Thabo Mbeki, in many ways, had the impossible task. He was to be the man who followed Nelson Mandela as the President of South Africa. He was the replacement for the man who was both a great statesman and a icon for African unity and freedom in an era of attrocities and uncertainty.

Yes, Thabo Mbeki had an impossible task, but he tried his best to fill those all-to-big shoes anyways. 

In his private biography written by Mark Gevisser, Mbeki identified his struggle with that of Shakespeare's Caius Martius (later called Coriolanus), a man who was exiled not because of impurity of his action but for failure to conform to the demands of the very people he served.

In his own words, Mbeki's is a man who recognizes that "The person who does good, and does it honestly, must expect to be overpowered by forces of evil. But it would be incorrect not to do good just because you know death is coming."*

Indeed, throughout his reign as the President of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki has fought to maintain economic expansion during an economically volatile time. He has increased both the power of South Africa and the power of the African Union. 

He was not only the voice for African unity, but he was also frequently its iron first, negotiating deals in nations like Zimbabwe, where a power struggle between President Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai threatened to further throw the nation into chaos. He was an important figure in African politics, whose expansionist economy and quiet intelligence made him a respected diplomat from Cape Town to Khartoum.

Yet, despite his successes in the economic and diplomatic spheres, Thabo Mbeki was recalled as the President of South Africa over the weekend. Many people responded to this news by pointing out his awkward failures - the increasing disparity between the haves and have nots, his horribly worded and horribly communicated conviction that HIV is not the sole cause of AIDS - and criticize him through distinctly Western perspectives.

This barrage of "me too" criticism, though, often misrepresents or completely ignores the economic realities of both South Africa and the world as a whole. I would like to point out that while the disparity between rich and poor has risen in South Africa, it has not done so aberrantly when compared to other developing nations, such as Brazil, India or even China. Furthermore, although the methods of delivery was unfortunate and clumsily worded, there is an underlying truth in what Mbeki said about AIDS - the fact that poverty and nutrition is just as big of a culprit in the epidemic as HIV itself.

The problems of South Africa are greater than those facing any other developing nation. Not only does the nation have to deal with a vast, deeply rooted history of racial division, but it is also subject to one of the greatest epidemics in the history of the world. So while Mbeki was far from successful in all areas of his legislative agenda, we should at least take a moment to applaud his administration for expanding the economy, creating a black middle-class that might one day yield true economic equality in South Africa, and being the first African leader who had the fortitude to speak out for African solutions to Africa's problems. After the repeated failures of Western diplomatic efforts in Rwanda, Congo, Somalia, Nigeria, Liberia, and now Sudan, perhaps it was time for the continent of Africa to work together to solve its own numerous socioeconomic issues.

In many ways, I think my peculiar respect for Mbeki comes, at least in part, from his similarities to a personal political hero of mine - Lyndon Baines Johnson. Much like LBJ, Mbeki was asked to inherit a mantle that he neither wanted nor stood much of a chance to live up to; and like LBJ, he'll be remembered more for his drastic failures than his successes as a statesman and a leader. Yet, I think it is appropriate that we look back through his presidency not through the perspective of "what could have been done" or "what should have been done," but through that of "what must have been done." Because like many governments and leaders, Mbeki's presidency was not defined by ideals, but by necessities - necessities created by unforseen epidemics and endemic failures of both traditional policy and Western aid. Indeed, Mbeki's presidency was never about curving to the demands of a world that has largely failed Africa or fulfilling the impossible hopes of a people long chained by apartheid. His rule was about acting the part of the "good man" - the man who did what was necessary in the face of criticism and political death.

So I wish the people of South Africa all the best, and I hope that eventual replacement Jacob Zuma, a man who, ironically, reminds me a lot of Richard Nixon, can cast off his history of political scandals (he was implicated in a corrupt weapons deal with a French arms-dealer) and personal problems (he was also charged with rape in 2006) to become the leader that all of Africa needs.