Today the world mourns the passing of Nelson Mandela, one of the most effective and inspiring leaders of the past century.
Unfortunately, I can’t hear the name Mandela without picturing the “Mandela Necklace,” a practice South African rebels used to discourage police informants. Gasoline-soaked tires were hung around the necks of suspected turncoats and set afire in an attempt to make the African National Congress more feared than the repressive South African police.
It became known as the Mandela Necklace when, after the head of the ANC had given a speech calling for the end of the practice, Winnie Mandela – Nelson’s second wife -was quoted as saying “Together, hand in hand, with that stick of matches, with our necklace, we shall liberate this country.”
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