We’re down to our last living hero. Happy birthday Nelson Mandela

IS Nelson Mandela the only hero left as he prepares to celebrate his 90th birthday tomorrow? It is difficult to conclude otherwise, despite recent criticism of his muteness about Robert Mugabe.

Many historians will agree that the South African novelist Nadine Gordimer skilfully summed up the reason for the reverence in which Mandela is held when she addressed the African National Congress (ANC)in 1993: “Let us now praise famous men. Nelson Mandela is the famous man today. One of the few who, in contrast with those who have made our 20th century infamous for fascism, racism and war, will mark it as an era that achieved advancement for humanity. So will his name live in history…” Gordimer continued: “There are two kinds of leaders. There is the man or woman who creates the self — his or her life — out of the drive of personal ambition and there is the man or woman who creates a self out of response to people’s needs. To the one, the drive comes narrowly from within; to the other, it is a charge of energy that comes of others’ needs and the demands these make. Mandela’s dynamism of leadership is that he has within him the selfless quality to receive and act upon this charge of energy.”

That was the year Mandela jointly received the Nobel Peace Prize with the former leader of South Africa’s white population, FW de Klerk, three years after the ANC leader had walked free from his 27 years in jail.