On his 89th birthday,
Mandela brought together a group of renowned
statesmen, human rights advocates and others
to form an organization known as "The
Elders", which have since tackled,
among other issues, environmental degradation
and climate change.
Nelson Mandela, widely regarded as the father
of the struggle for equality in South Africa
and across the continent, died on 5 December
2013 at the age of 95.
A visionary leader,
Mandela became South Africa's first black
president after spending 27 years in prison
on charges of crimes against the country's
former apartheid government. After his release
in 11000, Mandela continued his activism,
speaking widely against poverty, inequality
and the indignity of racism.
"Never, never and
never again shall it be that this beautiful
land will again experience the oppression
of one by another and suffer the indignity
of being the skunk of the world", he
famously said at his presidential inauguration
in 1994.
He continued: "To
my compatriots, I have no hesitation in
saying that each one of us is as intimately
attached to the soil of this beautiful country
as are the famous jacaranda trees of Pretoria
and the mimosa trees of the bushveld.
Each time one of us
touches the soil of this land, we feel a
sense of personal renewal. The national
mood changes as the seasons change. We are
moved by a sense of joy and exhilaration
when the grass turns green and the flowers
bloom."
Calling for "work,
bread, water and salt for all" - in
effect, the equitable distribution of resources
in his homeland - he demonstrated the seeds
what would later grow into a staunch commitment
to the cause of sustainable development.
On 28 August, 2002,
for example, Mandela delivered the keynote
address at the event inaugurating South
Africa's WaterDome, in parallel with the
landmark World Summit on Sustainable Development
in Johannesburg. During the event, stakeholders
from public and private organizations in
the water sector launched and exhibited
water-related activities, policies and new
technologies.
"That our government
has made significant progress in bringing
potable water nearer to so many more people
than was previously the case, I rate amongst
the most important achievements of democracy
in our country", said Mandela, in the
speech which would become known as "No
Water, No Future".
Mandela was also deeply
connected to the earth on a personal level.
He was an avid gardener, including throughout
his long imprisonment.
While at Pollsmoor prison,
between 1982 and 1988, he argued for the
right to plant a garden on the prison's
rooftop, and was finally permitted to plant
vegetables - "onions, eggplant, cabbage,
cauliflower, beans, spinach, carrots, cucumbers,
broccoli, beetroot, lettuce, tomatoes, peppers,
strawberries, and much more" - in 44-gallon
drums which had been cut in half, lugged
to the rooftop and filled with soil.
On this victory, he
later wrote in his autobiography, A Long
Walk to Freedom: "To plant a seed,
watch it grow, to tend it and then harvest
it, offered a simple but enduring satisfaction.
The sense of being the custodian of this
small patch of earth offered a small taste
of freedom."
On his 89th birthday,
Mandela brought together a group of renowned
statesmen, human rights advocates and others
to form an organization known as "The
Elders", which have since tackled,
among other issues, environmental degradation
and climate change.
