Nelson Mandela, the revered
statesman who emerged from prison after 27 years to lead South Africa out of
decades of apartheid, has died, South African President Jacob Zuma announced
late Thursday.
Mandela was 95.
"He is now resting. He is now
at peace," Zuma said. "Our nation has lost its greatest son. Our
people have lost a father."
"What made Nelson Mandela great
was precisely what made him human," the president said in his late-night
address. "We saw in him what we seek in ourselves."
Mandela will have a state funeral.
Zuma ordered all flags in the nation to be flown at half-staff from Friday
through that funeral.
Mandela, a former president, battled
health issues in recent months, including a recurring lung infection that led
to numerous hospitalizations.
With advancing age and bouts of
illness, Mandela retreated to a quiet life at his boyhood home in the nation's
Eastern Cape Province, where he said he was most at peace.
Despite rare public appearances, he
held a special place in the consciousness of the nation and the world.
A hero to blacks and whites
In a nation healing from the scars
of apartheid, Mandela became a moral compass.
His defiance of white minority rule
and incarceration for fighting against segregation focused the world's
attention on apartheid, the legalized racial segregation enforced by the South
African government until 1994.
In his lifetime, he was a man of
complexities. He went from a militant freedom fighter, to a prisoner, to a
unifying figure, to an elder statesman.
Years after his 1999 retirement from
the presidency, Mandela was considered the ideal head of state. He became a
yardstick for African leaders, who consistently fell short when measured
against him.
Warm, lanky and charismatic in his
silk, earth-toned dashikis, he was quick to admit to his shortcomings,
endearing him further in a culture in which leaders rarely do.
His steely gaze disarmed opponents.
So did his flashy smile.
Former South African President F.W.
de Klerk, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize with Mandela in 1993 for
transitioning the nation from a system of racial segregation, described their
first meeting.
"I had read, of course,
everything I could read about him beforehand. I was well-briefed," he said
last year.
"I was impressed, however, by
how tall he was. By the ramrod straightness of his stature, and realized that
this is a very special man. He had an aura around him. He's truly a very
dignified and a very admirable person."
For many South Africans, he was
simply Madiba, his traditional clan name. Others affectionately called him
Tata, the Xhosa word for father.
A nation on edge
Mandela last appeared in public
during the 2010 World Cup hosted by South Africa. His absences from the
limelight and frequent hospitalizations left the nation on edge, prompting Zuma
to reassure citizens every time he fell sick.
"Mandela is woven into the
fabric of the country and the world," said Ayo Johnson, director of
Viewpoint Africa, which sells content about the continent to media outlets.
When he was around, South Africans
had faith that their leaders would live up to the nation's ideals, according to
Johnson.
"He was a father figure, elder
statesman and global ambassador," Johnson said. "He was the
guarantee, almost like an insurance policy, that South Africa's young democracy
and its leaders will pursue the nation's best interests."
There are telling nuggets of
Mandela's character in the many autobiographies about him.
An unmovable stubbornness. A quick,
easy smile. An even quicker frown when accosted with a discussion he wanted no
part of.
War averted
Despite chronic political violence
in the years preceding the vote that put him in office in 1994, South Africa
avoided a full-fledged civil war in its transition from apartheid to multiparty
democracy. The peace was due in large part to the leadership and vision of
Mandela and de Klerk.
"We were expected by the world
to self-destruct in the bloodiest civil war along racial grounds," Mandela
said during a 2004 celebration to mark a decade of democracy in South Africa.
"Not only did we avert such
racial conflagration, we created amongst ourselves one of the most exemplary
and progressive nonracial and nonsexist democratic orders in the contemporary
world."
Mandela represented a new breed of
African liberation leaders, breaking from others of his era such as Robert
Mugabe by serving one term.
In neighboring Zimbabwe, Mugabe has
been president since 1987. A lot of African leaders overstayed their welcomes
and remained in office for years, sometimes decades, making Mandela an anomaly.
But he was not always popular in
world capitals.
Until 2008, the United States had
placed him and other members of the African National Congress on its terror
list because of their militant fight against the apartheid regime.
1918 Born in the Eastern Cape
1943 Joined African National Congress
1956 Charged with high treason, but charges dropped after a four-year trial
1962 Arrested, convicted of incitement and leaving country without a passport, sentenced to five years in prison
1964 Charged with sabotage, sentenced to life
1990 Freed from prison
1993 Wins Nobel Peace Prize
1994 Elected first black president
1999 Steps down as leader
2001 Diagnosed with prostate cancer
2004 Retires from public life
2005 Announces his son has died of an HIV/Aids-related illness
Name:
Rolihlahla Dalibhunga Mandela. On
his first day of school, he was given the English name “Nelson” by a teacher.
Born:
July 18, 1918
Died:
Thursday, Dec. 5, 2013
Famous Saying:
“The struggle is my life.”
Family background:
Mandela is one of 13 children. His
great-grandfather was a Thembu king and Mandela's father, Chief Henry Gadla
Mandela, was a respected counselor to the Thembu royal family.
Ethnic Group:
The Madiba, his tribal clan, is part
of the Thembu people.
Education:
BA, University of South Africa,
1942: Student, University of the Witwatersrand. Mandela has honourary degrees
from more than 50 international universities and is chancellor of the
University of the North in South Africa.
Occupation:
Lawyer, politician
Historical Notes:
- In 1993, Mandela shared the Nobel Peace Prize with F.W. de Klerk for dismantling apartheid.
- Mandela was inaugurated as the first democratically-elected State President of South Africa on 10 May 1994. He retired from public life in June 1999.
- Mandela is the first living person to receive an honorary Canadian citizenship.
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