no man can live forever.... Nelson certianly lived longer than many of his counterparts...
his image and what he represents however can live for as long as people remember him....
Hell it can remain until there is nothing left of the memory of the real man, his faults, his loves, his lusts, his pain, and his regrets... only the legend.
Nelson did become a legend, he and his earler life struggles came to symbolize South Africa especially to outsiders who never lived there...
Nelson Mandella today equates to South Africa, just as much if not more-so than the earlier racial conflicts....
myself, I'd rather have known the man not the legend or the image...