Video: Miss. State Professor & Student Remember Nelson Mandela

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Nelson Mandela

COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI)- Mississippi State Professor and South African native Dr. Robert Kroger says Nelson Mandela’s death brings back memories of coming face to face with the prisoner turned president.

“I was fortunate enough to go to a school that accepted all races and all religions back in 1980. That was 14 years before the official end of apartheid. The school that I was lucky to attend, I had Nelson Mandela’s grandson in my biology class and I remember fondly having a break where we were all playing soccer on the fields and in came this cavalcade: the cavalcade was Nelson Mandela.  He just decided to show up at the school and say hello to all of the kids and we all got to shake his hand and he was just a massive man,” said Dr. Kroger.

A man, whose massive heart touched millions of lives.

” To most people when you come out of prison for 26 years, what’s the first thing that’s going to cross your mind: revenge, but he decided no. He wants peace and he wants peace for the country. And because of that decision, the country unified,” said Dr. Kroger.

“It’s a great loss, Mandela. Not only to South Africans, not only to the World, but to humanity,” said MSU graduate student Matjope Mokhathi.

Mokhathi grew up in Lesotho, South Africa’s neighboring country. He later moved to South Africa for college and remembers learning how Mandela’s humility changed history.

“One of his key characteristics that I think played a very critical role in him channeling the apartheid era was that he was very resilient. He always wanted to challenge things. For me, that’s one thing I take from him, to say we need to challenge the status quo,” said Mokhathi.

“We talk to him affectionately as “Madiba”, Madiba being the father. The father of our nation, the father of the new South Africa,” said Dr. Kroger.

As the world prepares to say goodbye to Mandela, both Kroger and Mokhathi know his impact on the world will never die.

“It will be hard to find somebody who did so much for a nation or for a country. To change the course of history. And even around the world, who knows if we’ll ever see a person like this ever again,” said Dr. Kroger.

The country plans on holding farewell events everyday until he’s laid to rest December 15th.