Cape Good Hope
South Africa has been known for years as the country at the bottom of Africa that has two oceans melting at the famous Cape of Good Hope; but it has also been flagged as a country that has produce light wines, a strong rugby, and a distasteful apartheid. Then a strong and dedicated man, stood up free after having spent 27 years in jail to become a symbol of modern human history.
Vineyards in Franschhoek
Recognized as living hero in our world history, Mandela is in reality in South Africa acknowledged as an icon placed above all, a guiding star in the dark day of the past and a moral trustee in the hopeful days of the future. Men of reconstruction are usually not the men of (re)action, but in this particular case he was, and because he is still alive the icon Mandela has impacted more his country that one could have hoped for, by managing his own legacy.
Little Karoo Road
Today the country is firmly standing on the ground of free speech and reconciliation, economic growth and judiciary equality, and on past achievements proudness and future mistakes fear. Even though few people are mixing cultures to embrace a new newness, people are respectful of the other side, not in fear of the unknown but much more on a tacit acknowledgment that it will be better for the nation to change the course of action and become a rainbow nation (all colors are put side by side but not mixed together) as oppose as a melting pot nation. The next generation will take care of the rest later on, as long as no one will avenge himself or herself on the wrong basis of inequality.
Franschhoek Panorama View
Because South Africa has everything it needs to growth, the country can become a light in Africa, the same way Mandela was and still is a light in South Africa. It seems that Mandela's sense of honor and courage has transpire over an entire nation, and the entire nation sensitive to his sacrifice has decide to stand up and become free of the past fear and hopeful of the future.
Every conversation or discussion I had the chance to have made me feel that I was in between two oceans of overwhelming sensations: a dark past still marching on the footstep of the country shadow and the bright hope of an exhilarated future ahead. This ambivalence made me feel right at the center of mankind history in which you could fail over one side or the other, feeling alive and reflected at the same time, part of the present and the past, but also part of the present and the future.
Cape Town Panorama View
Still there is a long march ahead for South Africa to overcome the major disparities that exist in the country (economic, racial, ideological …) but the future seems brighter at the end of the trip than at the beginning of it. My wish would be that Mandela vision will survive his already considerable achievements, and let the next generations to continue walking on his legacy.