolutionary democracy in which none will be held in slavery or servitude, and in which poverty, want and insecurity shall be no more. This is the inspiration which, even today, inspires me and my colleagues in our political struggles. End of quote. November 7, 1962.”
Is it not Jesus Christ who taught us to forgive our enemies and to pray for those that despitefully use us? One has to be in the image of God and in the likeness of Christ to truly forgive.

APOSTLE VANRICK BERESFORD