Freedom fighter, prisoner, moral compass and South Africa's symbol of the
struggle against racial oppression.
That
was Nelson Mandela, who emerged from prison after 27
years to lead his country out of decades of apartheid.
His
message of reconciliation, not vengeance, inspired the world after he
negotiated a peaceful end to segregation and urged forgiveness for the white
government that imprisoned him.
"As
I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if
I didn't leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I'd still be in prison,"
Mandela said after he was freed in 1990.
Mandela,
a former president, battled health issues in recent years, including a
recurring lung infection that led to numerous hospitalizations.
Despite
rare public appearances, he held a special place in the consciousness of the
nation and the world.
"Our
nation has lost its greatest son. Our people have lost a father," South
African President Jacob Zuma said. "What made Nelson Mandela great was
precisely what made him human. We saw in him what we seek in ourselves."
His
U.S. counterpart, Barack Obama, echoed the same sentiment.
"We've
lost one of the most influential, courageous and profoundly good human beings
that any of us will share time with on this Earth," Obama said. "He
no longer belongs to us -- he belongs to the ages."
A hero to
blacks and whites
Mandela
became the nation's conscience as it healed from the scars of apartheid.
is
defiance of white minority rule and long 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.
"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 word for father in his Xhosa tribe.
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 before 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.
Humble
beginnings
Rolihlahla
Mandela started his journey in the tiny village of Mvezo, in the hills of the
Eastern Cape, where he was born on July 18, 1918. His teacher later named him
Nelson as part of a custom to give all schoolchildren Christian names.
His
father died when he was 9, and the local tribal chief took him in and educated
him.
Mandela
attended school in rural Qunu, where he retreated before returning to
Johannesburg to be near medical facilities.
He
briefly attended University College of Fort Hare but was expelled after taking
part in a protest with Oliver Tambo, with whom he later operated the nation's
first black law firm.
In
subsequent years, he completed a bachelor's degree through correspondence
courses and studied law at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. He
left without graduating in 1948.
Four
years before he left the university, he helped form the youth league of the
African National Congress, hoping to transform the organization into a more
radical movement. He was dissatisfied with the ANC and its old-guard politics.
And
so began Mandela's civil disobedience and lifelong commitment to breaking the
shackles of segregation in South Africa.
Escalating
trouble
In
1956, Mandela and dozens of other political activists were charged with high
treason for activities against the government. His trial lasted five years, but
he was ultimately acquitted.
Meanwhile,
the fight for equality got bloodier.
Four
years after his treason charges, police shot 69 unarmed black protesters in
Sharpeville township as they demonstrated outside a station. The Sharpeville
Massacre was condemned worldwide, and it spurred Mandela to take a more
militant tone in the fight against apartheid.
The
South African government outlawed the ANC after the massacre, and an angry
Mandela went underground to form a new military wing of the organization.
"There
are many people who feel that it is useless and futile for us to continue
talking peace and nonviolence against a government whose reply is only savage
attacks on an unarmed and defenseless people," Mandela said during his
time on the run.
During
that period, he left South Africa and secretly traveled under a fake name. The
press nicknamed him "the Black Pimpernel" because of his police
evasion tactics.
Militant
resistance
The
African National Congress heeded calls for stronger action against the
apartheid regime, and Mandela helped launch an armed wing to attack government
symbols, including post offices and offices.
The
armed struggle was a defense mechanism against government violence, he said.
"My
people, Africans, are turning to deliberate acts of violence and of force
against the government in order to persuade the government, in the only
language which this government shows by its own behavior that it
understands," Mandela said at the time.
"If
there is no dawning of sanity on the part of the government -- ultimately, the
dispute between the government and my people will finish up by being settled in
violence and by force. "
The
campaign of violence against the state resulted in civilian casualties.
Long
imprisonment
In
1962, Mandela secretly received military training in Morocco and Ethiopia. When
he returned home later that year, he was arrested and charged with illegal exit
of the country and incitement to strike.
Mandela
represented himself at the trial and was briefly imprisoned before being
returned to court. In 1964, after the famous Rivonia trial, he was sentenced to
life in prison for sabotage and conspiracy to overthrow the government.
At
the trial, instead of testifying, he opted to give a speech that was more than
four hours long, and ended with a defiant statement.
"I
have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black
domination," he said. "I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and
free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal
opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if
needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die."
His
next stop was the Robben Island prison, where he spent 18 of his 27 years in
detention. He described his early days there as harsh.
"There
was a lot of physical abuse, and many of my colleagues went through that
humiliation," he said.
One
of those colleagues was Khehla Shubane, 57, who was imprisoned in Robben Island
during Mandela's last years there. Though they were in different sections of
the prison, he said, Mandela was a towering figure.
"He
demanded better rights for us all in prison. The right to get more letters, get
newspapers, listen to the radio, better food, right to study," Shubane
said. "It may not sound like much to the outside world, but when you are
in prison, that's all you have."
And
Mandela's khaki prison pants, he said, were always crisp and ironed.
"Most
of us chaps were lazy, we would hang our clothes out to dry and wear them with
creases. We were in a prison, we didn't care. But Mandela, every time I saw
him, he looked sharp."
After
18 years, he was transferred to other prisons, where he experienced better
conditions until he was freed in 1990.
Months
before his release, he obtained a bachelor's in law in absentia from the
University of South Africa.
Calls for
release
His
freedom followed years of an international outcry led by Winnie Mandela, a
social worker whom he married in 1958, three months after divorcing his first
wife.
Mandela
was banned from reading newspapers, but his wife provided a link to the outside
world.
She
told him of the growing calls for his release and updated him on the fight
against apartheid.
World
pressure mounted to free Mandela with the imposition of political, economic and
sporting sanctions, and the white minority government became more isolated.
In
1988 at age 70, Mandela was hospitalized with tuberculosis, a disease whose
effects plagued him until the day he died. He recovered and was sent to a
minimum security prison farm, where he was given his own quarters and could
receive additional visitors.
Among
them, in an unprecedented meeting, was South Africa's president, P.W. Botha.
Change
was in the air.
When
Botha's successor, de Klerk, took over, he pledged to negotiate an end to
apartheid.
Free at
last
On
February 11, 1990, Mandela walked out of prison to thunderous applause, his
clenched right fist raised above his head.
Still
as upright and proud, he would say, as the day he walked into prison nearly
three decades earlier.
He
reassured ANC supporters that his release was not part of a government deal and
informed whites that he intended to work toward reconciliation.
Four
years after his release, in South Africa's first multiracial elections, he
became the nation's first black president.
"The
day he was inducted as president, we stood on the terraces of the Union
Building," de Klerk remembered years later. "He took my hand and
lifted it up. He put his arm around me, and we showed a unity that resounded
through South Africa and the world."
Broken
marriage, then love
His
union to Winnie Mandela, however, did not have such a happy ending. They
officially divorced in 1996.
For
the two, it was a fiery love story, derailed by his ambition to end apartheid.
During his time in prison, Mandela wrote his wife long letters, expressing his
guilt at putting political activism before family. Before the separation,
Winnie Mandela was implicated in violence, including a conviction for being an
accessory to assault in the death of a teenage township activist.
Mandela
found love again two years after the divorce.
On
his 80th birthday, he married Graca Machel, the widow of former Mozambique
president, Samora Machel.
Only
three of Mandela's children are still alive. He had 18 grandchildren and 12
great-grandchildren.
Symbolic
rugby
South
Africa's fight for reconciliation was epitomized at the 1995rugby World Cup Final in Johannesburg, when it played heavily
favored New Zealand.
As
the dominant sport of white Afrikaners, rugby was reviled by blacks in South
Africa. They often cheered for rivals playing their national team.
Mandela's
deft use of the national team to heal South Africa was captured in director
Clint Eastwood's 2009 feature film "Invictus," starring Morgan
Freeman as Mandela and Matt Damon as Francois Pienaar, the white South African
captain of the rugby team.
Before
the real-life game, Mandela walked onto the pitch, wearing a green-and-gold
South African jersey bearing Pienaar's number on the back.
"I
will never forget the goosebumps that stood on my arms when he walked out onto
the pitch before the game started," said Rory Steyn, his bodyguard for
most of his presidency.
"That
crowd, which was almost exclusively white ... started to chant his name. That
one act of putting on a No. 6 jersey did more than any other statement in
bringing white South Africans and Afrikaners on side with new South
Africa."
A promise
honored
In
1999, Mandela did not seek a second term as president, keeping his promise to
serve only one term. Thabo Mbeki succeeded him in June of the same year.
After
leaving the presidency, he retired from active politics, but remained in the
public eye, championing causes such as human rights, world peace and the fight
against AIDS.
It
was a decision born of tragedy: His only surviving son, Makgatho Mandela, died
of AIDS at age 55 in 2005. Another son, Madiba Thembekile, was killed in a car
crash in 1969.
Mandela's
90th birthday party in London's Hyde Park was dedicated to HIV awareness and
prevention, and was titled 46664, his prison number on Robben Island.
A
resounding voice
Mandela
continued to be a voice for developing nations.
He
criticized U.S. President George W. Bush for launching the 2003 war against
Iraq, and accused the United States of "wanting to plunge the world into a
Holocaust."
And
as he was acclaimed as the force behind ending apartheid, he made it clear he
was only one of many who helped transform South Africa into a democracy.
In
2004, a few weeks before he turned 86, he announced his retirement from public
life to spend more time with his loved ones.
"Don't
call me, I'll call you," he said as he stepped away from his hectic
schedule.
'Like a
boy of 15'
But
there was a big treat in store for the avid sportsman.
When
South Africa was awarded the 2010 football World Cup, Mandela said he felt
"like a boy of 15."
In
July that year, Mandela beamed and waved at fans during the final of the tournament
in Johannesburg's Soccer City. It was his last public appearance.
"I
would like to be remembered not as anyone unique or special, but as part of a
great team in this country that has struggled for many years, for decades and
even centuries," he said. "The greatest glory of living lies not in
never falling, but in rising every time you fall."
With
him gone, South Africans are left to embody his promise and idealism.
