World mourns loss of Mandela ,the African Gandhi
Monday, December 9, 2013
“What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we lead.” — Nelson Mandela
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was a South African anti-apartheid revolutionary who was imprisoned and then became a politician and philanthropist and a qualified lawyer from the University College of Fort Hare and the University of Witwatersrand .Later he served as the president of South Africa from 1994 to 1999.
From 1964 to 1982 he was confined to the notorious prison island Robben Island, together with several other resistance leaders. He was then moved to prison on the mainland until his release in 1990. During his imprisonment, Mandela became a rallying point for South Africa's oppressed, and the world's most famous political prisoner.
His political career started in 1944 when he joined the African National Congress (ANC), and he participated in the resistance against the then government¹s apartheid policy in 1948. In June 1961, the ANC executive approved his idea of using violent tactics and encouraged members who wished to involve themselves in Mandela's campaign. Shortly after, he founded Umkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing of the ANC, and was named its leader.
Mandela received many national international honors, including the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993, the Order of Merit from Queen Elizabeth II and the Presidential Medal of Freedom from George W. Bush. Nelson Mandela shared the Peace Prize with the man who had released him, President Frederik Willem de Klerk, because they had agreed on a peaceful transition to majority rule.
In July 2004, the city of Johannesburg bestowed its highest honor by granting Mandela the freedom of the city at a ceremony in Orlando, Soweto.
In 1990, he received the Bharat Ratna Award from the government of India and also received the last ever Lenin Peace Prize from the Soviet Union.
Mandela has been a powerful inspiration to millions of people around the world for the strength of character he showed in the face of one of the world’s most brutal regimes and his enduring power to accept and forgive his former oppressors. One of those whom he most inspired: President Obama, who wrote an introduction to Mandela’s 2010 book, Conversations With Myself. Describing the early impact Mandela had on his own life, Obama wrote, “His sacrifice was so great that it called upon people everywhere to do what they could on behalf of human progress. In the most modest of ways, I was one of those people who tried to answer his call.”
There is probably no one who has done so much to end the rule of apartheid as Nelson Mandela. He has been the voice of the people and made the message heard right around the world. Certainly Mandela did not act alone but his voice and actions held real power and the battle was eventually won.
After his release from prison in 1990 Nelson Mandela went on to become president of South Africa. Apartheid was officially ended though there is no doubt that much of the racism is still deeply rooted in the country. While Nelson Mandela is no longer president, he is highly respected and his voice is still heard. As a leader and a peacemaker Nelson Mandela was the leading force in the battle against apartheid. A battle worth fighting for and a battle won.
The Nobel Peace laureate, who spent nearly three decades as a political prisoner before going on to lead his country, passed away at his Johannesburg home surrounded by his family.
South African President Jacob Zuma said "the nation has lost its greatest son", adding: "He is now resting. He is now at peace."
Paying tribute from Britain, the Prince of Wales said: "Mandela was the embodiment of courage and reconciliation. He was also a man of great humour and had a real zest for life. With his passing, there will be an immense void not only in his family's lives, but also in those of all South Africans and the many others whose lives have been changed through his fight for peace, justice and freedom."
President Pranab Mukherjee on Friday expressed profound grief over the death of global anti- apartheid hero, Nelson Mandela saying, he was an "icon of inspiration for humanity" and a "great friend of India".
The Indian government announced five-day state mourning as a mark of respect to Nelson Mandela.
Nelson Mandela's willingness to forgive and forget helped peacefully end an era of white domination in his native South Africa. But as news of his death spread, mourners there and around the world professed that he, himself, would never be forgotten.
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