Sir Mancham - the dreamer who managed to see a better world
Seychelles' founding president often was reminding that the worst peace is better than any war
I confess - I got up from the chair behind my desk, approached the map of the world that invariably accompanied me in all my offices, and started looking... I had just received an email from my friend from Paris, who wrote that the Founding president of the Republic of Seychelles, Sir James Mancham, will be arriving in Sofia in a few days and would be very happy if I find time to meet him, even for a cup of coffee... Seychelles, Seychelles...
my finger has been circling the Caribbean,
going down to South America, then it started circling Africa until it finally stopped north of Madagascar at a few barely visible spots.
Naturally, I invited Sir James to have lunch together, our talk was long and interesting, both went around the globe with tales, found mutual acquaintances, and perhaps some unexplainable chemistry of ideas, visions, and understandings of life suddenly took place and only a few days later an unknown (Seychellois) number called me.
And I heard the cheerful voice of the ex-president
- Max, you must come to Seychelles, I am talking to our President now, we want you to work for us as Honorary Consul, but you must come in person. We will be waiting for you on Monday...
It was Friday. Thank God, there were never any visas for Seychelles, and hours later I was on the only then possible flight - from Paris.
So this is how it began.
A month or two later, then President James Michel signed a decree that was also approved by the Bulgarian Government and so my future and endless love for this wonderful country has been already formalized.
And also - as he liked to say - he found a reason to come often to Bulgaria, he loved our country,
the frequent meetings with our King Simeon II and the long talks with him,
the dinners in our house, during which he would read us poems he had written in French until almost dawn, while I was almost asleep and my wife Veneta was admiring him. He had discovered something that practically every foreigner found easily in Bulgaria - the wonderful people, always smiling, ready to help a foreigner, to welcome him well, and to make friends quickly.
Sir James was the first President in Seychelles history to be deposed in a coup by his Prime Minister Albert René less than a year after being elected and spent almost 15 years in exile in London. He returned to the capital Victoria, never again managed to win a presidential election, butremains in history as
the most famous and influential Seychellois
in the world.
- You know, I've been through a lot in this life and I know there is nothing more precious than peace and tranquility in a country. Everything else can be overcome - poverty, illiteracy, all sorts of other adversities, but there has never been anything more precious than peace. When I left the Seychelles for London, two days before the coup took place, I left a man with a guitar under every palm tree on these insanely beautiful islands. It was wonderful and even unearthly. I came back after so many years and there was still a Seychellois under every palm tree, but this time instead of a guitar they had guns and machine guns in their hands. And then I said to myself - why did we have this independence if one day we will have to use guns in our own country...
Surely this was the reason Sir James devoted himself solely to this cause. He was a member of every conceivable influential world peace organization, and met with heads of state, prime ministers, and ministers.
Besides he had
the prestigious title of "Knight of the British Empire"
and numerous Doctor Honoris Causa awards from prestigious universities, as well as almost every peace prize broadcast around the world.
He was once telling our King Simeon, then Prime Minister, in detail how difficult it had been for him during those 15 years in exile and how he missed his homeland, when the King somehow delicately, but also a little firmly interrupted him with the words, "But please, Sir James, will you talk to me about exile, I was after all 50 years in this unpleasant situation...". Sir James was silent for a second, and from then on, when he spoke of the King his eyes glowed peculiarly and his tone radiated undisguised respect.
He was publishing a magazine, putting out a newspaper, and maintaining a social media presence, and all his activity was dedicated to telling the world how
there is no good war and no bad peace...
He tried to talk to Arabs and Jews, to belligerents in conflicts in Africa and in America, he tried to send his messages, precisely and calmly, with iron arguments.
"The world is getting better Max and I'm glad I lived to see it and I want to make it even better," he told me one day, immersed in the pool of his lovely heritage house on the main Seychelles island of Mahe, as I stood on a small stool drenched in sweat in a formal suit and tie.
His protocol had gotten the dinner time wrong
and indeed I arrived two hours early strictly official to weld him into the pool with a coconut in my hands and a straw stuck in it. That conversation, however, I will never forget. He - out of the pool, me - on a small stool by the water, in my tight tie knot, absorbing his every word.
- We managed to achieve in Seychelles everything that was in my presidential candidate's program back in 1976 - to have peace, prosperity, and fanatical conservation of nature. We went through unexpected difficulties and obstacles - a coup, a dictatorship, the ban of political parties, and even of parliament, but in the end, the democratic spirit of the Seychellois people managed to overcome all that. My mission now is to tell the world how this happened so that other countries can learn from this experience.
This monologue was over an hour long.
Then Sir James came out, splashed the water on it, and said abruptly, "Enough of this politics, I have prepared a delicious dinner!"
When he came to this country his favorite place was the office of M3 Communication Group, Inc. where he spent most of his time. To this day, I have no explanation for why. He probably fit into the company's atmosphere so he felt like one of us. He would stand at the desks for hours, talk to my colleagues, question them about their work, and talk to each of them, despite the vast difference in their ages, about how important peace is and how so few people in the world understand that.
In the first days of January 2017, we stood on the terrace of his residence, me - as always - in a suit, him in a striped beach shirt and shorts, and this time our topic was quite different: self-esteem. "There is only one truth," he said.
To live well, never, ever stop working.
You can't retire, you just work until the last day, that's the only way happiness comes, that's the only way you're useful to yourself and the people around you.."
This conversation was either an irony of fate, or it was caused by fate itself. A day later I returned to Sofia and slept a little, only to be awakened by the news that Sir James had just departed this world... I returned to Victoria the same day to send him on his last journey. I’ve been thinking of his last words to me day after day since then
And when I go down to downtown Victoria now I must go to a special place to lay flowers in front of two huge, at least five-meter high granite statues, built side by side and the only ones in the world, of Sir James Mancham, and of Nelson Mandela...
Text to the photo: Sir James Mancham and Maxim Behar, Mahe Island, Seychelles, January 2017