Mandela or Madiba, which one do you want?

In history there is the truth and then there is the story. And rarely are they the same thing. But does the truth really matter? Does it matter that this man or that man was fallible? That he made loads of mistakes and was always scared. Or that he went to his grave pissing and shitting himself, his mind gone, his body broken. No, it doesn’t matter an inch. Because the story is where the power lies, where the inspiration comes from.

The story of Nelson Mandela will always be far more powerful than the truth of Nelson Mandela. Of course, like Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, we can poke holes in it. We can find mistakes. We can find human error, selfishness and idiocy. But to do so is to miss the point. In 50 years’ time, when he is gone and many of us are gone, and a kid is wearing a T-shirt with Madiba’s face on it, it will no longer matter. All these spats about whether he did this or that, let this person down or that person down will count for nought. What will matter is the inspiration he gives to that kid. The lessons he teaches future generations. The same as Che. He could have been a prick for all I know but he teaches me that a man with a vision and a couple of friends can achieve a world of change. Done. End of the story.

It is a real post-modern trend to re-examine historical figures and say; ooh, look he was a just person, he made mistakes or was horrible to his wife or nasty to his subordinates or whatever. But so what? I don’t care if Captain Cook went to sea because he didn’t like his missus or Thomas Becket stuttered or that Alexander the Great was gay. They were human, big deal, that is NOT a particularly big insight. All I want is their story. I want the moral of it and how that will improve my life. The rest of it, the so-called truth is the same as every human’s story. They came into this world insecure, slightly bent, slightly twisted, a bit shit at some things and better at other things.

Some will argue that by reducing our heroes to mere mortals we are somehow making them greater men. That by reminding ourselves they are human they will become better heroes. But the problem is that when we set out to make them human, we do just that. We remove the magic. We take away all the shine and make them just another schmo stumbling through the dark. Well I, for one, don’t want Nelson Mandela the man. I want Madiba the story.