Friday afternoon one of the greatest humans to have ever graced the Earth passed away when Nelson Mandela died.
After years of fighting health from old age it became clear in 2013 that we were eventually going to lose a person who has became so synonymous with the ideals that we wish the world possessed. Mandela's fight to end the apartheid regime in South Africa and the years he spent in South African prison to see its end is one of the most inspiring life stories you can get and because of that there is nothing I can do with my column this week but to tribute a man who everyone should take time this week to remember as they go about their lives.
Nelson Mandela showed that the colour of your skin is not important, but at the same time the large bulk of his life was spent being told that it did matter. He was supposed to remain locked up in captivity because he did not believe that his country of South Africa should be racially divided due to British colonization, his fight for freedom before becoming president of South Africa is one of civilazation's greatest triumphs and his lifelong mission to bring democracy to his people paid off by being the first democratically elected President of the coutnry in 1994.
Still what sticks in my mind most, or rather what translates this to a sports section in a Saskatchewan newspaper is how once elected Mandela brought together South Africa through one of its most racially divisive heirlooms in its national rugby team. By hosting the 1996 Rugby World Cup, Mandela took the risk that people of all colours would embrace South Africa's mostly all-white national rugby team as it was one of their own and that the event would run smoothly.
In the end as many know from ESPN's fantastic documentary and the Morgan Freeman starred move Inviticus, Mandela's faith in sport as an unifying tool paid off. The South Africans won the 1996 World Cup and it served as one of the turning points in a fractured country that made enough progress in Mandela's two decades of freedom that in 2010 the biggest event in the world came to South Africa when the World Cup was hosted in the country.
Unlike in 1996 when racial divide was the story, the story in 2010 was more about the colourful diversity adding to the event rather than distracting from it due to racial tensions. I will never forget the tens of thousands of South Africans exploding in jubilation during the opening game when the hosts took an early lead in the first half, vuvezela's and all celebrating as one.
I was not old enough to appreciate Mandela in the way many have this week, but through history and the final moments of Mandela's life, including his final public appearance at that very World Cup it was impossible to not consider him one of the most important people to have existed. Rest in peace to a man who while his life proved how insignificant the things we care about are, showed that one of our biggest distractions can unify the world, even if it is just a silly little game. May you never be forgotten.
