I think that people need to (borrowing the phrase from John Green) Imagine Nelson Mandela more complexly, which is, in a way, what this article tries to do, if not entirely successfully. Nelson Mandela lived a long time, and was many things in that time. Child, son, teenager, father, Grandfather, Prison Inmate, Anti-Apartheid revolutionary, politician, philanthropist, nationalist, socialist, lawyer, nonviolent (and then violent) revolutionary, pragmatist, reconciliator, Marxist (accused), anti-communist (accused). Of course he leaves a complicated legacy, a man can do many things in 94 years, even with almost 30 of them spent in prison. He was too left for some, too right for others, and seen as a father to a country. All of these things and more are little bits of who Nelson Mandela was, and to focus on one, or forget one, is to forget them all.