But there was a big treat in store for the avid sportsman. On April 27, 1994, a long line of people snake toward a polling station in the black township of Soweto outside of Johannesburg in the nation's first all-race elections. That was Nelson Mandela, who emerged from prison after 27 years to lead his country out of decades of apartheid. "I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. Updated 0440 GMT (1240 HKT) December 6, 2013. Nelson Mandela's Death Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was born in Qunu, South Africa, on July 18, 1918, and Nelson Mandela dead 95 years later was buried there, on December 5, 2013. Here, artists who performed at the event surround him. "Our nation has lost its greatest son. By signing up for this email, you are agreeing to news, offers, and information from Encyclopaedia Britannica. "He no longer belongs to us -- he belongs to the ages.". On February 11, 1990, the South African government under President de Klerk released Mandela from prison. On June 12, 1964, he was sentenced to life imprisonment, narrowly escaping the death penalty. ed. The armed struggle was a defense mechanism against government violence, he said. F.W. A lot of African leaders overstayed their welcomes and remained in office for years, sometimes decades, making Mandela an anomaly. Former South African President F.W. Rolihlahla Mandela started his journey in the tiny village of Mvezo, in the hills of the Eastern Cape, where he was born on July 18, 1918. "He was the guarantee, almost like an insurance policy, that South Africa's young democracy and its leaders will pursue the nation's best interests.". Mandela sits outside his former prison cell on Robben Island on November 28, 2003, ahead of his AIDS benefit concert at Green Point Stadium in Cape Town. Nelson Mandela, a worldwide symbol of resistance to racism and injustice who spent 27 years in jail for his beliefs and then, without rancor, led South Africa out of apartheid, died Thursday at … Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox. A third … Before the real-life game, Mandela walked onto the pitch, wearing a green-and-gold South African jersey bearing Pienaar's number on the back. Mandela went on trial that same year and eventually was acquitted in 1961. After leaving office Mandela retired from active politics but maintained a strong international presence as an advocate of peace, reconciliation, and social justice, often through the work of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, established in 1999. de Klerk, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize with Mandela in 1993 for transitioning the nation from a system of racial segregation, described their first meeting. Nelson Mandelas life is an inspiration to all who are oppressed and deprived and opposed, Nelson Mandela died on Thursday, 5th December 2013 but his memory still lives on and will always be remembered. His death was announced by President Jacob Zuma. “Dare Not Linger: The Presidential Years”. Mandela is also known for being the first black president of South Africa, serving from 1994 to 1999. Winnie Madikizela-Mandela). Mandela and Madikizela-Mandela had divorced in 1996, and in 1998 Mandela married "We were expected by the world to self-destruct in the bloodiest civil war along racial grounds," Mandela said during a 2004 celebration to mark a decade of democracy in South Africa. In 1999, Mandela did not seek a second term as president, keeping his promise to serve only one term. He left without graduating in 1948. Mandela represented himself at the trial and was briefly imprisoned before being returned to court. If you recall Nelson Mandela’s death prior to December 2013, I hope you’ll remember (or provide a thoughtful guess about) the year — in the 1980s — you think he … In a nation healing from the scars of apartheid, Nelson Mandela became the moral compass, With bouts of illness, the anti-apartheid icon faded from the limelight in recent years, Mandela spent 27 years in prison; 18 of them were on Robben Island. In 1944 he joined the His teacher later named him Nelson as part of a custom to give all schoolchildren Christian names. President Jacob Zuma made the announcement from … Mandela did not seek a second term as South African president and was succeeded by Mbeki in 1999. de Klerk, for having led the transition from apartheid to a multiracial democracy. "That crowd, which was almost exclusively white ... started to chant his name. The foundation earlier posted that on the same day in 1969, Nelson Mandela's eldest son, Madiba Thembekile Mandela, died in a car crash. Mandela was elected president in the first open election in South African history on April 29, 1994. The South African government outlawed the ANC after the massacre, and an angry Mandela went underground to form a new military wing of the organization. Years after his 1999 retirement from the presidency, Mandela was considered the ideal head of state. "There are many people who feel that it is useless and futile for us to continue talking peace and nonviolence against a government whose reply is only savage attacks on an unarmed and defenseless people," Mandela said during his time on the run. The Mandela House, located in the township of Soweto in Johannesburg, South Africa, is the former home of the former South African president and his wife, Nelson Mandela and Winnie Mandela (m. 1958 – 1996). Despite chronic political violence before the vote that put him in office in 1994, South Africa avoided a full-fledged civil war in its transition from apartheid to multiparty democracy. Mandela became president of the African National Congress Youth League in 1951. Nelson Mandela, deputy president and later president of the African National Congress—and president of South Africa—addressing the Special Committee Against Apartheid, convened in his honour at the UN General Assembly, on June 22, 1990, in New York City.