Last night the world said goodbye to the father of the new South African nation.
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela affectionately known to South Africans and the world simply as Madiba, passed away this week after a protracted illness.
He is arguably the greatest South African ever to rise to prominence on the world stage because of his steadfast activism against the tyranny that was the apartheid regime and then after his release from prison the grace, compassion and forgiveness he showed and his dedication to a free and equal country.
He started life as part of the Madiba Clan in Mvezo in the Transkei. It was as a child that he heard stories of his ancestors’ bravery during the wars of resistance and this planted the seed of what became his dream of making a contribution to the freedom struggle.
In 1944 he married Evelyn Mase a nurse. The couple had two sons and two daughters and divorced in 1958.
He began his studies at the University of Fort Hare and completed his BA through the University of South Africa.
He started studying for his LLB through the University of the Witwatersrand but didn’t complete it until 1989 during his last years of imprisonment.
He was allowed to practise law before his imprisonment on the strength of his BA and a two year diploma and opened South Africa’s first black law practise with Oliver Tambo called Mandela and Tambo.
He became increasingly politically active and was banned for the first time in 1952.
In 1955 he was arrested along with 156 activists which led to the now infamous Treason Trial.
The trial ended with the final 28 accused being acquitted.
In 1958 he married Winnie Madikizela and had two daughters.
They divorced in 1996.
In October 1963 Mandela along with nine others were arrested for sabotage resulting in the Rivonia Trial during which they faced the death penalty.
His speech at the end of the trial has been immortalised and gave a hint at the man who would become the father of a free South Africa decades later: “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.”
On June 11, 1964 Mandela and his co-accused were sentenced to life imprisonment.
Where he remained for 26 years until his release in February 1990.
In 1991 he was elected the president of the ANC and in April 1994 the first Black president of South Africa. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993 alongside former president FW de Klerk.
He is survived by his wife Graça Machel, who he married in 1998 and three of his children.
