Mandela

I was only born in 1981. When I was growing up, I didn't really understand what was happening in South Africa. Even in 1994, when Mandela was elected President, I was too self obsessed, as every 13 year old is, to appreciate it.

That's because I was born in a different world. I am so privileged and lucky to have not had to witness such atrocities. Such violence still goes on in many places in the world today, and I feel so blessed to have the life I have.

When I was 18, I travelled to East Africa at a time of rising racial tensions in Zimbabwe. I was only in Zimbabwe for two days, staying with a white family who were friends of a girl I met travelling. They told me it wasn't safe to leave the white areas.

When I came home, I read Mandela's autobiography; A Long Walk to Freedom, and it opened my eyes. I studied a Masters degree in International Development a couple of years later. I wanted to help people. But I gave up wanting to work in that sector, believing that it was full of imposing external ways of life on people.

I went to a preview screening of the film Mandela tonight. It was brilliant - I cried and had goosebumps and was once again in awe. I remembered how I felt when I read the book years ago. The film goes on general release in a few days, I'd urge you to go and see it if you can. This is the title shot at the end of the film.

I know this blip is a little late, but I've been thinking about Nelson Mandela since I learned of his death last week. When I heard I had these tickets, I wanted to wait.

He was a great man, he is missed, but his legacy lives on.