The power of anger

In a word he touched what is best in people and made them feel they too could overcome difficulties and have a better life.

I have always been struck by his perseverance. He did not just endure Robben Island but he seems to have made each day a small deliberate step on the journey, building up little victories among the guards and the other prisoners. He never rested. He was constantly at work.

But there was a second characteristic that came out in his autobiography: when he got angry he used his anger as a source of energy and channelled it into achievements. When he found the prisoners were supposed to wear shorts he got angry and stayed with his anger until they were all issued with longs. It didnt bring apartheid down but it was a small victory on which he built each day.

If we reflect on anger we know that there are different ways we react. We get angry and lash out in an uncontrolled way. This is destructive and dissipates our energy and hurts others. It achieves nothing. Another way of dealing with my anger is to be afraid of the energy it is creating and suppressing it, swallowing it, hiding it. That too achieves nothing and just leaves me feeling frustrated and ashamed of myself.

Clearly the third way and most creative, is to stay with my anger, control and channel it. We have all found at one time or another – how effective this can be. We have either allowed ourselves to get angry or we have been on the receiving end when someone became angry with us. It is painful at the time, either way, but we know it as freeing, opening out new possibilities. If I dont try to defend myself but hear the anger of another person towards me I can be, literally, liberated.

Anger can be an expression of truth, of clearing away prejudices, even decades or centuries of hostility. Anger breaks down the barriers between people so long as they are willing to listen to the anger and not curl in a defensive lager like a millipede. Jesus anger seeing the temple turned into a market place was one of the immediate causes of his death. It triggered the final denouement where an old world collapsed and a new one was born.

Are we an angry people? A stupid question! Of course people are angry. But what do we do with our anger? A few lash out but most just suppress their anger and laugh. It relieves the tension. To admit my anger, and what is more to act on it, might be dangerous. Far better to stamp on my anger, join the crowd and wait. The trouble is the more we make a habit to suppressing anger the longer we postpone the day of change. Mandela understood that. That is why he is a great man.