WIRITNG : NELSON MANDELA

NELSON MANDELA

Nelson Mandela became the first black president of South Africa in 1994, serving until 1999. A symbol of global peacemaking, he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993.

Rolihlahla Mandela was born into the Madiba clan in the village of Mvezo, on 18 July 1918. His mother was Nonqaphi Nosekeni and his father was Nkosi Mphakanyiswa Gadla Mandela.

At the suggestion of one of his father's friends, Mandela was baptized in the Methodist Church. He went on to become the first in his family to attend school. He attended primary school in Qunu where his teacher, Miss Mdingane, gave him the name Nelson, in accordance with the custom of giving all school children "Christian" names.

Mandela, while increasingly politically involved from 1942. In 1944 he married with Evelyn Mase. She was nurse. They had two sons, Madiba Thembekile "Thembi" and Makgatho, and two daughters both called Makaziwe, the first of whom died in infancy. He and his wife divorced in 1958.

In 1994, Mandela published his autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, much of which he had secretly written while in prison.

On 10 May 1994 he was recognized as South Africa's first democratically elected President. On his 80th birthday in 1998 he married Graça Machel, his third wife.

In addition to advocating for peace and equality on both a national and global scale, in his later years, Mandela remained committed to the fight against AIDS.

And he died at his home in Johannesburg on 5 December 2013.

To conclude, he said that 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.