Mandela's Hero

Have you ever wondered who is a hero to a hero?  Nelson Mandela was a man admired, respected, and a hero to many.  He marveled at an eleven year old South African boy, Nkosi Johnson, and referred to him as an “icon of the struggle for life.”  They both are heroes in my book. 

 Nkosi Johnson and Nelson Mandela were South Africans who fought battles in their country.  Mandela fought against the brutal oppression of Apartheid the better part of his life.  Nkosi warred against the discrimination, stigma, and ignorance directed towards those infected with HIV/AIDS during his short lifetime.  He fought especially hard for the children orphaned by or inflicted with the deadly disease. 

Mandela joined Nkosi’s war against HIV/AIDS after his son, Makgatho Mandela, died of AIDS in 2005 just four years after the death of Nkosi at the age of twelve.  Mandela had no idea when he heard little Nkosi Johnson keynote speech at the 13^th International AIDS Conference at Durban, South Africa, in 2000 that his world would be touched by the dreaded disease.  He founded the Nelson Mandela Foundation for AIDS research and the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund to assist children orphaned by AIDS.  Nkosi's Haven founded in 1999 provides care for HIV/AIDS infected mothers, their children, and AIDS orphans.
 

 Nkosi is listed with Nelson Mandela among SABC3’s Greatest South Africans.  He was honored by the KidsRights Foundation as one of 7 Children Who Changed the World.  Gail Johnson, his white South African adoptive mother, accepted the International Children’s Peace Prize from Mikhail Gorbachev posthumously on behalf of her son in 2005.

 Nelson Mandela is my hero and so is Nkosi Johnson.  They both changed the world!    

THE WORLD CUP, NKOSI JOHNSON, AND AIDS IN SOUTH AFRICA

The eyes of soccer lovers from around the world are on the players competing for dominance in a South African stadium. The World Cup is the most widely viewed sporting event in the world. Are the viewers aware of another battle being fought in South Africa? This battle involves life and death.

We around the world recognize the names of great South Africans like Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, but we don’t recognize the name of perhaps the bravest of all. Click on the link to learn of Nkosi Johnson, HIV-positive from birth, who died at the age of 12 in 2001. But not before he and his adoptive mother, Gail Johnson, founded Nkosi’s Haven, an orphanage in Johannesburg, South Africa to look after mothers and their children infected with HIV/AIDS.

Nkosi changed the policies in his country that kept HIV-positive children out of public schools. He bravely challenged people to look at and change their fears of those infected with AIDS. In his speech to the 13th International AIDS Conference, this brave child standing alone on a stage finished by saying, “Care for us and accept us – we are all human beings. We are normal. We have hands. We have feet. We can walk, we can talk, we have needs just like everyone else – don’t be afraid of us – we are all the same.”

Nelson Mandela referred to Nkosi as an “icon of the struggle for life.”