Africa mourns Jesse Jackson, a global change agent

From the Great Blue Skies where he now resides, Reverend Jesse Louis Jackson would urge a troubled world — fractured by racism, poverty and political turmoil — to “continue the work, continue the leadership of Martin Luther King Jr. and continue mobilising for change, change, change for human rights and social justice”.

Africa has lost a beloved friend. South Africa has lost a son of its struggle. The world has lost one of the last towering giants of the civil rights movement.

Reverend Jackson, 84, passed away at his Chicago home on Tuesday morning after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease. 

Surrounded by his close-knit family, he slipped gently from this world — a global statesman whose life was defined by courage, compassion and an unshakeable belief in the human spirit.

Jackson’s death is now a national statistic, one of the 40 131 Americans who died with Parkinson’s disease in recent years. His son was at his side when he died peacefully, saying they shared him with the world’s extended family.  His impact was felt worldwide. 

Durban-born Karlen Padayachee, now a US citizen and corporate lawyer in Minneapolis, was among the first to break the news of the death of the gifted orator to South Africans in the early hours of Tuesday morning, hours after Jackson slipped away at 12.45am.

On Friday, 5 December 2013, as South Africans slept, he broke the news that Nelson Mandela died.

The “Honourable” Jesse Jackson, as described by his grieving family, was, in truth, a movement unto himself, he was an era. 

As glowing tributes flooded global communication spaces, Chicago police cordoned off the Rainbow PUSH Coalition tower block, while hundreds of supporters and admirers arrived with floral offerings and handwritten homages. 

The world’s media—dozens of TV networks—went into overdrive as presenters and commentators retraced a life’s journey that championed our own freedom, spotlighted the plight of Palestinians in the conflict-scarred Middle East and helped free terrified hostages, earning him a presidential award from the White House. 

A gregarious man with a mission, a complex personality, hard-nosed politician, he strode from the pulpits of politics to the precipice of the Oval Office, paving the way along Pennsylvania Avenue for Barack Obama. 

Yet he was never fully credited for the electoral breakthrough that delivered America’s first Black president, even though cameras captured him weeping openly on the night the Democratic Party’s historic victory was announced.

He was a movement unto himself. Young, brave and bold he always showed up from county jails to congress halls.

A measure of a true mentor, messiah or matriarch. Despite facing multiple health issues, he stayed the course of his trailblazing journey from Elvis Presley’s In the Ghetto to the White House, to London’s Westminster to our own Union Buildings.

A lifelong bond with Africa: Jesse Jackson’s relationship with Africa — and South Africa in particular — was profound. Nelson Mandela referenced him from Cell 5 on Robben Island. Jackson visited the country dozens of times, from the darkest days of apartheid to the dawn of democracy, lending his voice and stature to the global anti racism struggle. He touched many hearts, including mine.

In the 1970s, during an interview at Durban’s Royal Hotel, Jackson’s words shaped my politics of resistance and my path in progressive journalism. That interview nearly upended my life: apartheid security agent Martin Dolinchek, a former apartheid BOSS/NIS agent involved in the Seychelles attempted coup under mercenary leader Colonel “Mad Mike” Hoare, trailed and harassed me afterward. I was marked for surveillance until my editor intervened.

Our paths crossed again during Durban’s World Conference Against Racism in the 2000s. Together with Deputy Mayor Logie Naidoo, we arranged a luncheon hosted by Thomas Naidoo of Standard Bank for Jackson’s delegation. Years later, Naidoo would join Jackson in ringing the ceremonial bell at the New York Stock Exchange.

My final meeting with him — at the heart of his Rainbow PUSH Coalition headquarters in Chicago — produced the last photograph, the last handshake, the last moment with a surviving icon of the civil rights movement.

A giant oak tree has fallen. His seeds have blossomed into a generational tree of hope and faith for an uncertain future. 

The uncredited architect of Obama’s America: There would have been no President Barack Obama without Jesse Jackson’s trailblazing presidential campaigns in 1984 and 1988. His voter mobilisation machinery, his oratory, and his insistence that Black Americans deserved a seat at the highest table reshaped US politics.

Yet he was never fully credited.

His Rainbow PUSH Coalition became a global platform for justice, drawing support from Corporate America — including Coca Cola — and attracting delegates from across the world.

From segregated South Carolina to the world stage: Born Jesse Burns in 1941 in Greenville, South Carolina, he later took his stepfather’s surname, Jackson. His upbringing was humble: a three bedroom home with a backyard bathroom, wallpaper used as insulation, no hot water — an American version of Elvis Presley’s In the Ghetto. 

He often said: “I was born in the slum but the slum was not born in me.”

He was arrested in a segregated library as a teenager. He was kicked out of cafés and buses. Yet he rose — quarterback, student and bright scholar, preacher, organiser — into the orbit of Dr Martin Luther King junior.

On April 4, 1968, at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, Jackson wiped King’s blood from the balcony and rubbed it onto his shirt. King’s death did not deter him; it ignited him.

A diplomat of moral courage: Jackson walked into the lion’s den — literally — negotiating the release of American hostages in Iran, Iraq, Cuba, Yugoslavia and Syria. He appealed to the humanity of hostage takers: “You’re better than this. We are better than this.”

Reverend Al Sharpton said Jackson “cemented the King movement from the South to the North” and nationalised the I Have a Dream legacy. Yet, again, he never received the full credit he deserved.

He transformed Westminster politics, inspiring the rise from four Black MPs to 70 — and ultimately a brown Prime Minister. His mantra: Black is beautiful.

A legacy larger than one lifetime: Jackson represented the best of our world — fighting structural racism, uplifting the marginalised and insisting that justice is never given but fought for.

He was charismatic, evidence driven, deeply caring and profoundly humble. 

Beyond the eloquence and aura, he carried a simplicity of spirit: “We cannot be like Jackson. Just be you. I am flawed.”

President Cyril Ramaphosa paid tribute to Jackson, described as a veteran civil rights leader and anti-apartheid advocate, whose campaigns against apartheid was a towering contribution to the global anti-apartheid cause – awarded South Africa’s National Order of the Companions of O.R. Tambo in Silver in 2013.

Jackson’s visit to southern Africa 40 years ago to support the liberation struggle was a significant event, reflecting his commitment to justice and equality.

Today, the world mourns a man who reshaped the civil rights movement for the 21st century — a man who carried King’s torch from Selma to Chicago, from Memphis to Cape Town.

Reverend Jesse Louis Jackson (1941–2026) leaves behind a legacy of justice, equality, dignity, and unshakeable hope.

South Africa salutes you. Africa mourns you. The world celebrates you.

Keep hope alive.