Nelson Mandela (1918 - 2013)

By Aislinn Laing, Johannesburg

Nelson Mandela was a South African born in 1918 in the rural eastern Transkei to a tribal chief and the third of his four wives. He grew up in relatively privileged surroundings and was privately educated, but fled from home after discovering he was to be forced into an arranged marriage. He settled in Johannesburg, the fast-growing city of gold mines, where he worked in mine security and as a legal clerk before qualifying as a lawyer and setting up his own practice. 

He became involved in politics because he was incensed by the dehumanising apartheid system that segregated black South Africans from their white countrymen and provided them with inferior medical care, public services and education. Eventually jailed for 27 years for his "subversive" activities and for leading an armed struggle against the National Party government, he was released in 1990, by which time South Africa had become a global pariah and the subject of sanctions for its racist system. Mandela came out of prison preaching reconciliation and, through delicate negotiations and sheer force of personality, held the fractious country together until elections in 1994. He won by a landslide and became South Africa's first black president, serving one term in office before stepping down and retiring from public life soon afterwards. 

Nelson Mandela and his contemporaries were a constant thorn in the side of the apartheid authorities - stirring up resistance to the draconian laws of the apartheid government. Listed as a banned person several times which meant he was blocked from attending public meetings, Mandela eventually went underground where he operated as the "Black Pimpernel", popping up to give interviews and encourage activists around the country. 

In June 1961, the ANC decided to establish an armed wing named Umkhonto weSizwe (Spear of the Nation) and Mandela was appointed to lead it. He went abroad to Morocco and Ethiopia for military training but was arrested at a police roadblock when he returned to South Africa. Charged and convicted initially with leaving the country illegally and inciting workers to strike, his case was subsumed with that of seven others for sabotage in the Rivonia trial. Facing the death penalty, he famously said in a speech from the dock that the "ideal of a a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony" was one for which he was prepared to die. He was sentenced instead to life imprisonment. 

As time wore on, South Africa's repressed minorities became increasingly hard to keep down and international sanctions began to bite. The apartheid government, first led by PW Botha then FW de Klerk, authorised the security services to start secret talks with the leaders of the ANC leading to a "negotiated settlement" which would bring about the end of the colour bar. From the outset of their meetings, security chiefs spoke of Mandela's authority and dignity, and their realisation that he would soon lead the country. Within months of coming to power, Mr de Klerk announced the unbanning of the ANC and the dismantling of apartheid laws. He paved the way for a new constitution in South Africa giving black people equal voting rights and in 1990, ordered Mandela's release. The work the two men did together would see them awarded the joint Nobel Peace Prize in 1993. 

As president, Nelson Mandela continued to preach reconciliation. He kept on many of the white staff employed by his de Klerk, asked de Klerk and Mangosuthu Buthelezi, his political rivals, to join his cabinet and went to have tea with apartheid architect Hendrik Verwoerd's widow Betsie. 

 President Nelson Mandela presents South African rugby team captain, Francois Pienaar with the Rugby World Cup in 1995 

In a gesture celebrated in the film Invictus, he joined forces with the national rugby team captain ahead of the 1995 World Cup to unify both whites and blacks with an epic tournament win. However, such achievements came at the expense of other policies - Mandela was seen as having done little to tackle the HIV/Aids epidemic that swept the country, nor its violent crime rates. It was also on his watch that the multi-billion dollar arms deal was finalised that was later found to have involved widespread corruption and bribery. 

 F.W. de Klerk with Nelson Mandela after the first presidential inauguration on May 10, 1994 (Reuters) 

Three children, 17 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren. His first wife, Evelyn, was the cousin of his great political ally Walter Sisulu, but the marriage was not a happy one and they divorced in 1958. Evelyn complained that her husband was unfaithful and occasionally violent towards her. He said that she had wanted him to give up politics and spend more time with his family. The couple had four children - the first, a girl, died in infancy. Of their two sons, one died in a car crash when he was in his 20s and his father was in prison; the other died of Aids when he was in his 50s. Their daughter, Makaziwe, is today a successful businesswoman living in Johannesburg. 

Mr Mandela's second marriage was to the fiery Winnie, a social worker with whom he bore two daughters, Zenani and Zindzi. The couple were married for 38 years but their union spanned Mandela's 27 years in prison and, before that, his time underground. When he emerged from prison, Mrs Mandela was a controversial figure accused of involvement in the kidnap and subsequent death of a young township activist. After Mandela, by then president, was also presented with evidence suggesting his wife had been unfaithful, he divorced her. His third wife, Graca, who he married on his 80th birthday, is the widow of the former president of Mozambique - the only woman in the world to marry two presidents. During Mr Mandela's recent illness, she maintained a constant presence at his bedside. 

As he stepped back from public life, Mr Mandela set up a series of foundations and trusts focusing on schemes dealing with Aids, education, children and rural development. One, the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund, plans to build a major new public hospital to provide specialist treatment for children from around the continent. Another, the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory, acts as the gatekeeper for his archive and the continued use of his name, and cheerleader for charitable events organised on his birthday in July each year. 

Mr Mandela also leaves behind a large family who bear his celebrated name. Some have been criticised for seeking to cash in on that name, through wine labels, clothing lines and a reality television programme. Two of Mr Mandela's daughters have launched a court action against some of their father's old friends who control his financial legacy and there are fears more such cases could follow after his death. Other members of the family say they intend to use his name as a force for good, by carrying out charitable acts and acting as brand ambassadors for their country, supporting African entrepreneurs and innovators. 

More broadly, Mr Mandela leaves his country a set of important principles to live by, having battled for decades to make South Africa a non-racial, non-sexist and democratic country governed by a liberal and idealistic constitution. Whether his party, the ruling ANC, and his people can live up to those principals remains to be seen.