As flags flew at half-mast in Anguilla, as a tribute and salute to the late Nelson Mandela, the island’s Chief Minister, the Hon Hubert Hughes, described the former South African anti-apartheid activist, President, and statesman, as the best man to have lived on earth after Christ.
The Chief Minister made his assertive statement to The Anguillian following his return from official trips to London and Brussels. Mandela, South Africa’s first black President, died on Thursday, December 5, at the age of 95. The State Funeral will take place on Sunday, December 15, in his hometown of Quru.
Mr Hughes said he first heard about Mandela during his Grammar School days in St Kitts when the Principal, U.G. Crick, spoke to students, during his current affairs lectures, about the emerging South African national. “It was then that I learnt about the struggles of Mandela when he was charged with treason and conducted his own defence,” Mr Hughes recalled. “He was a brilliant and outstanding lawyer. I followed his persecution and incarceration on Robin Island and the type of labour he had to do there with sledge hammers, cutting stone in the hills and so forth. He was eventually released after many years because it was realised that if the South African situation could be contained, the only man who could do it was Mandela. That’s why de Klerk, who became President, ultimately decided to release him.”
Mr Hughes continued: “In spite of all his suffering and persecutionMandela – who eventually became President, when every black man was given a chance to vote – displayed the greatness of the man he was. In my estimation, the peace and love that Mandela displayed to the world was next to what Christ displayed when he walked this earth. I don’t think there was another man having lived on this earth was as loving and as brilliant as Mandela. He was a man of great humanity. He was the best the world had.
“He was brought into the Northern Ireland situation by Tony Blair when he was Prime Minister, and he helped solve the situation there which had gone on for almost a century. He was able to go to Libya and got Gaddafi to release the Lockerbie bomber so that he could go on trial; and he asked Gaddafi to establish himself as a credible leader. He was involved in many intractable situations around the world that could not be solved. The United Nations and the world powers used Mandela as an ambassador of peace and reconciliation.”
Mr Hughes was asked about Anguilla flying its flags at half-mast on Friday, December 6 and 13. “That sends a message that Anguilla, too, recognises the greatness of the man and what he has done for world peace,” he replied. “Mandela has done a lot for the image of the black man in that he proved that the black man can be a good and respectable leader. I think it was Mandela who caused America to have a black President today. It shows that black people can forget persecution and hardship and rise to the top.”
