It was Dec. 5, 2013; as I sat down to read the news, I was struck with immediate pain, in utter shock at what I read. Nelson Mandela, the first black south African president—also known as Madiba—had passed away. It wasn’t a surprise. He was 95  years old and in ailing health, but an immediate sense of fear gripped me. What would the world be without Nelson Mandela? 

Now, a year after his death, we have had time to reflect and may be able to answer this question. Mandela’s struggle allowed for the end of an apartheid era in South Africa. According to the Nelson Mandela Foundation, his political involvement began in the 1940s, when he was in his early twenties. His support for the African National Congress began when he irregularly attended meetings, but by 1944 he helped found the ANC Youth League. By 1948, he was elected as the national secretary of the ANCYL. On Nov. 7, 1962, he was sentenced to five years in prison for incitement and leaving the country illegally in order to spread the message of the illegal ANC. He wasn’t released until Feb. 11, 1990, but while still behind bars, Mandela began peace talks with the gradually crumbling apartheid regime.

Mandela was unique because he understood the necessity of working with those who were his perceived enemies. He once expressed: “If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his own language, then it goes to his heart.” He went so far as to learn Afrikaans, the language of the white government leaders while in prison on Robben Island. Following a series of talks with these leaders to end apartheid, Mandela won a Nobel Prize on May 10, 1994, and he was inaugurated as the first black South African president. His persistence allowed for the release of political prisoners and the restoration of political parties. 

 Today, society must turn to Nelson Mandela as a symbol of both overcoming adversity and of the realization that, in order to obtain peace, one must work to forgive his oppressors. 

Finding the ability to forgive is challenging, but is ultimately necessary in order to attain one’s goal. Unfortunately, in the wake of Mandela’s death, we seem lost. Crises stretch across the globe that further mar Mandela’s legacy by allowing racial and ethnic tension to prevent the opportunity for collaboration. 

 The world’s newest state, South Sudan, remains imperiled by a man-made disaster. In Dec. 2013, ex-Vice President Riek Machar was accused of an attempted coup d’état by President Salva Kiir. Since then, the country has been engulfed in war between opposing ethnic groups, with the Dinka and the Nuer, rallying behind Kiir and Machar respectively. Some ten thousand people have been killed and a million more have been displaced. As if things couldn’t get any worse, this July, the United Nations Security Council stated that South Sudan’s food crisis is the worst in the world. Nearly a third of that country’s population could be affected. If it were not for two individual leaders’ struggle for power, then South Sudan would not be engulfed in ethnic war. This February, in an attempt to mitigate the fighting, Kiir asked the youth movement of the SPLM party to “reject revenge” and instead follow the examples of two African leaders, one of them Mandela. However, if it weren’t for his faulty leadership, South Sudan would not be caught in this ethnic violence in the first place. Kiir and  Machar must themselves ensure that the standard set by Mandela is upheld. They must work with the “other” in order to bring peace to the world’s newest state. 

A bit closer to home, we feel the sting of oppression as we learn about the tragic and cruel deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner. Upon hearing about these deaths and the grand jury rulings, I couldn’t help but think about America’s history of racial violence, marred by the grotesque murders of boys like Emmett Till and girls like Denise McNair. We are certainly not a post-racial society, but at this point in time, we must reflect on the legacy of Nelson Mandela. 

In the beginning, Nelson Mandela was, according to biographer Richard Stengel, “hotheaded and easily stung.” After 27 years in prison, he was a new man. When asked what had changed about the man who was released from the man who went to prison, Madiba expressed, “I came out mature.” 

In the same sense, the leaders in South Sudan must actively call for a cessation of hostilities. This can be accomplished by an expressive recommitment to the peace process and by promoting a transitional government. At the same time, leaders and members of civil society should promote a national identity. Perhaps they should put together a reconciliation committee to address the grievous atrocities committed in war. With this, those of different ethnic groups may be able to reconcile their differences. 

Similarly, in the United States, those who are mobilizing in protest must find a way to incorporate constructive solutions to the problem of institutionalized racism. Although President Obama announced this week a proposal to spend some $75 million on body cameras for police officers nationally, the money may be better spent in better training programs for police officers. In Garner’s case, the attack was caught on video, and it was still not ruled a murder. In this way, activists could promote these training programs to directly address their grievances. 

If we can learn anything from Mandela, we must learn that there is a time for everything. When he went to prison, he had much to learn about freedom. When he left prison, he knew that the key to his freedom lay in working with his oppressors. According to The Telegraph, Mandela and de Klerk realized the need to push through their tumultuous relationship in order to bring about reconciliation and an end to apartheid in South Africa. 

Mandela oftentimes refused to compromise until he achieved an apartheid-free South Africa. At the same time, though, he realized that he had to forgive the leadership and talk to them in order to achieve his goal. It has been a year since Madiba passed away, and the time for grieving is over. Now, we must remember his legacy and work to repair our world. Once we realize that, we will truly be free.