"Madiba’s" Inaugural Speech on 10th May 1994
Based on Barack Obama’s courageous speech on 28th August 2008,
which echoed Martin Luther King’s powerful " I have a dream" speech
from exactly 45 years ago, let’s recall what a ‘living legend’ told his
country when he became President of the Republic of South Africa just
over 14 years ago. These were truly MAGIC MOMENTS burnt into my
own heart and most importantly… THE DREAM CAME TRUE… :
"Your Majesties, Your Highnesses,
Distinguished Guests, Comrades and Friends:
Today, all of us do, by our presence here, and
by our celebrations in other parts of our country
and the world, confer glory and hope to
newborn liberty.
Out of the experience of an extraordinary
human disaster that lasted too long, must be
born a society of which all humanity will be proud.
Our daily deeds as ordinary South Africans must
produce an actual South African reality that will
reinforce humanity’s belief in justice, strengthen
its confidence in the nobility of the human soul and sustain all our hopes for a
glorious life for all.
All this we owe both to ourselves and to the peoples of the world who
are so well represented here today.
To my compatriots, I have no hesitation in saying that each one of us is
as intimately attached to the soil of this beautiful country as are the
famous jacaranda trees of Pretoria and the mimosa trees of the bushveld.
Each time one of us touches the soil of this land, we feel a sense of
personal renewal. The national mood changes as the seasons change.
We are moved by a sense of joy and exhilaration when the grass turns
green and the flowers bloom.
That spiritual and physical oneness we all share with this common
homeland explains the depth of the pain we all carried in our hearts as
we saw our country tear itself apart in a terrible conflict, and as we saw it
spurned, outlawed and isolated by the peoples of the world, precisely
because it has become the universal base of the pernicious ideology and
practice of racism and racial oppression.
We, the people of South Africa, feel fulfilled that humanity has taken us
back into its bosom, that we, who were outlaws not so long ago, have
today been given the rare privilege to be host to the nations of the world
on our own soil.
We thank all our distinguished international guests for having come to take
possession with the people of our country of what is, after all, a common
victory for justice, for peace, for human dignity.
We trust that you will continue to stand by us as we tackle the challenges
of building peace, prosperity, non-sexism, non-racialism and democracy.
We deeply appreciate the role that the masses of our people and their
political mass democratic, religious, women, youth, business, traditional and
other leaders have played to bring about this conclusion. Not least among
them is my Second Deputy President, the Honorable F.W. de Klerk.
We would also like to pay tribute to our security forces, in all their ranks,
for the distinguished role they have played in securing our first democratic
elections and the transition to democracy, from blood-thirsty forces which
still refuse to see the light.
The time for the healing of the wounds has come.
The moment to bridge the chasms that divide us has come.
The time to build is upon us.
We have, at last, achieved our political emancipation. We pledge ourselves
to liberate all our people from the continuing bondage of poverty,
deprivation, suffering, gender and other discrimination.
We succeeded to take our last steps to freedom in conditions of relative
peace. We commit ourselves to the construction of a complete, just and
lasting peace.
We have triumphed in the effort to implant hope in the breasts of the
millions of our people. We enter into a covenant that we shall build the
society in which all South Africans, both black and white, will be able to
walk tall, without any fear in their hearts, assured of their inalienable right
to human dignity–a rainbow nation at peace with itself and the world.
As a token of its commitment to the renewal of our country, the new Interim
Government of National Unity will, as a matter of urgency, address the issue
of amnesty for various categories of our people who are currently serving
terms of imprisonment.
We dedicate this day to all the heroes and heroines in this country and the
rest of the world who sacrificed in many ways and surrendered their lives
so that we could be free.
Their dreams have become reality. Freedom is their reward.
We are both humbled and elevated by the honor and privilege that you,
the people of South Africa, have bestowed on us, as the first President
of a united, democratic, non-racial and non-sexist South Africa, to lead our
country out of the valley of darkness.
We understand it still that there is no easy road to freedom.
We know it well that none of us acting alone can achieve success.
We must therefore act together as a united people, for national
reconciliation, for nation building, for the birth of a new world.
Let there be justice for all.
Let there be peace for all.
Let there be work, bread, water and salt for all.
Let each know that for each the body, the mind and the soul have
been freed to fulfill themselves.
Never, never and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again
experience the oppression of one by another and suffer the indignity of
being the skunk of the world.
Let freedom reign.
The sun shall never set on so glorious a human achievement!
God bless Africa!
Thank you. "
Somehow, even the Speech of Chief Seattle in 1855 comes to mind
and not surprisingly, Madiba’s greatest joy is watching the sunset with
the music of Haendel or Tchaikovsky… LIVING THE DREAM !
(Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was born in Transkei, South Africa on
18 July, 1918. His father was Chief Henry Mandela of the Tembu Tribe.
Mandela qualified in law in 1942 at the University of Witwatersrand.)
, Bianca Gubalke
