Icon of freedom Nelson Mandela is dead

Nelson Mandela is dead
Icon of freedom
05/12/2013 · Nelson Mandela was in his lifetime a legend. In his efforts to peaceful settlement and reconciliation he was only comparable with Mahatma Gandhi. South Africa has lost its " greatest son ."

South Africa : Mourning for Nelson Mandela
Nelson Mandela is dead , the former South African President and Nobel Peace Prize , died on Thursday at the age of 95 years at his home in the capital Johannesburg. " Our nation has lost her greatest son ," South African President Jacob Zuma said late Thursday in Johannesburg in a nationwide television address . He had passed away peacefully. " Nelson Mandela brought us together and together we say goodbye to him," Zuma said. " Madiba " , Mandela's clan name is like , is to be buried in his home town of Qunu in the southeast of the country.

Mandela had been treated several times in recent months due to lung problems , was caused by an never quite healed tuberculosis from his time as a prisoner on Robben Iceland stationary. His last weeks had spent with his family of Nobel Peace Laureates .

In early June , his condition had deteriorated such that he had to be treated in the ICU of a private hospital in Pretoria. As his health in mid-June had been designated as "critical" , the hospital had turned into a veritable pilgrimage , leaving thousands of South Africans before the wishes .


© ZDF
Although had several hospital stays of Mandela in the past few months and especially the last public pictures of April , which showed a very sick old man who prepared the population on the need to take of their national icon farewell soon. Nevertheless, the news of his death was a shock to many South Africans .

Ruling party ANC : " Do not despair "
The leaders of the freedom movement and today's ruling African National Congress ( ANC) paid tribute to Mandela as giants. "He was the epitome of humility , equality , justice, peace and the hope of millions , here and abroad," it said in a spread of South African media statement . The ANC called on countrymen not to despair . " He lives within each of you and in your houses on, because he has given us all his life. "

At the same time showed many, even in social media such as Facebook and Twitter, relieved that Mandela's suffering has now come to an end . More than 100 people died in the early hours of Friday together on the street in front of Mandela's house in the suburb of Houghton, to sing songs and dance. Some brought their children.

 The Long Walk to Freedom : Nelson and Winnie Mandela left the Verster Prison in Cape Town on 11 Februar 1990.

The Long Walk to Freedom : Nelson and Winnie Mandela left the Verster Prison in Cape Town on 11 Februar 1990.
In particular, the last pictures of him on which an obviously confused Mandela is seen together with the grinning President Jacob Zuma had led to a storm of indignation in the country , culminating in the demand that Mandela should be allowed to die with dignity. When he was in early June once again admitted to a hospital , a group of former inmates from Mandela's time had appealed on Robben Iceland to the family " to finally let go , so that God can take care of him " him. Since the 20th June Mandela was artificially ventilated , which led to rumors that he would therefore only kept alive in order to guarantee a smooth course of the visit of the American President Barack Obama. Obama had South Africa on 28 June to 1 Visited in July .

freedom icon
Mandela was a politician who was like no other has become a legend in his own lifetime and the peaceful settlement and reconciliation is to compare in his constant efforts with the Indian Mahatma Gandhi. For 27 years the lawyer and freedom fighter was imprisoned under the apartheid regime in South Africa. 17 years of which he spent on the infamous prison island Robben Iceland in the bay of Cape Town. In early 1990, Mandela was released after enduring almost five years negotiating with the apartheid regime over a peaceful transition of power and an end to racial segregation . In the first free elections in South Africa in 1994, Mandela was elected as expected, as the first black president of the country . A year earlier , in 1993 , he and the last president of the apartheid regime , Frederik de Klerk received the Nobel Peace Prize .

Here, South Africa had fancied at the time of the negotiations between the liberation movement the ANC and the apartheid government on the brink of civil war. That did not happen , though was not alone Mandela's merit , but also the representatives of the old regime as just de Klerk . Nevertheless, it was Mandela's credible insurance to forgive after half a life in captivity, his tormentors , who impressed the entire nation. On the very day of its release , the 11th February 1990 , he called for " all those who have given up the apartheid " to " cooperation in a new South Africa " on .

De Klerk : Cooperation with Mandela " an honor "
After Mandela's death de Klerk said he had found working with the late national hero as a prize . It was an honor for him to work together with Mandela on the first democratic elections in the country in 1994. "Even if we were political rivals and our relationship was often heated, we were always able to find each other at critical moments to solve the many crises that arose in the negotiation process. "

After winning the election, Mandela was wise enough to leave the current business of the younger ones , including Thabo Mbeki, who together with de Klerk held until the elections of 1999 , the Office of the Prime Minister and succeeded Mandela as president.

Despite the high reputation that Mandela had both nationally and internationally , he was not without controversy within the ANC . Especially the more radical elements were disappointed by the slow their opinion to improve their social situation. Mandela and his successor Mbeki , however, were not tired to warn against radical steps , because this would have led to capital flight and economic decline in South Africa.

Politically Mandela had not been active for many years. Although an important role within the ANC , he was still awarded this faded at the latest after his video message on the ANC party conference in Polokwane in December 2007 , where it came to a bitter power struggle between the then ANC President Thabo Mbeki and his rival Jacob Zuma had . Mandela called cohesion , but failed to make a recommendation for one of the two .

Although this has always been denied by officials , to Mandela's physical condition had worsened since drastically. After a but repeated pneumonia in March of this year, his doctors of the family had come to take him no more after Qunu in the Eastern Cape , where Mandela has his retirement home , but to stay in the vicinity of hospitals in Johannesburg and Pretoria. The last public appearance Mandela is back three years and then he was kicked again in evidence during the Football World Cup in South Africa .

three times married
Nelson Mandela was born on 18 July 1918 in the village Mvezo near Umtata , the capital of the Transkei , was born. His father Henry Gadla 1918 was a wealthy man who had to supply five women and 13 children . Mandela was the youngest of four sons and the first son of the third wife. He was given the name at birth Rolihlala what you courteously can translate " break a branch from the tree ." Formulated less polite Rolihlala means : " One who makes trouble ." The British first name Nelson was first given to him by a teacher in the primary school of Qunu .

Mandela saw himself as a scion of the Thembu chiefs , members of the so-called " house Left Hand " by King Ngubencuka , the board in 1830 in the Transkei a united Thembu community. The Thembu of the "House Left Hand " were traditionally advisor to the Xhosa kings. Mandela himself suggested , therefore, to look at his father as a kind of prime minister. In truth, Henry Gadla mayor of Mvezo , a post he had to thank the white administration of Transkei . The nickname " Madiba " , Mandela was called in recent years , has a phylogenetic background. Mandela's father belonged within the Thembu for Madiba clan that after a Thembu chieftain in the 18th Is named century.

Nelson Mandela was married three times. From two of these marriages six children come . His first marriage to Evelyn Mase Ntoko was divorced after 13 years in 1957. Evelyn Mase Ntoko died 2004. The couple had four children, of whom only one daughter, Makaziwe , is alive. Another daughter, who was also called Makaziwe , died in infancy. Nelson Mandela's first son Madiba Thembekili in 1969 in a car accident , with rumors hold until today , the South African domestic intelligence was at his death not entirely innocent . The second son Makgatho died in 2005 at the consequences of immune deficiency disease AIDS.

After 38 years of marriage Mandela separated because of political pressures in 1992 by his second wife Winnie Madikizela . The marriage was officially divorced in 1996 . With her he had two daughters, Zeni and Zindzi . On his 80th Birthday , on 18 July 1998 , Mandela married Samora Machel , the widow , Graça . The former moçambiquanische Präsidente and ANC supporters was 15 years ago died in a plane crash , whose circumstances are not understood.

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Nelson Mandela Biography - Important stages of his life
Nelson Mandela, Nobel Peace Prize winner and world renowned icon of reconciliation and forgiveness , was the first black president of South Africa . Important stages of his life :
18 July 1918 : Rolihlahla Mandela was born as the son of a chieftain in Tembu Mvezo , a village in the Eastern Cape in South Africa. He spent his childhood in Qunu 30 kilometers away , where he last lived. The Tembu belong to the people of the Xhosa . The Christian name Nelson gets the boy only at school.
1939-1940 : Mandela studied law and flees from an arranged marriage to Johannesburg.
1944 : Mandela joins the African National Congress ( ANC) and founded its Youth League . He married his first wife, Evelyn Mase the nurse . The marriage breaks after a few years.
1948: The National Party comes to power . It introduces the system of apartheid , strict racial segregation and discrimination of the black and colored majority.
1952: Mandela and Oliver Tambo ( also ANC) will inaugurate the first black law firm in South Africa. Mandela leads nonviolent campaigns against the apartheid regime and was first arrested on charges of communism.
1958: Mandela marries the civil rights activist Winnie Madikizela Nomzamo .
21 March 1960 : " Sharpeville Massacre ": When peaceful protests, the police shoot 69 people . The government declared a state of emergency and prohibits the ANC.
1961: Mandela and 150 co-accused are acquitted of the charge of treason . The ANC declared non-violent resistance as insufficient . Mandela is commander in chief of the newly formed military wing of the ANC . He flees abroad, where he receives a guerrilla training.
1962 : On his return Mandela is arrested and brought to the prison island Robben Iceland for the next five years .
1964 : Mandela is found in the " Rivonia Trial " for sabotage and rioting and sentenced to life imprisonment with seven other ANC members .
1982: resettlement in the Pollsmoor Prison in Cape Town.
1986 : Mandela begins secret talks with the government .
1988: resettlement in the Victor Verster prison near Cape Town. Mandela gets its own house along with cooking and pool on the grounds .
1989: Mandela 's first meeting President Frederik Willem de Klerk . Some of his colleagues come free .
11 February 1990 : Mandela is released. Previously, de Klerk had lifted the ban on the ANC. Negotiations for a democratic South Africa begin.
1991 : Mandela ANC party leader . The last apartheid laws are repealed.
1993: Mandela gets together with De Klerk Nobel Peace Prize .
1994: Following the first democratic elections in South Africa, Mandela became president.
1996: The marriage to Winnie Madikizela - Mandela is divorced.
1998: On his 80th Mandela Graça Machel Birthday married , widow of Mozambican President Samora Machel .
1999: Mandela is from the presidency to Thabo Mbeki.
2003: A concert in Cape Town with pop stars from around the world calling for the fight against AIDS . It 's motto is " 46664 " , Mandela's prison number . Mandela moves more and more from the public .
2005: Mandela's son Makgatho dies of AIDS.
27 June 2008: Shortly before his 90th Mandela birthday comes to a " 46664 " concert in his honor to London , where 50,000 people attend.
11 June 2010: Mandela says from his participation in the World Cup opening ceremony in South Africa after the accidental death of a granddaughter . However, at the final , he comes into the stadium .
8 June 2013 : Mandela is admitted for the umpteenth time because of a lung infection in a hospital in Pretoria and artificially ventilated .
1 September 2013 : Mandela is released from the hospital and has since been further intensive medical care at his home in Johannesburg.
5 December 2013 : Mandela dies at the age of 95 years .