Last Thursday, April 22, we featured one of the most important political leaders of the 20th century as the topic of our latest webinar on history and current events.

Like any real-life person, you can either love him a lot or not at all.

Mandela made it so that “loving him dearly” was the choice of the vast majority. Those who knew him personally said he was approachable, with immense and undeniable charisma, commitment, and conviction. He was the kind of leader who moves and inspires people.

Beyond all his achievements—ending the system of racial segregation that nearly plunged South Africa into a civil war in the early 1990s, becoming the country’s first black president, and winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993—Mandela’s greatest achievement was how he accomplished them.

Madiba, as he was known, made intelligent and shrewd use of every opportunity that came his way.

While he was in prison (for a total of 27 years), he realized that he had to earn the trust and affection of his opponents in order to get out of there (he had been sentenced to life in prison). And he came to see that, in practice, this meant, among other things, learning Afrikaans, the exclusionary language used only by white people.

He also masterfully used sports to bring black and white people together, showing all his compatriots that unity and support for the national rugby team—which won the 1995 Rugby World Cup in epic fashion in extra time against the nearly invincible New Zealanders—could also translate into support for a multiracial democracy where everyone had a place.

His great legacy was to promote avenues for the peaceful resolution of conflicts and to demonstrate that change is possible and that racial and ideological differences are no obstacle to the progress of an entire country.

“Everything seems impossible until it’s done,” he used to say.

Magdalena Guzman L. 

Journalist and Master in Political Science.