The Presidential Years

… an unprecedented challenge faced the first democratically elected government of the Republic of South Africa. It was a major Rubicon to cross for the generation of dynamic and steeled freedom fighters who, for almost half a century, had sacrificed everything for the liberation of their fatherland.1

It was that moment alone the hour before he made the inauguration speech, just alone him by himself, in that room, when I thought, it finally hit home, that they’ve achieved it, they’ve come this far, they’ve gotten to this point, something that had eluded them for 27 years, that took a hard fight, that many people had died for. I’ve never seen Madiba sitting that quiet, he always fidgeted a bit, but there was that moment2

Jessie Duarte