WILMOT JAMES: With Madiba gone, a new champion is needed to nurture children
Nelson Mandela took great pains to focus on the plight of the young
14 October 2020 - 19:06
Nelson Mandela loved children. His birthday parties were always children’s parties. He recalled that in jail for over two decades he never once heard the sound of children.
One of his closest friends and fellow prisoner, Ahmed Kathrada, once described the layers of sound that “drifted around and into the cells: peacock calls, rowdy seagulls, motor vehicle engines and rusted exhaust pipes belching into the sea air, and the crunching of boots on the stones outside. Keys clanging locks open. And closed. Even the crashing of waves against the dock in the evenings. But never the laughter of children”...
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