Around the world, old and new media is examining the legacy of Nelson Mandela following his death aged 95. Most coverage recognises his great achievement in facilitating Reconciliation in South Africa following the dissolution of the apartheid regime. However, predictably, there are some commentors pushing back against those who describe him as “great” by demolishing a strawman regarding him not being “perfect”, specifically with regard to his involvement in revolutionary violence before his long imprisonment, and because of that involvement these critics dismiss as insufficient his decades of work in reconciliation and nation-building in the time after his release from that long imprisonment.
I don’t have the expertise or lived experience to speak authoritatively on the balance of good and bad in the life of Madiba, but my personal impression is very much that, on balance, his work and in particular his restraint, and renunciation of retributive violence once he had power, has left the world a better place than he found it.
Please link to pieces of interest you have found discussing the legacy of Madiba.