Nelson Mandela :

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela ( 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African anti-apartheid revolutionary,politician, and philanthropist, who served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. He was the country's first black chief executive, and the first elected in a fully representative democratic election. His government focused on dismantling the legacy ofapartheid through tackling institutionalised racism and fostering racial reconciliation. Politically an African nationalist and democratic socialist, he served as President of the African National Congress (ANC) party from 1991 to 1997.

A Xhosa born to the Thembu royal family, Mandela attended the University of Fort Hare and the University of the Witwatersrand, where he studied law. Living in Johannesburg, he became involved in anti-colonial politics, joining the ANC and becoming a founding member of its Youth League. After the Afrikaner minority government of the National Party established apartheid – a system of racial segregation that privileged whites – in 1948 he rose to prominence in the ANC's 1952 anti-apartheid Defiance Campaign, was appointed President of the organisation's Transvaal branch, and co-organised the 1955 Congress of the People. Working as a lawyer, he was repeatedly arrested for seditious activities and, with the ANC leadership, was unsuccessfully prosecuted in the Treason Trial from 1956 to 1961. Influenced by Marxism, he secretly joined the South African Communist Party(SACP). Although initially committed to non-violent protest, in association with the SACP he co-founded the militant Umkhonto we Sizwe in 1961, leading a sabotage campaign against the government. In 1962, he was arrested, convicted of conspiracy to overthrow the state, and sentenced to life imprisonment in the Rivonia Trial.

Mandela served 27 years in prison, initially on Robben Island, and later in Pollsmoor Prison and Victor Verster Prison. Amid international pressure and growing fear of a racial civil war, President F. W. de Klerk released him in 1990. Mandela and de Klerk negotiated an end to apartheid and organised the 1994 multiracial elections, in which Mandela led the ANC to victory and became president. Leading a broad coalition government, which promulgated a new constitution, Mandela emphasised reconciliation between the country's racial groups and created the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to investigate past human rights abuses. While continuing with the former government's economic liberalism, his administration introduced measures to encourage land reform, combat poverty, and expand healthcare services. Internationally, he acted as mediator in the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing trial and served as Secretary-General of the Non-Aligned Movement from 1998–99. Declining a second presidential term, he was succeeded by his deputy, Thabo Mbeki. Mandela became an elder statesman, focusing on charitable work in combating poverty and HIV/AIDS through the Nelson Mandela Foundation.

Mandela was a controversial figure for much of his life. Critics on the right denounced him as a communist terrorist, while those on the radical left deemed him too eager to negotiate and reconcile with apartheid's supporters. Conversely, he gained international acclaim for his activism, having received more than 250 honours, including the Nobel Peace Prize, the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the Soviet Lenin Peace Prize. He is held in deep respect within South Africa, where he is often referred to by hisXhosa clan name, Madiba, or as Tata ("Father"), and described as the "Father of the Nation"

Early life

Childhood: 1918–34

Mandela was born on 18 July 1918 in the village of Mvezo in Umtata, then a part of South Africa's Cape Province.^[2] Given the forename Rolihlahla, a Xhosa term colloquially meaning "troublemaker",^[3] in later years he became known by his clan name, Madiba.^[4] His patrilineal great-grandfather, Ngubengcuka, was king of the Thembu people in theTranskeian Territories of South Africa's modern Eastern Cape province.^[5] One of Ngubengcuka's sons, named Mandela, became Nelson's grandfather and the source of his surname.^[6] Because Mandela was only the king's child by a wife of the Ixhiba clan, a so-called "Left-Hand House", the descendants of his cadet branch of the royal family weremorganatic, ineligible to inherit the throne but recognised as hereditary royal councillors.^[7] His father, Gadla Henry Mphakanyiswa, was a local chief and councillor to the monarch; he was appointed to the position in 1915, after his predecessor was accused of corruption by a governing white magistrate.^[8] In 1926, Gadla was also sacked for corruption, but Nelson was told that his father had lost his job for standing up to the magistrate's unreasonable demands.^[9] A devotee of the god Qamata,^[10] Gadla was apolygamist, having four wives, four sons and nine daughters, who lived in different villages. Nelson's mother was Gadla's third wife, Nosekeni Fanny, who was daughter of Nkedama of the Right Hand House and a member of the amaMpemvu clan of Xhosa.^[11]

"No one in my family had ever attended school [...] On the first day of school my teacher, Miss Mdingane, gave each of us an English name. This was the custom among Africans in those days and was undoubtedly due to the British bias of our education. That day, Miss Mdingane told me that my new name was Nelson. Why this particular name I have no idea."

— Mandela, 1994^[12]

Later stating that his early life was dominated by traditional Thembu custom and taboo,^[13] Mandela grew up with two sisters in his mother's kraal in the village of Qunu, where he tended herds as a cattle-boy, spending much time outside with other boys.^[14] Both his parents were illiterate, but being a devout Christian, his mother sent him to a local Methodist school when he was about seven. Baptised a Methodist, Mandela was given the English forename of "Nelson" by his teacher.^[15]When Mandela was about nine, his father came to stay at Qunu, where he died of an undiagnosed ailment which Mandela believed to be lung disease.^[16] Feeling "cut adrift", he later said that he inherited his father's "proud rebelliousness" and "stubborn sense of fairness".^[17]

Mandela's mother took him to the "Great Place" palace at Mqhekezweni, where he was entrusted under the guardianshipof Thembu regent, Chief Jongintaba Dalindyebo. Although he did not see his mother again for many years, Mandela felt that Jongintaba and his wife Noengland treated him as their own child, raising him alongside their son, Justice, and daughter, Nomafu.^[18] As Mandela attended church services every Sunday with his guardians, Christianity became a significant part of his life.^[19] He attended a Methodist mission school located next to the palace, studying English, Xhosa, history and geography.^[20] He developed a love of African history, listening to the tales told by elderly visitors to the palace, and became influenced by the anti-imperialist rhetoric of the visiting Chief Joyi.^[21] At the time he nevertheless considered the European colonialists not as oppressors but as benefactors who had brought education and other benefits to southern Africa.^[22] Aged 16, he, Justice and several other boys travelled to Tyhalarha to undergo the circumcision ritual that symbolically marked their transition from boys to men; the rite over, he was given the name Dalibunga.^[23]

Illness and death: 2011–2013

Main article: Death of Nelson Mandela

Members of the public paying their respects outside Mandela's Houghton home

In February 2011, Mandela was briefly hospitalised with a respiratory infection, attracting international attention,^[348] before being re-hospitalised for a lung infection and gallstone removal in December 2012. After a successful medical procedure in early March 2013, his lung infection recurred and he was briefly hospitalised in Pretoria. In June 2013, his lung infection worsened and he was rehospitalised in Pretoria in a serious condition.Cape Town Archbishop Thabo Makgoba visited Mandela at the hospital and prayed with Machel, while Zuma cancelled a trip to Mozambique to visit him the following day. In September 2013, Mandela was discharged from hospital, although his condition remained unstable.^[356]

After suffering from a prolonged respiratory infection, Mandela died on 5 December 2013 at the age of 95, at around 20:50 local time(UTC+2) at his home in Houghton, surrounded by his family.Zuma publicly announced his death on television. proclaiming ten days of national mourning, a memorial service held at Johannesburg's FNB Stadium on 10 December 2013, and 8 December as a national day of prayer and reflection. Mandela's body lay in state from 11 to 13 December at the Union Buildings in Pretoria and a state funeral was held on 15 December in Qunu. Approximately 90 representatives of foreign states travelled to South Africa to attend memorial events.^] Images of and tributes to Mandela proliferated across social media.^[363] His $4.1 million estate was left to his widow, other family members, staff, and educational institutions.