“I do not remember experiencing great grief so much as feeling
\ncut adrift. Although my mother was the center of my existence,
\nI defined myself through my father. My father’s passing changed
\nmy whole life in a way that I did not suspect at the time.
\nAfter a brief period of mourning, my mother informed me that I
\nwould be leaving Qunu. I did not ask her why, or where I was going.
\nI packed the few things that I possessed, and early one morning
\nwe set out on a journey westward to my new residence. I mourned
\nless for my father than for the world I was leaving behind.
\nQunu was all that I knew, and I loved it in the unconditional way
\nthat a child loves his first home. Before we disappeared behind
\nthe hills, I turned and looked for what I imagined was the last
\ntime at my village. I could see the simple huts and the people
\ngoing about their chores; the stream where I had splashed and played
\nwith the other boys; the maize fields and green pastures where the
\nherds and flocks were lazily grazing. I imagined my friends out
\nhunting for small birds, drinking the sweet milk from the cow’s
\nudder, cavorting in the pond at the end of the stream.
\nAbove all else, my eyes rested on the three simple huts where I
\nhad enjoyed my mother’s love and protection. It was these three
\nhuts that I associated with all my happiness, with life itself,
\nand I rued the fact that I had not kissed each of them before
\nI left. I could not imagine that the future I was walking toward
\ncould compare in any way to the past that I was leaving behind.”
\n Nelson Mandela.<\/p>\n
Excerpted from “Long Walk to Freedom”, author, Nelson Mandela.
\nPublishers, Little, Brown and Company,
\nNew York, NY 10017.<\/p>\n
Mandela was nine years of age when he left that village.
\nIslander.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
“I do not remember experiencing great grief so much as feeling cut adrift. Although my mother was the center of my existence, I defined myself through my father. My father’s passing changed my whole life in a way that I did not suspect at the time. After a brief period of mourning, my mother informed … Continue reading “Mandela”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1278","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewalrussaid.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewalrussaid.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewalrussaid.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewalrussaid.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewalrussaid.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1278"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thewalrussaid.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1278\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1279,"href":"https:\/\/thewalrussaid.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1278\/revisions\/1279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewalrussaid.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}