Nelson Mandela has died at 95

[chiver78]

link

[kittensaver]

“No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion,” he wrote in “Long Walk to Freedom." “People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.”


RIP and Godspeed, sir. Thank you for gracing this world with your presence. You will be missed

[Tennesseer]

Job well done.  An amazing life.

[shelby]

An amazing human spirit he taught the world a lot.

[the flying reindeer]

R.I.P. Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, revered South African anti-apartheid leader who spent 27 years in prison and 1st black president of the Union of South Africa, died at age 95 at his home after a long illness. A state funeral will be held, and South African president Jacob Zuma called for mourners to conduct themselves with "the dignity and respect" that Mandela personified. Though he was in power for only five years (1994-1999), Mandela was a figure of enormous moral influence the world over – a symbol of revolution, resistance and triumph over racial segregation. In 1993 he and Pres. de Klerk were honored with the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts in producing the first multiracial elections.

The first member of his family to get a formal education, he went to boarding school and then enrolled in South Africa’s elite Fort Hare University, where his activism unfurled with a student boycott. As a young law scholar, he joined the resurgent African National Congress just a few years before the National Party – controlled by the Afrikaners, the descendants of Dutch and French settlers – came to power on a platform of apartheid, in which the government enforced racial segregation and stripped non-whites of economic and political power. In 1961, he launched a military wing called Spear of the Nation and began a campaign of sabotage.

In 1962 he was arrested and in 1965 convicted of treason. At his trial he said, “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 for which I hope to live for and achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.” He was sentenced to life in prison and sent to Robben Island, where he slept on the floor of a six-foot-wide cell, did hard labor in a quarry, organized fellow prisoners – and earned a law degree by correspondence. Finally, in 1985, after a ban on the ANC was repealed, a whiter-haired Mandela walked out prison before a jubilant crowd and told a rally in Cape Town that the fight was far from over. Over the next two years, Mandela proved himself a formidable negotiator as he pushed South Africa toward its first multiracial elections amid tension and violence. After leaving politics, he concentrated on his philanthropic foundation and began speaking out on AIDS, which had ravaged his country

]R.I.P. Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, iconic South African anti-apartheid leader and politician. There will never be another like him, which is unfortunate for this world of ours.

[djAdvocate]

www.nytimes.com/2013/12/06/world/africa/nelson-mandela.html?_r=0

the greatest leader of our time.  there is simply nobody that compares.

goodbye, Madiba.  may God rest your weary soul.

[djAdvocate]

there is a small factual error in post 4.  he was not arrested/sentenced for treason in 1965.  he was arrested and sentenced to 5 years for treason in 1962.  he was tried AGAIN, WHILE IN PRISON in 1965 for "sabotage", and sentenced to life in prison.

i am going off memory for that.  one of you can correct me if i got it wrong.