By Donu Kogbara
NELSON Rolihlahla Mandela is, in my opinion, the greatest man our continent has ever produced. Now, this charismatic and courageous global icon, who sacrificed 27 whole years of his life to the struggle for racial equality in South Africa, lies critically ill in hospital.

And while his people shed copious tears for their fading Liberator, glowing tributes flow in from admirers all over the world.

Nelson Mandela

I met Mandela at a press conference shortly after he was released from prison in l990. But my encounter with him was fleeting and I never got a chance to speak to him one‑on‑one. So I can’t offer you any interesting personal recollections beyond the fact that he had a bit of a temper and was very irritated when a journalist asked him a question he regarded as stupid!

But my kid sister, Lela Kogbara, currently a senior local government official in the UK, was the Chair‑ and Vice‑Chair of ACTSA (Action for Southern Africa, previously the Anti‑Apartheid Movement) for l8 years; and she was one of only five lucky individuals who was invited to break bread with Mandela at Buckingham Palace when he was invited to meet Queen Elizabeth II in 1996.

I’m so proud of Lela’s dynamic idealism and the campaigning role she played; and I’ve asked her to share some of her precious memories with Vanguard readers:

Memorable meeting with Mandela: I never expected that Nelson Mandela would, in my lifetime, not only walk out of jail a free man but become President of a democratic South Africa…

I will never forget July 12, l996. Having hardly slept, I got out of bed at 5am, ecstatic and petrified. I couldn’t quite believe that I was going to have breakfast with my hero!…and in Buckingham Palace, of all places!

When I arrived with Bob Hughes (a friend and fellow activist) at the gates of Buckingham Palace at about 7.45 that morning, I felt as if I was dreaming when we wound down the window of our car and said: We’re here to see President Mandela and when the royal guard cheerfully told us to come on in. Words cannot describe what a surreal and exciting experience this was!

As we walked up to the front entrance, we were greeted by another chirpy chap who apologised for the fact that our breakfast would be delayed by about 30 minutes because Margaret Thatcher [the then Prime Minister of Britain] had been squeezed in at the last minute to see Mandela before breakfast…

How ironic that Thatcher ‑ a woman who had repeatedly described Nelson Mandela and his African National Congress colleagues as terrorists and had flatly refused to back the Anti‑Apartheid Movements call for sanctions against the REAL terrorists who ran the White Minority apartheid regime ‑  had now joined the long queue of people who wanted to meet a now victorious Mandela!…

Mandela had requested a meeting with Archbishop Trevor Huddleston [a White, Christian Socialist clergyman who had doggedly challenged Mandela’s captors]. And Trevor, his assistant and Richard Caborn [a Member of Parliament] were already there when I arrived with Bob and Ben Jackson [an ACTSA Director]… A few rude remarks were made about Margaret Thatcher, who was sitting in the corridor, nervously clutching her handbag. But our small group mostly shared stories of past subversive activities designed to overthrow apartheid; and we laughed when we recalled the setbacks and triumphs. When we were introduced to Mandela, he stretched his hand towards me and said: I am pleased to meet you.  I could hardly breathe and said: I am pleased to meet you too.  And I was so overwhelmed that I was incapable of intelligent conversation! I had thought that I was mentally prepared to do justice to the enormous privilege that had been bestowed on me, but with hindsight, I wasn’t.

He must have been briefed that I was Nigerian and an Ogoni; and at some point, he asked me about Ken Saro Wiwa, who had been executed eight months earlier. He also noticed that I wasn’t eating and asked if I was on a diet.

He seemed so ordinary in so many ways by noticing little things about all of us and talking to us as if we were his equals.  No sense of self‑importance.  No pomposity.  Perhaps that is the most extraordinary thing about him. He carries his greatness with an endearing humility and authenticity.

So many people have yearned to spend a few moments in the presence of Mandela‑the‑superstar. And there are thousands who deserved to meet him more than I did but will, sadly, remain anonymous despite their suffering.

Nelson Mandela and all those within and outside South Africa who fought (and in many cases died) to end the evil of apartheid and empower the Black Majority were the inspiration behind my strong commitment to ACTSAs work.”