Shakespeare helped to sustain South Africa’s great black leader Nelson Mandela, who has died at 95, during his 27 years held in prison by the apartheid government.
Nick Fogg, twice Mayor of Marlborough and Shakespeare scholar, told Marlborough News Online today: “I never had the privilege of meeting Nelson Mandela.
“He was, of course, a member of the Inter-Action Council of ex-Heads of State and Government, to which I presented a paper last May, but he was too aged and infirm to attend by then.
“My friend Roger Pringle, director of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, always had the unfulfilled ambition to get Nelson Mandela as guest-of-honour at the annual ‘Immortal Memory’ luncheon in Stratford-upon-Avon.
“As well as his deep faith, it was his copy of the Complete Works of the Bard which helped sustain him during his years of incarceration. That book, smuggled into his prison cell, featured in last year’s ‘Shakespeare: Staging the World’ exhibition at the British Museum.
“Mandela’s favourite Shakespeare lines came from ‘Julius Caesar:
Cowards die many times before their death.
The valiant die but once.
Councillor Fogg added: “Those lines represent his indomitable spirit. He is an example of Christian forgiveness to us all. He more no malice towards those who had treated him with great injustice, but sought to heal wounds and build a just society.
“What an inspiration!”
Marlborough’s Rector, the Rev Canon Andrew Studdert-Kennedy, told Marlborough News Online:
“However fluent and fulsome the tributes that are rightly being paid, what they all acknowledge is that Nelson Mandela’s life and achievements speak for themselves — his manner and his deeds render commentary and tribute almost redundant.
“In a time of growing distrust with institutions and individual leaders, Nelson Mandela’s example helps restore trust not just in political processes but also in human nature itself. For if a fellow human being can demonstrate such courage and forgiveness, does that not suggest that we all have the capacity to do the same?
“So the best tribute we can pay to such a great figure is try to act like he did when we find ourselves wronged and to be grateful for the freedoms for which he fought. That means imagining what it is like to be the other person by trying to see the world through a different set of eyes, and it means not taking such freedoms, like the right to vote, for granted.
“So the next time we have elections of any kind, make sure we vote and whatever vote we cast can be a vote for Mandela himself!
“The best words of all belong to Mandela himself from The Long Walk to Freedom:
‘No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.’
Marlborough’s Mayor, Councillor Guy Loosmore, paid tribute too.
“He was a statesman among statesman who did what was right for his nation and made the world a better place despite all the sacrifices he personally made,” he told Marlborough News Online.
Mandela’s charm, his quiet manner in dealing with extremely complicated situations , his patience, perseverance and belief in facing all fears, all challenges with great dignity is an example all of us.
“We can learn from his approach, individually and as nation states.”
And he added: “Mandela’s death is one of those sad things you hoped would never happen yet was of course inevitable. But every time you think of his name Mandela comes up smiling.
“That is something very special. He was a very special man. I would have loved to have met him.”