- शनिबार, ८ वैशाख, २०८१
JOHANNESBURG, Dec 06, (AFP) – Nelson Mandela, the icon of South Africa’s anti-apartheid struggle and a colossus of 20th century politics, died late Thursday aged 95, prompting mass mourning and a global celebration of his astonishing life.
The Nobel Peace laureate, who was elected South Africa’s first black president after spending nearly three decades in jail, died at his Johannesburg home surrounded by his family, after a long battle against lung infection.
The news was announced to the nation and the world by an emotional South African President Jacob Zuma, in a live late-night broadcast.”Our beloved Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, the founding president of our democratic nation, has departed,” said Zuma, whose own role in the struggle against white rule saw him imprisoned with Mandela on Robben Island.
“Our nation has lost its greatest son. Our people have lost a father.”Zuma announced Mandela will receive a full state funeral and he ordered flags to remain at half-mast until after the burial. National flags were also lowered in countries including the United States, testament to the anti-apartheid’s titanic status far beyond South Africa.
Barack Obama, America’s first black president, paid tribute to a man who “took history in his hands and bent the arc of the moral universe towards justice”.Obama was joined in mourning by a roll call of figures from across the worlds of politics, business and sport, reflecting how much Mandela had touched hearts as a rallying point for justice and good causes after he drew a “Rainbow Nation” out of his diverse homeland.
His death had long been expected, coming after a spate of hospitalisations with lung infections and three months of intensive care at home. But the announcement came as a shock nonetheless.Mandela’s two youngest daughters were in London watching the premiere of his biopic “Long Walk to Freedom” when they were told of his death.
After huddling around radios and televisions to hear the news, South Africans poured onto the streets near his Johannesburg home, walking arm-in-arm to join a crowd of hundreds singing songs celebrating his struggle against apartheid.”My heart is full of joy and sadness at the same time,” said Ashleigh Williams, one of those outside the house, where struggle-era songs filled the air.
“He left a great legacy. I don’t think anyone will ever be able to fill his shoes.”Archbishop emeritus Desmond Tutu lauded his fellow Nobel laureate as the man who taught a deeply divided nation how to come together.”To suggest that South Africa might go up in flames — as some have predicted — is to discredit South Africans and Madiba’s legacy,” Tutu said in a statement.
“The sun will rise tomorrow, and the next day and the next… It may not appear as bright as yesterday, but life will carry on.”‘Terrorist’ turned iconOnce considered a terrorist by the United States and Britain for his support of violence against the apartheid regime, at the time of his death he was an almost unimpeachable moral icon.
Mandela’s extraordinary life story, quirky sense of humour and lack of bitterness towards his former oppressors ensured global appeal for the charismatic leader.He spent 27 years behind bars before being freed in 1990 to lead the African National Congress (ANC) in negotiations with the white minority rulers which culminated in the first multi-racial elections in 1994.
A victorious Mandela served a single term as president before taking up a new role as a roving elder statesman and leading AIDS campaigner before finally retiring from public life in 2004.The man he replaced, South Africa’s last white president FW de Klerk, also paid tribute.”South Africa has lost one of its founding fathers and one of its greatest sons,” he said.
Born in July 1918 in the southeastern Transkei region, Mandela started a career as a lawyer in Johannesburg in parallel with his political activism.He became commander-in-chief of Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation), the armed wing of the by now-banned ANC, in 1961, and the following year underwent military training in Algeria and Ethiopia.
While underground back home in South Africa, Mandela was captured by police in 1962 and sentenced to five years in prison.He was then charged with sabotage and sentenced in 1964 to life in prison at the Rivonia trial, named after a Johannesburg suburb where a number of ANC leaders were arrested.He used the court hearing to deliver a speech that was to become the manifesto of the anti-apartheid movement.
“During my lifetime, I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society.”It is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.”
He was first sent to prison on Robben Island, where he spent 18 years before being transferred in 1982 to Pollsmoor prison in Cape Town and later to Victor Verster prison in nearby Paarl.When he was finally released on February 11, 1990, he walked out of prison with his fist raised alongside his then-wife Winnie.Ex-prisoner 46664 took on the task of persuading de Klerk to call time on the era of racist white minority rule.
Mandela and de Klerk were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993 for their role in the ending of apartheid.‘We’d like to be him’After the ANC won the first multi-racial elections, Mandela went out of his way to assuage the fears of the white minority, declaring his intention to establish “a rainbow nation at peace with itself and the world”.
Critics said his five-year presidency was marred by corruption and rising levels of crime. But his successors, Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma, have never enjoyed anywhere near the same levels of respect or affection.In retirement, he focused his efforts on mediating conflicts, most notably in Burundi, as well as trying to raise awareness and abolish the taboos surrounding AIDS, which claimed the life of his son Makgatho.
His divorce from second wife Winnie was finalised in 1996.He found new love in retirement with Graca Machel, the widow of the late Mozambican president Samora Machel, whom he married on his 80th birthday.In one of his last foreign policy interventions, he issued a searing rebuke of George W. Bush on the eve of the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, calling him “a president who has no foresight, who cannot think properly, is now wanting to plunge the world into a holocaust”.
Bush’s predecessor as US president, Bill Clinton, had a higher opinion of Mandela.”Every time Nelson Mandela walks in a room we all feel a little bigger, we all want to stand up, we all want to cheer, because we’d like to be him on our best day,” he said.Mandela is survived by three daughters, 18 grandchildren, nine great-grandchildren and three step-grandchildren. He had four step-children through his marriage to Machel.His death has left his family divided over his wealth. Some of his children and grandchildren are locked in a legal feud with his close friends over alleged irregularities in his two companies.
Mandela a ‘true Gandhian’, says Indian PM
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday hailed South Africa’s anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela as a “true Gandhian” who would continue to inspire future generations after his death.
“A giant among men has passed away. This is as much India’s loss as South Africa’s. He was a true Gandhian,” Singh’s office tweeted after the news of Mandela’s death at the age o
“His life and work will remain a source of eternal inspiration for generations to come. I join all those who are praying for his soul.”In a separate statement, Indian President Pranab Mukherjee hailed Mandela as “a statesman, world leader and icon of inspiration of humanity”.
Indian independence hero Mahatma Gandhi had his political baptism in South Africa after arriving there in 1893, with his experience of racism in the country shaping his future political activism back home.India was the first country to sever trade relations with the apartheid regime in Pretoria back in the 1940s.
Obama: Mandela bent history towards justice
America’s first black president Barack Obama Thursday mourned Nelson Mandela as a “profoundly good” man who “took history in his hands and bent the arc of the moral universe towards justice.”
Obama — who met the former South African president briefly only once in 2005, but was inspired to enter politics by the anti-apartheid hero’s example — paid a somber heartfelt tribute within 45 minutes of Mandela’s death being announced.
“We will not likely see the likes of Nelson Mandela again,” Obama said in a televised statement, hailing his political hero for his “fierce dignity and unbending will to sacrifice his own freedom for the freedom of others.” Obama said Mandela, in his journey from a “prisoner to a president,” transformed South Africa and “moved all of us.”
“He achieved more than could be expected of any man.””Today he’s gone home and we’ve lost one of the most influential, courageous and profoundly good human beings that any of us will share time with on this Earth.”He no longer belongs to us; he belongs to the ages.”Obama recalled how his passion for change was stirred by taking part in an anti-apartheid rally — his first ever political act.
“The day that he was released from prison gave me a sense of what human beings can do when they’re guided by their hopes and not by their fears,” Obama said.The president ordered that flags on US government buildings, ships at sea and installations be lowered to half staff through sunset on Monday, in a rare honor for a foreign leader.He also called South African President Jacob Zuma to offer his condolences and said that South Africa would continue to draw strength from Mandela’s legacy as the hero who defeated the racist apartheid system.
First Lady Michelle Obama, who met the former president in South Africa in 2011, took to Twitter to praise Mandela’s “extraordinary example of moral courage, kindness, and humility.”Mandela’s fragile health overshadowed President Obama’s trip to South Africa in June, and there had been fears that the former South African leader would pass away while Obama was in the country.
The president ded against visiting Mandela in the hospital, reasoning he would be a distraction, and met with members of his family instead.But his entire trip became a prolonged tribute to Obama, and the president took his wife Michelle and daughters Malia and Sasha to Robben Island, where Mandela was held in spartan conditions by the racist apartheid regime.
In one wrenching shot taken by his official photographer, Obama was pictured in the tiny cell where Mandela once lived, with his emotional daughter in his arms.He also walked with his family around the bleak limestone quarry on the island — off the coast of Cape Town — where Mandela endured years of backbreaking and futile work under the eyes of white South African guards.
Obama is expected to travel to memorial ceremonies for Mandela in South Africa once they are scheduled.He will likely be joined on Air Force One by other key political leaders from the United States — possibly including some of the living former presidents — who were quick to react to Mandela’s death with their own statements.
“I will never forget my friend Madiba,” Bill Clinton said in a tweet, using Mandela’s clan name, attaching a photo of the two ex-presidents sharing a joke.”History will remember Nelson Mandela as a champion for human dignity and freedom, for peace and reconciliation,” Clinton, who was president when Mandela took power, said in a longer statement.
Jimmy Carter said that Mandela’s passion for “freedom and justice created new hope for generations of oppressed people worldwide.””Because of him, South Africa is today one of the world’s leading democracies,” Carter said in a statement.
George H.W. Bush said he had watched in wonder as Mandela forgave his captors following 26 years in jail — “setting a powerful example of redemption and grace for us all.”
“He was a man of tremendous moral courage, who changed the course of history in his country,” Bush senior said.George W. Bush said that Mandela was “one of the great forces for freedom and equality of our time. He bore his burdens with dignity and grace, and our world is better off because of his example.”
