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Source: Reuters -
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Former South African President Nelson Mandela celebrates the
20th anniversary of his release from prison, with the country a
strong democracy but still plagued by inequality, poverty and
unemployment.
Here is a short summary of his life:
Early life - Born July 18, 1918, son of a counsellor to the paramount chief of the Thembu people near Qunu in what is now Eastern Cape. He is widely known in South Africa by his clan name, Madiba.
Anti-apartheid campaigner:
- Mandela devoted his life to the fight against white domination,
leaving Fort Hare University in the early 1940s before completing
his studies. He founded the ANC Youth League with Oliver Tambo and
Walter Sisulu
- Mandela was among the first to advocate armed resistance to
apartheid, going underground in 1961 to form the ANC's armed wing -
Umkhonto we Sizwe (the Spear of the Nation).
- Charged with capital offences in the 1963 Rivonia Trial, his
statement from the dock was his political testimony.
"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 I hope to live for and to achieve.
But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die."
Mandela was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1964.
From prison to president:
- FW de Klerk, South Africa's last white president, finally lifted
the ban on the ANC and other liberation movements and Mandela was
freed on February 11, 1990.
- A year later he was elected president of the ANC and in May 1994
was inaugurated as South Africa's first black president. He used
his prestige to achieve reconciliation, setting up the Truth and
Reconciliation Commission to probe crimes by both sides in the
anti-apartheid struggle.
- In 1999, Mandela handed over to younger leaders better equipped
to manage a modern economy - a rare voluntary departure from power
cited as an example to African leaders.
Family life:
- Restful retirement was not on the cards as Mandela shifted his
energies to battling South Africa's AIDS crisis raising millions of
dollars to fight the disease.
- His struggle against AIDS became starkly personal in early 2005
when he lost his only surviving son to the disease.
- The country shared the pain of Mandela's humiliating divorce in
1996 from Winnie Mandela, his second wife, and watched his
courtship of Graca Machel, widow of Mozambican President Samora
Machel, whom he married on in July 1998.
Busy retirement:
- In 2007 Mandela celebrated his 89th birthday by launching an
international group of elder statesmen, including fellow Nobel
peace laureates Desmond Tutu and Jimmy Carter, to tackle world
problems including climate change, HIV/AIDS and poverty.
- In June 2008 Hollywood actor Will Smith hosted a birthday
celebration concert honouring Mandela's 90th birthday in July,
together with 50,000 fans in London's Hyde Park.
- The event was organized to support Mandela's HIV/AIDS charity
"46664," named for the number assigned him as a onetime political
prisoner.
- The tribute coincided with disputed elections in Zimbabwe. During
his trip to Britain, Mandela was urged to speak out against
President Robert Mugabe, who pushed ahead with the vote despite
international outcry. Mandela uttered just four words of criticism
of Zimbabwe in a speech at a dinner - "tragic failure of
leadership" - they were enough to make headline news.
- In February 2009, a frail-looking Mandela appeared at an ANC
campaign rally alongside the party's leader Jacob Zuma, boosting
the party and Zuma who became the country's president in May last
year.
- Oscar-winning actor Morgan Freeman said he was asked by Mandela
to portray him in a new Clint Eastwood-directed film Invictus,
which opened at the end of 2009 in the United States. It is the
story of how Mandela brought the 1995 Rugby World Cup Championship
to his nation.
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