Nelson Mandela Dies at 95 South Africa's president says Madiba has died. By Naeesa Aziz
Posted: 12/05/2013 04:45 PM EST
Filed Under South Africa, Global News, Africa, Africa Political, Apartheid, Nelson Mandela Former South African president and
activist Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela has died at age 95. Mandela had recently been hospitalized in
Pretoria for more than a month for a recurring
lung infection. The Mandela family, his second
wife Winnie Mandela, and other close friends
visited with the former leader upon his arrival,
demonstrating the severity of the situation to South Africans and the global community.
Throughout his hospital stay, conflicting reports
on Mandela's condition circulated the media,
ranging from stable to unresponsive. A Mandela
family fued regarding preparations for his
passing and his burial also briefly surfaced. Despite South Africans' gradually coming to terms
with the imminent passing of Madiba, the
revered icon lived to see his 95th birthday, which coincided with the internationally-
celebrated Mandela Day. Community service celebrations took place around the world, in
cities like Rome, Bolivia and the Philippines. With
the holiday's overarching aim of inspiring
individuals to change the world for the better,
Mandela Day 2013 helped to place a firm
emphasis on the former leader's tolerance and reinforce his renowned legacy. Born in Transkei, South Africa, on July 18, 1918,
Mandela was the son of Chief Henry Mandela of
the Tembu Tribe. He later became the first
member of his family to attend school; enrolling
at the University College of Fort Hare and the
University of Witwatersrand and qualifying in law in 1942. Just two years later, in 1944, Mandela joined the African National Congress and began his ascent into the world of anti-apartheid activism. He also
founded a law firm with friend and colleague
Oliver Tambo, which offered free and low-cost
legal counsel to Blacks. For nearly the next twenty years, Mandela would
devote his energies to non-violent struggle
against the country’s repressive apartheid regime, earning him a treason charge of which he was eventually acquitted. However, the arrival
of the early sixties brought a new Mandela with
new ideas. In 1961, Mandela began to advocate
for armed struggle as the most effective way to
make changes to the racially oppressive system.
With his newfound ideas, he founded the ANC splinter group Umkhonto we Sizwe and organized a three-day workers strike for which
he was tried twice and eventually sentenced to
life in prison. Mandela served 27 years in prison and was
released in 1990 after president Frederik Willem
de Klerk took office and heeded calls from an
international campaign launched in Mandela’s
favor. After South Africa formally ended
apartheid in 1994, Mandela became the first Black president of the country after garnering a
majority of votes in the first ever fair, democratic
elections. Although Mandela left office in June 1999, he
continued to be an internationally recognized personality until his death. In 1993, he received a Nobel Peace Prize alongside apartheid-era South African president
de Klerk for “their work for the peaceful
termination of the apartheid regime and for
laying the foundations for a new democratic
South Africa.” In 1998, the U.S. government
bestowed the Congressional Medal of Honor upon Mandela, and in 2009, his birthday was declared as an international day devoted to public service. People around the world have been asked to
mark the occasion by giving 67 minutes of their
time to work in their local community — one
minute for every year of Mandela's public service. Mandela is survived by his wife Graça Machel,
three daughters Makaziwe, Zenani and Zindzi,
four step-children, seventeen grandchildren and
eleven great-grandchildren.[s]
http://www.bet.com/news/global/2013/12/05/nelson-mandela-dies-at-95.html[/s]