The imagery and ideals associated with South Africa’s struggle and the post-1994 miracle years of the Mandela presidency again gripped the imagination of the country and the world on 18 July 2009. It was largely because the great struggle hero, nation-builder and international icon celebrated his 91st birthday, but given greater impetus and thrust onto the world’s stage by the Mandela Day campaign.

The Mandela Day initiative – 67 Minutes of Humanity – was inspired by the legacy and contribution of Tata Madiba and enjoyed immense publicity and widespread support. It was endorsed by US President Barack Obama and supported by Bill Clinton, Clint Eastwood, Robert De Niro, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Stevie Wonder and, yes, even Carla Bruni.

Apart from the star power associated with the events surrounding the campaign, which included a concert organised in New York City with an A-list line-up, the initiative’s credibility and intention speaks to a global audience currently gripped by despondency and disillusionment with the state of human existence, framed in the broader context by the harsh realities of unsustainable development and a global economic recession.

As a global call to action, armed with the goal of making a difference, the event sought to speak to the “Yes We Can” generation by reminding the world of what can be, and is, right, good and beautiful about humanity and the magnanimity of the human spirit.

Despite joking that I’ll spend more time in bed, doing the world a huge favour by shutting up for 67 minutes more than usual, the project speaks to me on so many levels: as a concerned South African citizen, a Mandela Rhodes Scholar committed to “living the legacy” and because of my association with and commitment to the Rotary Foundation’s “service above self”.

Regardless of Mandla Mandela’s attempt to have the day focus on the contribution of the Mandela family more broadly, I prefer the original intention behind it, as “an annual celebration of Nelson Mandela’s life and a global call to action for people to recognise their individual power to make an imprint and change the world around them.”

It’s about empowerment, stupid! It’s about channelling that “Madiba Feva” into something sustainable, constructive and transformational for yourself, those around you, and the context in which you operate to make an imprint. It is also, specifically, about keeping it “REEL,” those four principles embodied and celebrated by Madiba and instrumental to living the legacy: Reconciliation, Education, (Social) Entrepreneurship and Leadership of self, others and context.

A conscious pursuit of and a pro-active commitment to keeping it “REEL” provides the world with an immense transformative potential in an era in which desperate and meaningful change is sorely needed. By consciously making every day Madiba day and by drawing inspiration from the principles, example and humanity of Tata Madiba, we can dramatically “turn inspiration into action”. We can empower the self, others and our context through a daily dedication to reconciliation, education, entrepreneurship and leadership and shape the domestic and global future in which we all find our meaningful and rightful place as equal and valuable human beings.

Marius Redelinghuys is a 2009 Mandela Rhodes Scholar and an aspiring academic and politician.