Mandela and Ola: WDM celebrates the lives of two social justice giants
Date: 20 December 2013
This week WDM mourns the loss, and celebrates the life, of two great social justice giants. One, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, lived a life that was to be played out on the public stage. The other Ola Adeyemo transformed lives away from the glare of the world’s media.
Ola, WDM’s longest serving worker, volunteered at WDM for over 20 years during his retirement, making his almost daily journey by bus until he was well into his 80’s. Even then he only stopped as he became a carer for his wife who had become ill.
Whether sending out campaign materials to WDM members and politicians or heading up a WDM protest Ola always did everything with good humour and an unwavering conviction that the world was, and could be, a better place when, and if, everyone treated others fairly and with respect. Ola met dozens of new members of staff and volunteers during his time at WDM and yet, whether he was meeting someone who was only coming into volunteer for a week or a new director, he treated everyone the same. His favourite topics of conversation were Jesus, his family, politics and Nigeria the particular order of which would depend on what had happened that week!
As WDM sang songs outside HSBC branches in the City this week, accompanied by a digger full of coal to represent the devastation wreaked on many communities and areas around the world, I was reminded of Ola. Back in the 90’s Ola had headed a march to mining company, Rio Tito Zinc (RTZ), leading a digger to RTZ’s head offices to protest about their involvement in West Papua.
Nelson Mandela and Ola both exemplified the values they spoke about – justice, equality, love and forgiveness and it is a sad yet fitting coincidence that they passed away at the same time. Nelson Mandela was a man greatly respected by Ola. As I listened to tributes in the memorial service for Mandela at St Martins-in-the-Field’s in Trafalgar Square (a church very important during the anti-apartheid struggle) and to tributes about Ola at his service it was very moving to hear about their lives in a more personal setting of friends and family; our thoughts are with them at this time.
[video:http://youtu.be/dXEyiNzSrt8 width:500]The tributes were also a humbling and awesome reminder of how we can achieve change and make people’s lives better if we hold fast to our convictions and join with others who want to do the same.
Entering 2014 without these two great men will be strange but it will also be a good opportunity to step into the new year to carry forward the simple yet powerful legacy they have left behind.
Thank you and RIP Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (1918-2013) and Ola Adeyemo (1919-2013).
