Mandela is dead

 
Death has snatched away one of the most celebrated and iconic personalities that graced the world in the past century.

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, a veritable idol in South Africa and hugely adorable figure worldwide, died at his home where he had been receiving medical care after a long battle with lung infection, the same health condition that killed his father when he was nine years.

His death, coming weeks after his 95th birthday, has dealt a big blow to millions of loved ones. For millions who believe Madiba had lived a fulfilled life in age and achievements, it does not invoke any hard feelings.

South African President, Jacob Zuma announced Mandela's death on national television yesterday. 

“Our nation has lost its greatest son” Mr Zuma said.

The former anti-apartheid campaigner and first democratically-elected President of South Africa had been rushed to hospital on many occasions since last December, but his unwavering spirit that enabled him to survive 27 years in jail, overpowered the icy hands of death, as he survived many bouts of emergencies until his condition got critical lately.

The outpouring of well-wishes during those critical moments in hospital and the grief that his death, even at 95, has unleashed to the entire world are vivid testimonies of his celebrity status globally.

Health status 
Since December 2012, Nelson Mandela had been hospitalised on many occasions, as he sought treatment for a recurring lung infection.

Those occasions drew South Africans and well-wishers across the world to their knees in fervent prayer for his speedy recovery.

After visiting Mandela in hospital on Sunday, June 23, 2013, South Africa President Jacob Zuma appealed to the nation and the world to pray for him, his family and the medical team.

Madiba, as Mandela was widely called in South Africa, had had some other health problems in the past that were equally troubling.

He underwent prostate surgery in 1985 and tuberculosis treatment in 1988 while he was a prisoner.

Childhood and education
Born on July 18, 1918 to Nonqaphi Nosekeni and Henry Mgadla Mandela, chief councillor to the paramount chief of the Tembu, Nelson Mandela spent his early childhood in the Transkei, being groomed to become a chief.

In that respect, he was offered the best of education, having attended basic school at Clarkebury Boarding Institute where he obtained his Junior Certificate at and Healdtown, a Wesleyan secondary school of some repute, where he successfully matriculated.

Thereafter, Nelson Mandela's education was never smooth. While pursuing a Bachelor of Arts degree programme at the University College of Fort Hare, he was expelled for joining in a student protest.

He managed to complete the degree programme though through the University of South Africa and went back to Fort Hare for his graduation in 1943.

Later, Mandela enrolled at the University of the Witwatersrand for an LLB programme but he abandoned it in 1948 without graduating, perhaps, based on his confession that he was a poor student.

Nelson Mandela started another academic pursuit through the University of London but again, he did not complete that degree programme.

However, in 1989, while in prison, he was awarded an LLB by the University of South Africa, graduating in absentia at the school's congregation in Cape Town.

Civil rights activism 
The inability of Nelson Mandela to complete many of his degree programmes might be due to his utter abhorrence for the apartheid regime in South Africa and the strong desire to fight against same, rather than his confession of being a poor student.

Spending his childhood in the Transkei where he was being groomed to become a chief, Nelson Mandela learnt about his ancestor's valour during the wars of resistance and that inspired him to also join the freedom struggle of his people.

As a young man, indeed, in his 20s, he had become actively involved in the anti-apartheid movement, but in that same early stage of his civil rights activism, he began paying the price for liberty after being expelled from the University College of Fort Hare for engaging in students protest.

That punishment did not crackdown Madiba; it rather thrust him into the deep throats of civil rights activism, as he participated in the founding of the African National Congress (ANC) Youth League in 1944.

His rise to the political pinnacle had begun fast and swift, as he became the ANC Youth League's national secretary in 1948, and two years later in 1950, he became its national president, rising further to become one of four deputy presidents of the ANC in October 1952.

The apartheid regime, concerned about the growing turbulence on the political front, banned the ANC and the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) in 1960.

But Mandela channelled his energies into a different and wild form of civil rights activism, playing a lead role in the formation of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the ANC's armed wing, of which he became the first commander-in-chief, to launch an underground struggle.

In spite of a travel ban on political activists, Mandela managed to outwit the security apparatus to travel outside the country during which period he underwent military training in Algeria and some other African countries.

Mandela in Ghana
The foreign trip of Nelson Mandela brought him to Accra, Ghana in April 1962, to take inspiration from Ghana's first President Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, who, as a leading voice of the liberation struggle in Africa, provided inspiration and support for the anti-apartheid struggle.

Arrests and charges
In the course of his civil rights activism, Nelson Mandela challenged the political establishment in many ways, leading to his arrest.

In December 1952, he and 19 other activists were arrested and charged under the Suppression of Communism Act for their participation in the Defiance Campaign, a national protest against laws curtailing the freedoms of blacks, Indians and coloured people in South Africa.

He was consequently sentenced to nine months' imprisonment with hard labour and later handed a six-month ban from attending meetings or leaving Johannesburg.

Again, in December 1956, Nelson Mandela was among 156 political activists arrested and charged with high treason for pursuing a campaign leading to the adoption of The Freedom Charter in 1955.

Later, Mandela joined seven other accused persons, including his close friend, Walter Sisulu, who faced charges of sabotage and conspiracy to overthrow the government in the Rivonia Trial in October 1963.

But a profound statement he made at the trial received worldwide publicity.

"I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. 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," he remarked.

All the eight accused persons were sentenced to life imprisonment on June 12, 1964, marking the beginning of a new life for Mandela on the Robben Island.

Imprisonment 
In 1964, the exact year the Civil Rights Act was passed in the United States to reflect the growing consciousness of civil rights activism, and at a time when many African countries had been liberated from colonialism, the apartheid regime in South Africa sentenced Mandela to life imprisonment for championing the liberation of black South Africans.

But his incarceration on the Robben Island did not silence him from upholding his convictions; neither did it erase his thoughts from the minds of freedom fighters, as he continued to keep close contact with ANC leaders, while well-meaning people, both home and abroad, rallied around a relentless campaign for his release and the liberation of South Africa.

Many songs were composed in his name and for his release from jail.

But the freedom struggle came at a huge cost as many people, including children, died in pursuit of freedom and justice. Notable among them were hundreds of innocent schoolchildren who were massacred in Soweto in 1976 while protesting against a directive that they could not be taught in their own language.

Release and presidency
After holding Mandela in prison for 27 years, the apartheid regime succumb to national and international pressure to release him, and in February 1990, Madiba walked out of the prison walls that had snuffed a greater part of his youthful life from him.

He was subsequently released from jail on Sunday, February 11, 1990, and as a person destined to be great, he led the ANC to win the country's first multiracial elections in 1994 with an overwhelming majority.

It is on record that Mandela's inauguration as President attracted the largest number of world leaders since the funeral of former US President John F. Kennedy in 1963, a clear testimony of his international repute.

In keeping to his promise and in a rare act exemplified by African leaders, he ruled for only one term in office as he handed over the baton to Thabo Mbeki in 1999 and plunged into a private life, mostly as a peacemaker.

Peacemaker
After his release from jail, Nelson Mandela played a key role in talks to end white minority rule in South Africa.

The efforts he made in that regard, together with then President F. W. de Klerk, earned them a joint Nobel Peace Prize in 1993.

With South Africa speedily getting out of the woods of apartheid, Nelson Mandela re-oriented his activism to making peace, using his huge influence and status as former President to mediate in civil conflicts in Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo and other countries.

Marital issues 
After his expulsion from the University College of Fort Hare for engaging in a student protest, Nelson Mandela returned to his homeland but the Regent, furious about his conduct, decided to arrange a marriage for his adopted son with the view to ensuring that Mandela's life was properly planned.

But Madiba was not enthused about the plot and so he fled to Johannesburg to begin a marriage with civil rights activism.

Fleeing from that arranged marriage did not in any way mean Mandela disliked women. Indeed, he married three times, an indication that he had a soft spot for women.

First, he married Walter Sisulu's cousin Evelyn Mase, a nurse, in 1944. They had four children - two sons (Madiba Thembekile 'Thembi' and Makgatho) and two daughters both called Makaziwe.

After 11 years of marriage, Mandela and Evelyn separated in 1955 and finally divorced in 1958.

In that same year, even as Mandela continued his civil rights activism and was facing trial, he could still reserve some attention for the beauty of a woman, as he got married to Winnie Madikizela, a social worker.

They had two daughters - Zenani and Zindziswa.
But that marriage was largely procured in absentia as Mandela served a life imprisonment on the Robben Island, incarceration that kept man and wife apart for 27 years.

The couple eventually divorced in 1996, six years after Mandela had been released from prison and two years into his tenure as first democratically-elected President of South Africa.

Nelson Mandela contracted his third and final marriage in a unique style as he married Graca Machel, widow of late Mozambican President Samora Machel on his 80th birthday in 1998.

Retirement
After devoting all his life to the service of mankind, Nelson Mandela officially retired from public life in June 2004.

He made his last public appearance during the final match of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

There is no doubt that Nelson Mandela was a great man in his generation, and as the world mourn him, it is expected that his memory would inspire a deep sense of freedom, justice, peace and unity among all mankind.

As he once said: "Death is something inevitable. When a man has done what he considers to be his duty to his people and his country, he can rest in peace. I believe I have made that effort and that is, therefore, why I will sleep for the eternity."

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