“One of the greatest experience of my life,” said Smith, who was working in Washington, D.C., as the director of Retirees for the American Postal Workers Union-AFL-CIO, at the time of his trip. “I was representing the U.S., which sent a group of (labor union representatives) to see that the election was conducted properly, according to the laws.”
Mandela had come to a special reception for the delegates working during the election. “We were all just in awe that we were even there in his presence,” said Smith of Mandela.
Smith remembered the long lines of South African voters during the two-day election process. “Had lines as far as the naked eye could see,” he said. “There was no one mumbling. No complaining. We got people that won’t even go two blocks here to vote.”
He added, “The environment was tense. People had guns strapped on them just like the Wild Wild West.”
Smith said he was in a Johannesburg hotel eating breakfast when a bomb went off two blocks away.
Smith said his 14 days in South Africa changed his life. “He (Mandela) left a legacy that proved that things can be accomplished without a lot of violence and killing,” Smith said. “He showed us that things can be accomplished in a peaceful manner. He was a peaceful man and you could feel it in his presence. He loved everybody and he wanted everybody to love everybody.”
Migwe Kimemia, a native of Kenya and the southwest Ohio program director for the American Friends Service Committee, considered Mandela a role model of transformational leadership and said he would continue to observe International Mandela Day every July 18 in the former president’s memory.
“Mandela is a global icon for peace and social justice in the world, and his legacy will last for future generations,” Kimemia said.
Funso Oluyitan, a native of Nigeria and executive director of the ASE African Center in Trotwood, said he became an advocate against corruption in Nigeria in 1957 as a result of what he learned from Mandela’s fight against apartheid.
“He taught the world to fight for the good you believe in, no matter how much you suffer for your conviction,” Oluyitan said. “He showed a good example to political leaders in Africa. Live and Let Live. Don’t hang onto power forever. Allow others to continue your good work, if you have done a good job.”
Julius Amin, professor of African-American History at the University of Dayton and a native of Cameroon, said he was impressed with how quickly Mandela forgave the system that had put him in jail for 27 years and how he worked to rebuild South Africa.
“Before Mandela become president, South Africa was virtually the skunk of the world because of apartheid,” Amin said. “When he became president, South Africa became the envy of the world.”
Amin noted that it was because of Mandela that the FIFA World Cup was held in South Africa for the first time ever in 2010.
“He came from humble beginnings yet would rise to become one the greatest statesmen of the modern world,” Amin said. “Mandela tells us that there is hope and people can care for one another. He taught the world the principles of human rights.”
Amin said Mandela will be remembered for “his ability to organize the masses to think about those who are at the bottom of the ladder.”
United States District Court Judge Walter H. Rice said Mandela reminded him of the first U.S. President — George Washington.
“I think that this is a man that purely through the strength of his character and personality was able to establish his country on a firm footing without the blood bath caused by the lust for vengeance or the spirit of revenge that everybody predicted would occur,” Rice said. “Much like Washington, everyone looked to (Mandela) for the leadership that the country needed so badly. That was the perfect example of leadership by strength of character.”
Like the others, former Dayton Mayor Rhine McLin said she was impressed with Mandela’s forgiveness.
“During the time when he could have been bitter, he chose to forgive his enemies and go about making his country a better place,” McLin said. “Service is the price you pay for the space you use, and Nelson Mandela was a prime example of giving back not with bitterness but with diplomacy courage and leadership.”
Amaha Sellassie, student member of the Human Relations Council at Wright State University, said he admired Mandela for his commitment to the struggle for equality and freedom.
“What I love about him is that he fought for equality and not for black superiority,” Sellassie said. “He did not want to replace white domination with black domination. Rather, he sought to create a space where every human being, regardless of color or ethnicity, is valued.”
Fred Arment, executive director of the International Cities of Peace, a global organization based in Dayton, said Mandela’s words and deeds of firm forgiveness will be studied forever.
“Nelson Mandela understood that both the victim and the perpetrator are locked in a dance of violence,” Arment said. “Both are imprisoned and, as he said, the oppressor must be liberated just as surely as the oppressed, for all have been robbed of their humanity.”
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