JOHANNESBURG( capital of South Africa) Nelson Mandela guided South Africa from the shackles of apartheid to a multi-racial democracy,,as an icon of peace and reconciliation who came to embody the struggle for Justice around the world
Imprisoned for nearly three decades for his fight against minority rule,,Mandela never lost his resolve to fight for his people’s emancipation... He was determined to bring down apartheid while avoiding a civil war... His prestige and charisma helped him win the support of the world
"" I hate race discrimination most intensely and in all its manifestation... I have fought it all during my life ; I will it now,, and will do so until the end of my days,"Mandela said in his acceptance speech on becoming South Africa’s first black president in 1994....." The time for the healing of the wounds has come... The moment to bridge the chasms that divide us has come"..
"" We have, at last, achieved our political emancipatio. "
In 1993, Mandela was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, an honour he shard with F.W.de Klerk, the white African leader who had freed him from prison three years earlier and negotiated the end of apartheid..
He formally left public life in June 2004 before his 86 th birthday, telling his adoring countrymen :" Don't call me..I'll call you." But he remained one of the world's most revered public figures, combining celebrity sparkle with an unwavering message of freedom,,respect and human rights..
" He is at the epicenter of our time, ours in South Afric, and yours,wherever you are, " Nadine Gordimer,, the South African write and Nobel Laueate for Literature, once remarked...
" During my life time I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people... I have fought Against white domination, and I have fought Against black domination...
" It is an ideal I hope to live for and to achieve... But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die. ""
Friends adored Mandela and fondly called him" Madiba" the clan name by which he was known... People lauded his humanity, kindness and dignity....