Dear Editor,
It is difficult to accept that Nelson Mandela has died, although we knew of his deteriorating health for years. His presence will probably always be with the majority of us. His accomplished life and contribution to humanity is a life that most of us would want to live.
In the turbulent and eventful 20th and 21st centuries we have wished for the coming of an outstanding human being, almost a Messiah, to appear in our technologically exploding world, which is filled with national and international conflict and the threat of nuclear and natural annihilation.
Mandela had the qualities of distinction that few men in history have portrayed and achieved. Among these qualities were leadership, intelligence, grace, personality and dignity.
He made the smallest and most lowly person feel special and people thus wanted to be in his presence.
He took his country out of an abyss that no one would have thought was possible. His exemplary mark on a country, its people and the world at large is arguably unmatched.
We can only hope that his legacy would be that he led his country and a continent on a path to a deserved prominence, devoid of the oppression, tribal warfare, violence and greed of its leaders that had gripped it for centuries.
Also, he would have made us aware of the human ability to conquer severe adversity. Farewell, my hero.
Yours faithfully,
Conrad Barrow
