South African President Jacob Zuma made the
announcement at a news conference late on Thursday, saying "we've lost our
greatest son."
JOHANNESBURG
— Nelson
Mandela, who became one of the world's most beloved statesmen and a colossus of
the 20th century when he emerged from 27 years in prison to negotiate an end to
white minority rule in South Africa, has died. He was 95.
South
African President Jacob Zuma made the announcement at a news conference late Thursday,
saying "we've lost our greatest son."
His
death closed the final chapter in South Africa's struggle to cast off
apartheid, leaving the world with indelible memories of a man of astonishing
grace and good humor. Rock concerts celebrated his birthday. Hollywood
stars glorified him on screen. And his regal bearing, graying hair and raspy
voice made him instantly recognizable across the globe.
As
South Africa's
first black president, the ex-boxer, lawyer and prisoner No. 46664 paved the
way to racial reconciliation with well-chosen gestures of forgiveness. He
lunched with the prosecutor who sent him to jail, sang the apartheid-era
Afrikaans anthem at his inauguration, and traveled hundreds of miles to have
tea with the widow of Hendrik Verwoerd, the prime minister at the time he was
imprisoned.
Mandela
is accompanied by his former wife Winnie, moments after his release from prison
in this February 11, 1990 file photo.
His
most memorable gesture came when he strode onto the field before the 1995 Rugby
World Cup final in Johannesburg.
When he came on the field in South African colors to congratulate the
victorious South African team, he brought the overwhelmingly white crowd of
63,000 to its feet, chanting "Nelson! Nelson! Nelson!"
For
he had marched headlong into a bastion of white Afrikanerdom — the temple of South African
rugby — and made its followers feel they belonged in the new South Africa. At
the same time, Mandela was himself uneasy with the idea of being an icon and he
did not escape criticism as an individual and a politician, though mugch of it
was muted by his status as a unassailable symbol of decency and principle. As
president, he failed to craft a lasting formula for overcoming South Africa's
biggest post-apartheid problems, including one of the world's widest gaps
between rich and poor. In his writings, he pondered the heavy cost to his
family of his decision to devote himself to the struggle against apartheid.
He
had been convicted of treason and sentenced to life imprisonment in 1964 for leading
a campaign of sabotage against the government, and sent to the notorious Robben Island
prison. It was forbidden to quote him or publish his photo, yet he and other
jailed members of his banned African National Congress were able to smuggle out
messages of guidance to the anti-apartheid crusade. As time passed — the
"long, lonely, wasted years," as he termed them — international
awareness of apartheid grew more acute. By the time Mandela turned 70 he was
the world's most famous political prisoner. Such were his mental reserves,
though, that he turned down conditional offers of freedom from his apartheid
jailers and even found a way to benefit from confinement. "People tend to
measure themselves by external accomplishments, but jail allows a person to focus
on internal ones; such as honesty, sincerity, simplicity, humility, generosity
and an absence of variety," Mandela says in one of the many quotations
displayed at the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg.
"You learn to look into yourself."
Thousands
died, were tortured and were imprisoned in the decades-long struggle against
apartheid, so that when Mandela emerged from prison in 1990, smiling and waving
to the crowds, the image became an international icon of freedom to rival the
fall of the Berlin Wall. South
Africa's white rulers had portrayed Mandela
as the spearhead of a communist revolution and insisted that black majority
rule would usher in the chaos and bloodshed that had beset many other African
countries as they shook off colonial rule. Yet since apartheid ended, South Africa
has held four parliamentary elections and elected three presidents, always
peacefully, setting an example on a continent where democracy is still new and
fragile. Its democracy has flaws, and the African National Congress has struggled
to deliver on promises. It is a front runner ahead of 2014 elections, but
corruption scandals and other missteps have undercut some of the promise of
earlier years. "We have confounded the prophets of doom and achieved a
bloodless revolution. We have restored the dignity of every South
African," Mandela said shortly before stepping down as president in 1999
at age 80.
Nelson
Rolihlahla Mandela was born July 18, 1918, the son of a tribal chief in Transkei, one of the future "Bantustans," independent republics set up by the
apartheid regime to cement the separation of whites and blacks. Mandela's royal
upbringing gave him a dignified bearing that became his hallmark. Many South
Africans of all races would later call him by his clan name, Madiba, as a token
of affection and respect. Growing up at a time when virtually all of Africa was under European colonial rule, Mandela attended
Methodist schools before being admitted to the black University of Fort Hare in
1938. He was expelled two years later for his role in a student strike. He
moved to Johannesburg
and worked as a policeman at a gold mine, boxed as an amateur heavyweight and
studied law. His first wife, nurse
Evelyn Mase, bore him four children. A daughter died in infancy, a son was
killed in a car crash in 1970 and another son died of AIDS in 2005. The couple
divorced in 1957 and Evelyn died in 2004. Mandela began his rise through the
anti-apartheid movement in 1944, when he helped form the ANC Youth League.
He
organized a campaign in 1952 to encourage defiance of laws that segregated
schools, marriage, housing and job opportunities. The government retaliated by
barring him from attending gatherings and leaving Johannesburg, the first of many
"banning" orders he was to endure. After a two-day nationwide strike
was crushed by police, he and a small group of ANC colleagues decided on
military action and Mandela pushed to form the movement's guerrilla wing,
Umkhonto we Sizwe, or Spear of the Nation. He was arrested in 1962 and
sentenced to five years' hard labor for leaving the country illegally and
inciting blacks to strike. A year later, police uncovered the ANC's underground
headquarters on a farm near Johannesburg
and seized documents outlining plans for a guerrilla campaign. At a time when
African colonies were one by one becoming independent states, Mandela and seven
co-defendants were sentenced to life in prison. "I do not deny that I
planned sabotage," he told the court. "I did not plan it in a spirit
of recklessness, nor because I have any love of violence. I planned it as a
result of a calm and sober assessment of the political situation that had
arisen after years of tyranny, exploitation and oppression of my people by
whites."
The
ANC's armed wing was later involved in a series of high-profile bombings that
killed civilians, and many in the white minority viewed the imprisoned Mandela
as a terrorist. Up until 2008, when President George W. Bush rescinded the
order, he could not visit the U.S.
without a waiver from the secretary of state certifying he was not a terrorist.
From the late 1960s South
Africa gradually became an international
pariah, expelled from the U.N., banned from the Olympics. In 1973 Mandela
refused a government offer of release on condition he agree to confine himself
to his native Transkei.
In 1982 he and other top ANC inmates were moved off Robben Island
to a mainland prison. Three years later Mandela was again offered freedom, and
again he refused unless segregation laws were scrapped and the government
negotiated with the ANC.
In
1989, F.W. de Klerk became president. This Afrikaner recognized the end was
near for white-ruled South
Africa. Mandela, for his part, continued,
even in his last weeks in prison, to advocate nationalizing banks, mines and
monopoly industries — a stance that frightened the white business community. But
talks were already underway, with Mandela being spirited out of prison to meet
a white Cabinet minister. On Feb. 11, 1990, inmate No. 46664, who had once been
refused permission to leave prison for his mother's funeral, went free and
walked hand-in-hand with Winnie, his wife. Blacks across the country erupted in
joy — as did many whites. Mandela took charge of the ANC, shared the 1993 Nobel
Peace Prize with de Klerk and was elected president by a landslide in South Africa's
first all-race election the following year.
At
his inauguration, he stood hand on heart, saluted by white generals as he sang
along to two anthems: the apartheid-era Afrikaans "Die Stem,"
("The Voice") and the African "Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika"
("Lord Bless Africa"). To black South Africans expecting a speedy new
deal, Mandela pleaded for patience. The millions denied proper housing, schools
and health care under apartheid had expected the revolution to deliver quick
fixes, but Mandela recognized he had to embrace free market policies to keep
white-dominated big business on his side and attract foreign investment. For
all his saintly image, Mandela had an autocratic streak. When black journalists
mildly criticized his government, he painted them as stooges of the whites who
owned the media. Whites with complaints were dismissed as pining for their old
privileges.
He
denounced Bush as a warmonger and the U.S. having "committed
unspeakable atrocities in the world." When asked about his closeness to
Fidel Castro and Moammar Gadhafi despite human rights violations in the
countries they ruled, Mandela explained that he wouldn't forsake supporters of
the anti-apartheid struggle. With his fellow Nobelist, Archbishop Desmond Tutu,
he set up the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which allowed human rights
offenders of all races to admit their crimes publicly in return for lenient
treatment. It proved to be a kind of national therapy that would become a model
for other countries emerging from prolonged strife. He increasingly left the
governing to Deputy President Thabo Mbeki, who took over when Mandela's term
ended in June 1999 and he declined to seek another — a rarity among African
presidents. "I must step down while there are one or two people who admire
me," Mandela joked at the time. When he retired, he said he was going to
stand on a street with a sign that said: "Unemployed, no job. New wife and
large family to support."
His
marriage to Winnie had fallen apart after his release and he was now married to
Graca Machel, the widowed former first lady of neighboring Mozambique. He
is survived by Machel; his daughter Makaziwe by his first marriage, and
daughters Zindzi and Zenani by his second.
Donna Bryson, former AP bureau chief in Johannesburg, contributed
to this report. Marcus Eliason has worked for the AP in South Africa and is now stationed in New York.
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