Remembering Nelson

The public services are over. The singing and dancing are dying down. The news crews are moving on to the next big thing.

After acres of newsprint and television interviews, now starts the long, slow, developing assessment of the life and legacy of Madiba (his Xhosa clan name), Tata (father), or as the rest of the world knows him, Nelson Mandela.

Obituaries and biographies are funny things. It's often been noted that the first to be produced are by enthusiastic supporters who write their lives as bordering on sainthood. The rough edges of their personalities are smoothed over. Their mistakes are ignored and downplayed. Those who have dirt to spill, keep silent in the general atmosphere of adulation that follows the death of a "great one". And then - perhaps 10-20 years later - comes the reaction, when critical and iconoclastic articles and biographies appear, and the difficulties that their policies have created mature and come to light.

It's only after 40 or 50 years, some historians suggest, that a balanced assessment is available. It's the biographical "sweet spot" where enough time has passed for perspective, but there are still strong links to reliable witnesses and information. All the secret papers have been released; people feel free to say what they really think, deathbed secrets have been told and shared. And importantly, we see what the long-term legacy looks like.

For now it's enough to say that his life and influence has been remarkable—enduring personal suffering to guide a nation at the brink of self destruction through a radical change with relatively little loss of life. And, unlike many other leaders in Africa and elsewhere, he did not try to cling on to power, take revenge, favour his own tribe or form a dynasty, but promoted forgiveness, healing, democracy and one nationhood. In this respect it is not fanciful to compare him with figures like Ghandi, Jinnah and Lech Walesa.

Like Jesus?

Jimmy Carter was right to squash the suggestion that Mandela could be compared to Jesus though. The question put to him was understandable, given the points of connection, but here's the big difference:

When Jesus died, he was hated and dismissed by all but a tiny group of irrelevant followers. But when the biographies of Jesus were written 40-60 years after his death by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, their mature perspective on his life found him utterly blameless in every regard. And his long-term legacy is undeniable. A third of the planet acknowledges him as the Son of God.

In the coming decades, Mandela will doubtless continue to be seen as a remarkable man but his long-term reputation has not yet been written . The reputation and glory of Jesus, however, will without doubt grow and last forever.