As everyone knows by now, Nelson Mandela has died at 95 and the world mourns his death. There has been much said and written about the great man. But the New York Times obituary by Bill Keller is the piece that you must not miss. It’s an extraordinary story of an extraordinary life.
Mandela’s obit, via the New York Times. “International emblem of dignity and forbearance.”
Nadine Gordimer on Mandela. “My Countryman.” Via the New Yorker.
How Mandela’s cause shaped Obama’s political future. Via the Washington Post.
Dick Cheney voted against the 1986 congressional resolution calling for Mandela’s release, and he doubled down in 2000, defending the vote when he was running for the vice presidency. It’s a version of the same defense he trotted out at every turn for the next eight years, when he was setting up for the U.S. the kind of detention and torture regime Mandela had made infamous in South Africa. “The ANC was then viewed as a terrorist organization,” Cheney told ABC. “I don’t have any problems at all with the vote I cast 20 years ago.”
Robben Island: Inside Mandela’s prison home. Via Time.
The view from South Africa. Via the Atlantic.
