5pm Friday afternoon, 6 December, sitting in my wooden shed,
a soft rain coming in showers with a gentle south westerly wind – I am
strangely at peace, suspended in a kind of cocoon of silence, and maybe the
world too, after last night’s news of Madiba’s death at about 9pm
In East London town today, at Kim’s auction, not much mention of Madiba,
although there was a Madiba print sold, a large Black & White, one of a
limited print edition of apparently 500, this one sold for R500 – and there was a relative
silence at the auction about Madiba, in counterpoint to all the news stations in SA,
radio & TV, broadcasting non-stop news about Madiba
So it seems the world is holding it’s collective breath, and
here in East London, a gentle rain is coming by in waves
I was favourably impressed last night at President Zuma’s
announcement on TV – he appeared so statesman-like – with his yellowing skin,
he looks almost alien, reptilian, but he carries himself with dignity and
poise, as the current Father of this nation
Madiba had ceased, for me, to be a focus of attention in SA
news in the past weeks & months, after the earlier attention some months ago when he was declared very ill
& admitted to a hospital in Johannesburg – and now, this final quiet news,
that he has gone
The etv news reader, after Zuma’s announcement, was so
irritatingly [white] psychophantic, and soul wrenching, that I changed the TV
channel – please no Whiteys, or Blackeys for that matter, wringing their hands
& hearts for the nation, trying to express their huge sadness at Madiba’s
death – maybe that’s why I liked Zuma’s very matter-of-fact announcement – he
didn’t try to gain any kind of mileage out of this event
So this silence, and wetness on the leaves from the rain, as
we all wait to see the whole show unfold over the next few weeks – presumably
the national road past Qunu is finally fixed, and Madiba will find his final
resting place in the family graveyard there at Qunu, where once I filmed him
burying another member of the Mandela clan – or maybe he will be laid to rest
at Mvezo – I’m sure the powers that be know exactly where it will all happen - I hope to be at the burial, a state funeral according to
Zuma – it will be a world media event, and a very historical one
And we now have Madiba up there in the sky, along with the
angels, and as he said, he will be with the ANC Party in the hereafter – and we can now beam straight to him our thanks, and our admiration, and each of us now has
equal access to him via our thoughts and our hearts, as he must be smiling down
on us all J
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