Millions of people lined up for miles and miles over the course of three days in late April 1994, many of them voting for the first time in their lives in their country’s first democratic elections — who can forget such images?

The whole world seemed to hold its collective breath as it watched South Africa take its first steps away from the brutal apartheid racial segregation polices of the preceding 48 years (and from centuries of European colonialization of southern Africa before that) and into a new era of liberation and freedom.

By now, we all know the outcome of those historic elections. The African National Congress won with a 62-percent majority. A week later Nelson Mandela, the president of the ANC, was nominated in the South African parliament to assume the presidency of the republic.

And on this very day 20 years ago — May 10, 1994 — a dignified Mandela stood before his nation as president and delivered his inaugural address to a free South Africa. It was truly an unforgettable moment in world history. Hundreds of dignitaries from around the globe came to the southern tip of Africa to witness the event in person and an estimated one billion people around the planet watched the inauguration on TV via satellite broadcast.

And me? I celebrated in the only way I knew how: I was inspired to write something about it.

As I remember, I faxed a poem I had written for the occasion of Mandela’s inauguration to government offices in South Africa as well as to the Tokyo office of the ANC. I received back a phone call not long afterward from Jerry Matsila, the Tokyo ANC representative, thanking me.

So, somewhere in the tons of boxes of historical archives preserved by the ANC somewhere in South Africa today, I would like to believe, is a faded piece of paper (dated May 10, 1994) that has my humble poem, F is for the Future, printed on it:

F is for the FUTURE our children will bring
R is for the RIGHT to hear the songs they must sing
E is for EVERYTHING under Mama Afrika’s sun
E is for EQUALITY for each and every one
D is for the final DEFEAT of oppression
O is for ONE PEOPLE moving in a good direction
M is for MANDELA and the ANC
Now and forever: The people will be free!!

My son would be born here in Japan just a couple months later in July 1994, and I was thinking of him and all the children of South Africa when I originally wrote this. What kind of future would they face? What challenges would they confront in the years ahead? What mark of their own would they be leaving on the world?

Today, 20 years later, we see the answer.

Mandela is now gone, having passed on five months ago, but the nation continues to move forward in his mighty shadow. For the generation of South Africans born after apartheid and into a free, democratic South Africa — the so-called “born-free” generation — the recent national elections held in South Africa just a couple weeks ago in April 2014 marked their first time to vote. The SABC, South Africa’s public broadcaster, aired this memorable program on the 20th anniversary of official “Freedom Day” celebrations, looking back at the historic elections of 1994.

The future of South Africa is now, in many ways, in the hands of the youth who have come into the world after apartheid. They will take up the challenges that the evil system of apartheid has bestowed on them and they will shine their own light on the way forward from here. And the challenges are many: economic, social and educational disparities that still pose a great obstacle to the reconciliation of the “rainbow nation” for which Mandela worked all his life.

When I look back on this day 20 years ago, as Mandela stood on that podium under the African sun, raised his hand and took the oath of office before the eyes of the world, I am overcome with emotion. The road to freedom was a long one, and many died and were injured along the way. But freedom for South Africans was inevitable — just as it as for any people in the world who hold a yearning, burning flame of desire to be free deep in their souls.

I just feel grateful that as a writer, I was able to raise my voice at the time and use the power of the pen to join, in my own small way, the international outcry against apartheid and for a future South Africa that would be just, equitable and free to determine its own fate.

There is just too much to write on a special day like today, 20 years on. So let me just end it here with a simple but heartfelt wish:

Godspeed Mandela, and may your eternal journey continue to be a good one. Congratulations, South Africa, on having hit the 20-year mark. It all begins from here; thank you for teaching the world what being human is all about. And Mayibuye (Rise again), Mother Africa, for when the continental cradle of humanity rises, we all rise along with you.