Graca Machel: I didn't Love Mandela at First Sight

Graca Machel, Mandelas widow

Nelson Mandela’s widow Graca Machel, has disclosed that her first encounters with the global icon cannot be described at love at first sight.

Machel who barely left her husband’s bedside in the final six months of his life, said her first encounters with Mandela wasn’t love at first sight.

“It wasn’t love at first sight,” Machel said.

“For me things don’t happen like that. For me falling in love is like a spark connecting two people. With Samora, I was with him for some time and only later did I feel the spark. It was the same with Nelson.”

Machel and Mandela were spotted at several events holding hands, even stealing a kiss at Robert Mugabe’s wedding.

At their wedding, Mandela’s fellow Nobel peace laureate, archbishop Desmond Tutu, joked that Machel had made a “decent man” out of her new husband.

Machel was Mandela’s third wife, and he was her second presidential husband. She was the widow of Mozambican president Samora Machel who died in a plane crash in 1986.

She was 27 years younger than Mandela when they married on his 80th birthday in 1998.

“We make sure we spend time with each other because we were so lonely before,” she told Mandela’s authorised biographer after the marriage.

Mandela had been divorced from Winnie, his second wife, for two years when he re-married.

“When I  am alone, I am very weak,” he said when discussing Machel in 2007. The couple marked their 15th wedding anniversary on July 18 as Mandela lay critically ill in hospital.

Tutu would later say that South Africans owed Machel a “tremendous debt of gratitude” for the joy she brought Mandela in the latter stages of his life.

“We want to say to Graca, thank you for giving Madiba a happy ending,” the archbishop told a memorial service for Mandela in Johannesburg on Mhas hardly been seen in the wake of his death.

Machel maintained a near round-the-clock bedside vigil during the 84 days Mandela spent in a Pretoria hospital and the subsequent three months he spent at home before he died on December 5.

The Mozambican human rights campaigner had begun cancelling all but a handful of public engagements from June as Mandela’s condition deteriorated.

One of her rare public appearances came a month ago, when she was spotted at the premiere of the movie “Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom” tracing her husband’s journey from prisoner to president.

'Mandela taught us the power of action, but also ideas’ - Pres. Obama's speech in full at Nelson Mandelas Memorial Service

President Obama at the memorial service

To Graça Machel and the Mandela family; to President Zuma and members of the government; to heads of state and government, past and present; distinguished guests - it is a singular honour to be with you today, to celebrate a life unlike any other. To the people of South Africa – people of every race and walk of life – the world thanks you for sharing Nelson Mandela with us. His struggle was your struggle. His triumph was your triumph. Your dignity and hope found expression in his life, and your freedom, your democracy is his cherished legacy.

Nelson Mandela

It is hard to eulogize any man - to capture in words not just the facts and the dates that make a life, but the essential truth of a person - their private joys and sorrows; the quiet moments and unique qualities that illuminate someone’s soul. How much harder to do so for a giant of history, who moved a nation toward justice, and in the process moved billions around the world.
Born during World War I, far from the corridors of power, a boy raised herding cattle and tutored by elders of his Thembu tribe - Madiba would emerge as the last great liberator of the 20th century. Like Gandhi, he would lead a resistance movement - a movement that at its start held little prospect of success. Like King, he would give potent voice to the claims of the oppressed, and the moral necessity of racial justice. He would endure a brutal imprisonment that began in the time of Kennedy and Khrushchev, and reached the final days of the Cold War. Emerging from prison, without force of arms, he would - like Lincoln - hold his country together when it threatened to break apart. Like America’s founding fathers, he would erect a constitutional order to preserve freedom for future generations - a commitment to democracy and rule of law ratified not only by his election, but by his willingness to step down from power.

a view showing a large Mandela picture amidst crowd in the stadium at the memorial service

Given the sweep of his life, and the adoration that he so rightly earned, it is tempting then to remember Nelson Mandela as an icon, smiling and serene, detached from the tawdry affairs of lesser men. But Madiba himself strongly resisted such a lifeless portrait. Instead, he insisted on sharing with us his doubts and fears; his miscalculations along with his victories. “I’m not a saint,” he said, “unless you think of a saint as a sinner who keeps on trying.”

Dignitaries over the world

It was precisely because he could admit to imperfection - because he could be so full of good humor, even mischief, despite the heavy burdens he carried - that we loved him so. He was not a bust made of marble; he was a man of flesh and blood - a son and husband, a father and a friend. That is why we learned so much from him; that is why we can learn from him still. For nothing he achieved was inevitable. In the arc of his life, we see a man who earned his place in history through struggle and shrewdness; persistence and faith. He tells us what’s possible not just in the pages of dusty history books, but in our own lives as well.

BARCELONA: LEAVING NOU CAMP FOR A NEW GROUND?

The Spanish champions have commissioned a report over the viability of both projects with the objective to increase the capacity of their home ground to 105,000.

Although progress was made at a meeting on Monday, the Barca directors will not announce their preferred option until early in 2014.

Board spokesman Toni Freixa explained on the club's official website it had two choices: "The construction of a new stadium on the land on Diagonal, property which belongs to the University of Barcelona, or a profound remodelling project that would constitute a new stadium keeping the current structure of the Camp Nou.

"Both would have a capacity of 105,000 spectators, the stadium would be covered, there will be a construction of a new Palau with a capacity of 12,000 spectators, an adjacent court with a capacity of 2,000 spectators, 6,000 new parking spots and access to the Ciutat Esportiva of the Miniestadi.

Although one of the largest stages in world football already, plans to extend the capacity of 99,354 by a further 5,000 seats would see the Camp Nou trail only to the Rungrado May Day Stadium (North Korea, 150,000) and Salt Lake Stadium (India, 120,000) as the world's third largest.

Any potential extension of capacity represents a risk for the Spanish champions. The economic crisis has ensured dwindling La Liga attendances over the last couple of years, as fans find it far more sustainable to stay inside and watch the action on television than shell out for matchday tickets.

WOMAN TOTOURED FOR WITCHCRAFT

A man and his wife were arrested Monday in Odisha’s Ganjam district for torturing their daughter-in-law for allegedly practicing sorcery, police said.

The couple was arrested after the 30-year-old victim complained Sunday that she was subjected to torture at Berhampur town, about 180 km from Bhubaneswar.

The victim, mother of two minor children, told police that her husband Ganesh Sahu was suffering from mental illness for the last six months.

Ganesh’s parents were under the impression that he is ill due to witchcraft performed on him by his wife, police inspector Pragyan Paramita Padhi told IANS.

They allegedly beat her up and also forced her to consume human excreta, the officer added.

The victim also alleged that her husband and in-laws were torturing her for dowry.

Local residents rescued the victim and got her admitted to a government hospital.

“Ganesh is absconding, while his parents were arrested,” police said.

The brutalities related to witchcraft, mainly against women, are common in the illiterate tribal pockets of the state. Women accused of witchcraft are often killed or paraded naked.

The state has recently approved a new law to curb such crimes with provisions of imprisonment up to seven years and penalty for such offenders