Pity the Land that Has No Heroes...

- By Peggy Hicks

I have very few heroes. Who does, these days? Maybe that’s why the loss of Nelson Mandela seems to compel such reflection. Maybe it’s because another of my heroes, former US Congressman Howard Wolpe, passed away two years ago, and for me the legacies of Wolpe and Mandela are inextricably bound together. Growing up in Michigan, I knew little of Africa, and less about apartheid. But in the 1970s, I met Wolpe, first when I was a babysitter for his son, and later as a volunteer on his congressional campaign. Wolpe, an African Studies professor who had lived in Nigeria, chaired the Africa Subcommittee of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Those qualifications meant very little to the voters we met on the campaign trail in Kalamazoo—they were much more interested in jobs and the failing economy. Wolpe wasn’t elected because he knew Africa, but it is through his work on Africa, both as a member of Congress and later as a Special Envoy for both the Obama and Clinton administrations, that he stood out. Wolpe was a primary sponsor of the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid act, which overcame two vetoes by President Reagan to become law in 1986. Soon after his release from prison, Mandela reportedly phoned Wolpe to thank him for that work. Wolpe was my hero, and Mandela was his.

These heroes are lost to us, but what they taught shouldn’t be. The incredible arc of Mandela’s life—from the hardship and desperation of twenty-seven years in prison to the presidency of post-apartheid South Africa—shows us that the struggle for social justice will not be easy, but also that it can be won. And that we’ll be remembered, not only for who we are, but also for who we stand with. There's simply no other way to say it: in supporting Mandela, Wolpe put himself on the right side of history. So here's what we must ask ourselves: who today should we be standing with? where today are the next generation's heroes?

Peggy Hicks is Global Advocacy Director for Human Rights Watch