Mandela was a great man, and great leader. But he was no Jesus. I rather call him “mahatma,” meaning great spirit, the Hindu title conferred upon Gandhi.

Like Gandhi, Mandela, at least in his later years, was a combination of saintly, non-violent national leader and wily politician.

Having covered South Africa, and the bush wars in Southwest Africa (today’s Namibia), and Angola during the 1980’s, let me add my thoughts about Nelson Mandela.

I came very close to securing an interview with him while he was still in prison, but it was cancelled on the last minute. White-ruled South Africa was in a state of intense,  nervous transition at the time -  what the French call fin du regime -   as the old apartheid order crumbled.