Mandela's 90th birthday! A lifetime of activism

Today is the 90th birthday of Nelson Mandela, the long-time leader of the African National Congress and the first president of a democratic South Africa. He is to me -- as to so many millions of people -- one of the greatest heroes of the past century. I will proudly wear my Mandela t-shirt today!

Born in the late 1960s, I went to high school and college in the 1980s, and was swept up in the anti-apartheid movement that had taken over the peace and justice activist scene during that era. At home, my family's Episcopal Church had a sister relationship with an Anglican parish in the (then-)Diocese of Johannesburg helped lead me to deep involvement on campus (at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut).

In the summer of 1987, I had an internship with the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR), which was coordinating the efforts of more than 200 religious groups -- Roman Catholic religious orders, Jewish organization, and Protestant denominations -- in the growing divestment movement. ICCR had created a "dirty dozen" list of the most powerful multinational corporations that were resisting the anti-apartheid movement's call to disinvest from South Africa, which local and national communities then developed boycotts and petition campaigns against. My main task that summer was to create a secondary list of other companies to target in this effort. It was work that formed and committed me to peace and justice activism for the rest of my life.

The following year, back at school, I was involved in helping to organize a two-week takeover of the college's administration building, which concluded with more than 50 students being arrested by the local police. I lost my beloved sleeping bag due to that protest! Someone probably took it by mistake. Given the fact that my efforts on campus had led me to meet both Archbishop Desmond Tutu and also Kwame Toure (nee Stokely Carmichael), in the long run, I guess it was worth it...

Indeed, that sit-in was my first arrest for engaging in nonviolent civil disobedience -- but by no means my last. I will never endure what Nelson Mandela did, since he lived in prison for 27 years and was beaten and tortured, while each of my arrests have been brief, symbolic protests against state-sponsored and/or institutionally-supported violence, but I will continue to keep his legacy before me as I do this work. And, especially, having shaken his hand in 1990 during his first tour of the United States, and then visiting his cell on Robben Island in 2000, I will continue to be inspired to do no less.

God bless Nelson Mandela!