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FINALLY AT PEACE





 

So at last Nelson Mandela has been allowed to die peacefully at home with his family - what an extraordinary man - his body finally rejecting the anti-biotic medications being administered.  Mandela was a Xhosa who speak a distinctive tonal language which has three types of click sound for consonants and is often known as the "clicking language".

The family of NAUTICAL LOG has long connections with South Africa from its British Empire years on my Irish side of the family.  Several of my Mother's (she had a Zulu name in addition to her Irish name) uncles served in the British Colonial Administration, after fighting in the Boer War of 1899-1902 one of my great-uncles William O'Grady served as an Administrator in Swaziland.  When he returned to England in retirement he kept in touch with friends and children of those friends in South Africa.  As a result of this one evening a limousine with outrider escort arrived at our Dublin, Ireland suburban home with the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Johannesburg, who was a son of a South African friend, to visit - caused quite a stir on our street as you can imagine.

During my sea career NAUTICAL LOG called at South African Ports many times so got to see firsthand something of the country that had been a regular topic of conversation with my Mom.

While NAUTICAL LOG is not one for having "heroes" there are persons one admires so it is perhaps not surprising that two are from South Africa.  Mahatma Gandhi who born in India was a lawyer in South Africa before returning to India and Nelson Mandela also a lawyer who was born, raised and died in South Africa.

Good Watch.

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