It’s been clear for a while that Mandela’s life was drawing inexorably to a gentle and dignified close. But it’s sad nonetheless. I can’t pretend that I ever met him, although I stood about 2 yards way when he visited the FCO. But he influenced my life massively. I knew little about the horror of apartheid as I was growing up. But, when I was 13, I swent to a march in London. It was, as much as anything, a chance to go shopping on Oxford Street.
But I gradually became a regular, and a committed anti-apartheid campaigner. Those marches influenced my politics. They influenced my taste in music – from UB40 through Motown to Labi Siffre. And they influenced my career. Diplomacy, when we get it right, is about making the world a better, more secure and, I hope, a fairer place.
I also see a strong parallel between India and South Africa. Most observers were very negative about India’s continued existence as a democracy after Independence. In the same way many critics predicted a very hard landing – or worse – in South Africa. Much of the credit must go to that first crop of leaders – led by Nehru in India, and Mandela in South Africa, who shepherded their countries through those fragile and difficult early days, leading by example under the most difficult circumstances, sometimes by force of personality alone. For all their faults, both countries remain political democracies, important regional and international political and military players and, of course, key economic partners.
So farewell Madiba, and thank you for the influence you had on my life. And thank you for showing us what greatness really looked like.