Tom Gibian with Nelson Mandela in 2000On Friday, December 6, the upper school students at Sandy Spring Friends School had planned to have a meeting for business with a concern for school climate during their regular meeting for worship time. This is important work, and I am always gratified by our students’ recognition that they play such an important role in defining the school's culture. Upon hearing of the death of Nelson Mandela, however, the students decided to postpone this meeting, and instead hold their own memorial service honoring the life and work of South Africa's first democratically-elected president. Again, I was touched by the depth of our students, and the degree to which they felt connected to the world around them and, in particular, to this man of steely strength, reconciliation, and grace. During the memorial service, one of our students compared Nelson Mandela to Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi, describing him as a personal hero. Sitting together in our meeting house on campus brought back a flood of memories for me, some of which I shared that day.In 1999, I was working with a small private equity firm focused on emerging markets. The chairman of that firm, Moeen Qureshi, asked me if I would be interested in launching a fund to focus on investment to support infrastructure in Africa. Moeen--who, in addition to having been for many years a remarkable leader in the World Bank, had also served for an interim period of time as the prime minister of Pakistan--knew it would be a challenge to raise international funds for a continent that had no track record for this type of investment. But he thought that Nelson Mandela, who had left public office a few years earlier, might be in a position to help. Moeen knew that Madiba (as Mandela is commonly known in South Africa) was fiercely loyal to those who had supported him in the past, and he told me this story.
Shortly after his release from prison, Mandela was faced with the challenge of leading the African National Congress, the party of liberation in South Africa, in the first democratic elections to be held in South Africa. The ANC had been considered a terrorist organization; it had no money and no real experience operating in an open and transparent manner. To be successful, Mandela would need to mobilize funds, hire lawyers to help draft a new constitution that would protect the rights of all people, and run a campaign. How does a political party organize and fund an election as it transitions from being an outlawed organization to a legitimate political party?
At this time, Mandela reached out to Moeen. Mandela admired Moeen because, as a prime minister of Pakistan who had been installed by the military, he had sacrificed an opportunity to gain personal power in order to try to support democracy in Pakistan. Instead of rigging the upcoming election in his favor, Moeen refused to run for office so that he could, without conflict, organize an election in Pakistan that would promote democracy in that country. Mandela called Moeen and asked for his help to support the African National Congress in the upcoming election.
Moeen wanted to help, but knew that Pakistan, itself a very poor country, was not in a position to financially support a foreign election. So Moeen did the next best thing: he offered to introduce Mandela to Lee Kuan Yew, who at that time was Prime Minister of Singapore and who had himself led his country first to independence, and then to prosperity. Mandela and Moeen went to meet with Lee Kuan Yew, and Lee agreed to provide funds for the ANC so that they could hold a peaceful, organized, and successful election that the entire world watched with amazement and incredible joy.
When Moeen asked me if I would help lead an African private equity business, he offered to call Mandela and ask him to support this idea of using foreign investment to accelerate Africa's development and promote an African Renaissance. Mandela invited us to his house in Johannesburg so that we could explain what we planned to do. This was in 1999; Mandela had served as president for four years and then stepped away in order to set an example for his country and all of Africa of orderly political succession through democratic elections. He was devoting most of his time to his foundation, which worked to combat poverty and to promote awareness of the AIDS epidemic, among other causes.
So we arrived at his house, which was not elaborate and, in fact, was quite simple: no security, no gates, nothing really to prevent you or anyone from knocking on the front door. So we did. We walked up to the front door and knocked, and someone opened it. We looked inside; it was full of grandchildren and a few other adults, and Madiba, smiling, stepped forward to embrace Moeen and to shake my hand warmly. We spoke in the living room, and much of the time Mandela was bouncing a child up and down on his knee while talking to us about his vision for a peaceful and prosperous Africa. Occasionally another grandchild would run by and ask a question or offer an opinion; he would stop talking to us and focus entirely on the grandchild for a moment or two, then return to the conversation. When it was time to eat dinner, we moved to the dining room and sat around a simple table. We were served family style, simple food with hardly any spice. I realized that after 27 years in prison, Madiba had gotten used to food without much flavor. But for me it was the best meal I had ever had.
Madiba agreed to be the Chairman of our Advisory Board, and he served for four years. During that time, we met again in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Maputo (where he was joined by his wife Graca Machel), and Tunis. All of us that were part of this first African fund felt strongly that we couldn’t fail Madiba in this effort. In the years to follow, we were delighted to be able to report that our fund was demonstrating Africa's competitiveness and fantastic potential.
Following the SSFS Memorial Service, several students said to me that hearing my remembrances made them feel that they now had only one degree of separation from Nelson Mandela. In that moment, I felt the enormous privilege of being able to hear the echo of my life speaking as a member of the Sandy Spring Friends School community. Madiba would be proud of the global citizens that SSFS is preparing to carry forward the torch of peace, equality, and moral justice.