Chinua Achebe
Nelson Mandela
BlackPast.org Blog
Monday, April 15, 2013
The Lions are Leaving Us
By Hazel Singer
Chinua Achebe. Nelson Mandela. Men of courage. Men of integrity. Men who believed, or came to believe, in brains over brawn.
Novelist and intellectual giant Chinua Achebe passed away March 22, 2013. He was not afraid to speak truth to power. He was not afraid to heap scorn on the corrupt politicians of his home country, Nigeria.
He was not afraid to chide, and challenge, younger generations for not
working hard enough to effect change in Nigeria. His five works of
fiction are: Things Fall Apart, Arrow of God, No Longer at Ease, A Man
of the People, and Anthills of the Savannah. Lists of speeches and other
writings can be found here.
Nelson Mandela is ailing. Nelson Mandela as a man and as an historical figure has no equal. Born in South Africa,
he has spent his life working to rid that country of the system of
apartheid, a system designed to keep Blacks and Coloureds, and anyone
else The Nationalist Party deemed a threat, out of mainstream life. A
system designed to give Whites maximum success and access to the
bounty of that beautiful country.
A system that ultimately crippled the
hearts and souls of all the people who lived within its virtual and
actual prisons. A system that finally imploded and the people were led
out of the quagmire with the steady hand of Nelson Mandela. Read Mandela's Long Walk to Freedom.
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