Nelson Mandela is Dead

snowy · Dec 5, 2013

The NYTimes is reporting that Nelson Mandela has passed away.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/06/world/africa/nelson-mandela.html

Nelson Mandela, South African Icon of Peaceful Resistance, Is Dead

By LYDIA POLGREEN

JOHANNESBURG — Nelson Mandela, South Africa’s first black president and an enduring icon of the struggle against racial oppression, died on Thursday, the government announced, leaving the nation without its moral center at a time of growing dissatisfaction with the country’s leaders.
Mr. Mandela spent 27 years in prison after being convicted of treason by the white minority government, only to forge a peaceful end to white rule by negotiating with his captors after his release in 1990. He led the African National Congress, long a banned liberation movement, to a resounding electoral victory in 1994, the first fully democratic election in the country’s history.
Mr. Mandela served just one term as South Africa’s president and had not been seen in public since 2010, when the nation hosted the soccer World Cup. But his decades in prison and his insistence on forgiveness over vengeance made him a potent symbol of the struggle to end this country’s brutally codified system of racial domination, and of the power of peaceful resolution in even the most intractable conflicts.
Years after he retreated from public life, his name still resonated as an emblem of his effort to transcend decades of racial division and create what South Africans called a Rainbow Nation.
Yet Mr. Mandela’s death comes during a period of deep unease and painful self-examination for South Africa.
In the past year and a half, the country has faced perhaps its most serious unrest since the end of apartheid, provoked by a wave of wildcat strikes by angry miners, a deadly response on the part of the police, a messy leadership struggle within the A.N.C. and the deepening fissures between South Africa’s rulers and its impoverished masses.
Scandals over corruption involving senior members of the party have fed a broader perception that Mr. Mandela’s near saintly legacy from the years of struggle has been eroded by a more recent scramble for self-enrichment among a newer elite.
After spending decades in penurious exile, many political figures returned to find themselves at the center of a grab for power and money. President Jacob Zuma was charged with corruption before rising to the presidency in 2009, though the charges were dropped on largely technical grounds. He has faced renewed scrutiny in the past year over $27 million spent in renovations to his house in rural Zululand.
Graphic cellphone videos of police officers abusing people they have detained have further fueled anger at a government seen increasingly out of touch with the lives of ordinary South Africans.
Mr. Mandela served as president from 1994 to 1999, stepping aside at the age of 75 to allow his deputy, Thabo Mbeki, to run and take the reins. Mr. Mandela spent his early retirement years focused on charitable causes for children and later speaking out about AIDS, which has killed millions of Africans, including his son Makgatho, who died in 2005.
Mr. Mandela retreated from public life in 2004 at the age of 85, largely withdrawing to his homes in the upscale Johannesburg suburb of Houghton and his ancestral village in the Eastern Cape, Qunu.
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At his age and in his declining health, this was obviously not unexpected, but it does sadden me to see such a great man go. I'm sure, like any human, he had his foibles and weaknesses, but he did great work to bring South Africa back together, and to help the world see how peaceful action can accomplish great things.

Baraka_Guru · Dec 5, 2013

I am sad to hear of his passing, but it is muted when I think of his accomplishments.

He tackled brutal racism and eventually became president. I was a young teen when he was released from prison, but I was old enough to realize the significance of it.

What a life. He will leave a lasting legacy.

[Follow the link below for a detailed timeline of his life.]

Nelson Mandela dead at 95
Anti-apartheid hero, imprisoned for 27 years, later became democratic South Africa's first president
Posted: Dec 05, 2013 4:46 PM ET Last Updated: Dec 05, 2013 4:56 PM ET

Nelson Mandela, one of the greatest leaders of modern times, passed away Thursday at his home in Johannesburg. He was 95.

South African President Jacob Zuma announced that Mandela, "the founding president of our democratic nation, has departed," adding that he "passed on peacefully."

"Our nation has lost its greatest son. Our people have lost a father," Zuma said.

Mandela will be accorded a state funeral, Zuma said, and national flags will be lowered to half mast.

Mandela's respiratory problems in recent years may be connected to his imprisonment, when he contracted tuberculosis after working in a prison quarry. He had been in hospital in recent months.

His hospitalization on June 8, 2013, marked his fifth visit to hospital in two years. In April 2013, he spent 10 days in hospital after being treated for pneumonia.

Mandela was a prominent international figure for more than half a century, first as a leading human rights campaigner in South Africa and then as the world's best-known political prisoner.

Following his release, he again became the leader of the anti-apartheid struggle, and in 1994 became the first president of a democratic South Africa.

On July 18, 2009, the first Mandela Day declared by the United Nations, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon spoke about how "Nelson Mandela has made a lasting imprint on our lives."

[...]
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Nelson Mandela dead at 95 - World - CBC News

snowy · Dec 5, 2013

Baraka_Guru said: ↑

I am sad to hear of his passing, but it is muted when I think of his accomplishments.

He tackled brutal racism and eventually became president. I was a young teen when he was released from prison, but I was old enough to realize the significance of it.

What a life. He will leave a lasting legacy.
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He accomplished a great deal for his country, and dare I say it, the world.

Baraka_Guru · Dec 5, 2013

snowy said: ↑

He accomplished a great deal for his country, and dare I say it, the world.
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"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 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."

—Nelson Mandela to the Supreme Court of South Africa, April 20, 1964

redux · Dec 5, 2013

Baraka_Guru said: ↑

I am sad to hear of his passing, but it is muted when I think of his accomplishments.

He tackled brutal racism and eventually became president. I was a young teen when he was released from prison, but I was old enough to realize the significance of it.

What a life. He will leave a lasting legacy.
Click to expand...

I was a 20something and participated (once) in the daily anti-apartheid demonstration at the South African embassy that took place every day for over a year (with arrests nearly every day, including me on my one occasion of participation...nothing remotely compared to his 20+ years prison ordeal). It didnt result in Mandela's release; it did result in the passage of The Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act of 1986, despite a Reagan veto, that imposed sanctions on South Africa that raised awareness and led to world wide sanctions and divestment that did ultimately lead to his release.

His passing is a loss of a true 20th century world leader.

snowy · Dec 5, 2013

Chris Noyb · Dec 5, 2013

Sad news.

Charlatan · Dec 5, 2013

A very large man who set an example of turning the other cheek, the we should all emulate.

hamsterball · Dec 5, 2013

We tend to use the word "great" to describe people so indiscriminately in the current age. Nelson Mandela was a truly great man.

snowy · Dec 12, 2013

Can't say if Rahm Emanuel posted this himself, but either way, I felt it was well-said.

"The world is better because he lived, and the name Mandela will be on the lips of all those who love and work for peace. Rest in peace."

I'm not sure we value peace as a tool.
--- merged: Dec 5, 2013 at 9:28 PM ---
And from the President: "Let us pause and give thanks for the fact that Nelson Mandela lived—a man who took history in his hands and bent the arc of the moral universe toward justice." —President Obama

Amazing how much we can attain, and have attained, through peaceful nonviolence.

kramus · Dec 5, 2013

I said this already in a FB post.
A great human being who more than earned a place in history, and who was able to spend his last years with his people savouring life in quiet joy.
RIP Mr. Mandela.
Found this amazing uncredited portrait as well.

mixedmedia · Dec 5, 2013

He was very sick, so not much of a surprise. I'm not going to think about this until tomorrow, though.
You don't get much more exquisite as far as humans go. rip.

snowy · Dec 6, 2013

From our perspective, here in the United States and elsewhere where we have never been subject to something as horrifying as apartheid, it is easy to not realize this man's full accomplishments. Posts from friends in South Africa tonight have reaffirmed to me the true power this man possessed in his life. All that he accomplished is truly amazing.

mixedmedia · Dec 6, 2013

I came to the conclusion that as violence in this country was inevitable, it would be unrealistic to continue preaching peace and non-violence. This conclusion was not easily arrived at. It was only when all else had failed, when all channels of peaceful protest had been barred to us, that the decision was made to embark on violent forms of political struggle. I can only say that I felt morally obliged to do what I did.

Nelson Mandela, "An ideal for which I am prepared to die". Mandela made this statement from the dock at the opening of his trial on charges of sabotage, Supreme court of South Africa, Pretoria, April 20 1964

pig · Dec 6, 2013

A Long Walk To Freedom.

What a read.

Nothing to say that's not redundant.

27 years. That's some time.

Fangirl · Dec 6, 2013

Freetofly · Dec 18, 2013

My older sister worked for Prince Bandar Aziz, when he was the ambassador of Saudi Araba to the United States.

She was able to have Nelson Mandela's sign his Biography for my father.

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Chris Noyb Get in, buckle up, hang on, & be quiet.

Charlatan sous les pavés, la plage

hamsterball Seeking New Outlets

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kramus what I might see

mixedmedia ...

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