Nelson Mandela, who led the emancipation of South Africa from white minority rule and served as his country's first black president, becoming an international emblem of dignity and forbearance, died Thursday. He was 95 . The South African president, Jacob Zuma, announced Mr. Mandela's death.
Mr. Mandela had long declared he wanted a quiet exit, but his final weeks in a Pretoria hospital were a clamor of quarreling family, hungry news media, spotlight-seeking politicians and a national outpouring of affection and loss. The vigil even eclipsed a visit by President Obama, who paid homage to Mr. Mandela but decided not to intrude on the privacy of a dying man he considered his hero.
Mr. Mandela will be buried, according to his wishes, in the village of Qunu, where he grew up. The exhumed remains of three of his children were reinterred there in early July under a court order, resolving a family squabble that had played out in the news media.
Mr. Mandela's quest for freedom took him from the court of tribal royalty to the liberation underground to a prison rock quarry to the presidential suite of Africa's richest country. And then, when his first term of office was up, unlike so many of the successful revolutionaries he regarded as kindred spirits, he declined a second term and cheerfully handed over power to an elected successor, the country still gnawed by crime, poverty, corruption and disease but a democracy, respected in the world and remarkably at peace.
The question most often asked about Mr. Mandela was how, after whites had systematically humiliated his people, tortured and murdered many of his friends, and cast him into prison for 27 years, he could be so evidently free of spite.
The government he formed when he finally won the chance was an improbable fusion of races and beliefs, including many of his former oppressors. When he became president, he invited one of his white wardens to the inauguration. Mr. Mandela overcame a personal mistrust bordering on loathing to share both power and a Nobel Peace Prize with the white president who preceded him, F. W. de Klerk.
And as president, from 1994 to 1999, he devoted much energy to moderating the bitterness of his black electorate and to reassuring whites against their fears of vengeance.
The explanation for his absence of rancor, at least in part, is that Mr. Mandela was that rarity among revolutionaries and moral dissidents: a capable statesman, comfortable with compromise and impatient with the doctrinaire.
When the question was put to Mr. Mandela in an interview for this obituary in 2007 -- after such barbarous torment, how do you keep hatred in check? -- his answer was almost dismissive: Hating clouds the mind. It gets in the way of strategy. Leaders cannot afford to hate.
Except for a youthful flirtation with black nationalism, he seemed to have genuinely transcended the racial passions that tore at his country. Some who worked with him said this apparent magnanimity came easily to him because he always regarded himself as superior to his persecutors.
In his five years as president, Mr. Mandela, though still a sainted figure abroad, lost some luster at home as he strained to hold together a divided populace and to turn a fractious liberation movement into a credible government.
SOURCE: Bill Keller
The New York Times
The New York Times
South Africa and the world mourn Mandela as 'giant for justice'
South African anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela died aged 95 at his Johannesburg home on Thursday after a prolonged lung infection, plunging his nation and the world into mourning for a man hailed by global leaders as a moral giant.
Although Mandela had been frail and ailing for nearly a year, Zuma's announcement late on Thursday of the death of the former president and Nobel Peace Prize laureate shook South Africa.
Tributes began flooding in almost immediately for a man who was an iconic global symbol of struggle against injustice and of racial reconciliation.
U.S. President Barack Obama said the world had lost "one of the most influential, courageous and profoundly good human beings that any of us will share time with on this earth".
British Prime Minister David Cameron called Mandela "a hero of our time" and said "a great light has gone out in the world".
Ordinary South Africans were in shock. "It feels like it's my father who has died. He was such a good man, who had good values the nation could look up to. He was a role model unlike our leaders of today," said Annah Khokhozela, 37, a nanny, speaking in Johannesburg
A somber Zuma made a national broadcast to announce the death of South Africa's first black president, who emerged from 27 years in apartheid prisons to help guide Africa's biggest economy through bloodshed and turmoil to democracy.
"Fellow South Africans, our beloved Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, the founding president of our democratic nation, has departed," Zuma said in the nationally televised address.
"Our people have lost a father. Although we knew this day was going to come, nothing can diminish our sense of a profound and enduring loss. His tireless struggle for freedom earned him the respect of the world. His humility, passion and humanity, earned him their love," he added.
"GIANT FOR JUSTICE"
Mandela would receive a full state funeral, Zuma said, ordering flags to be flown at half mast.
The U.N. Security Council was in session when the ambassadors received the news of Mandela's death. They stopped their meeting and stood for a minute's silence.
"Nelson Mandela was a giant for justice and a down-to-earth human inspiration," U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told reporters. "Nelson Mandela showed what is possible for our world and within each one of us if we believe, dream and work together for justice and humanity."
Obama, the first black American president, described Mandela as an inspiration: "Like so many around the globe, I cannot fully imagine my own life without the example that Nelson Mandela set, and so long as I live I will do what I can to learn from him," he said in a televised address at the White House shortly after the announcement of Mandela's death.
"A free South Africa at peace with itself - that's an example to the world, and that's Madiba's legacy to the nation he loved.
Mandela rose from rural obscurity to challenge the might of white minority apartheid government - a struggle that gave the 20th century one of its most respected and loved figures.
He was among the first to advocate armed resistance to apartheid in 1960, but was quick to preach reconciliation and forgiveness when the country's white minority began easing its grip on power 30 years later.
He was elected president in landmark all-race elections in 1994 and retired in 1999.
WORLD'S MOST FAMOUS POLITICAL PRISONER
South Africa's ruling African National Congress (ANC) party said the country and the world had lost "a colossus".
"His life gives us the courage to push forward for development and progress towards ending hunger and poverty," it said in a statement.
He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993, an honor he shared with F.W. de Klerk, the white Afrikaner leader who released from jail arguably the world's most famous political prisoner.
As president, Mandela faced the monumental task of forging a new nation from the deep racial injustices left over from the apartheid era, making reconciliation the theme of his time in office.
The hallmark of Mandela's mission was the Truth and Reconciliation Commission which probed apartheid crimes on both sides of the struggle and tried to heal the country's wounds. It also provided a model for other countries torn by civil strife.
In 1999, Mandela handed over power to younger leaders better equipped to manage a modern economy - a rare voluntary departure from power cited as an example to African leaders.
In retirement, he shifted his energies to battling South Africa's AIDS crisis, a struggle that became personal when he lost his only surviving son to the disease in 2005.
Mandela's last major appearance on the global stage came in 2010 when he attended the championship match of the soccer World Cup, where he received a thunderous ovation from the 90,000 at the stadium in Soweto, the neighborhood in which he cut his teeth as a resistance leader.
Charged with capital offences in the infamous 1963 Rivonia Trial, his statement from the dock was his political testimony.
"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."
(Additional reporting by Guy Faulconbridge in London, Steve Holland, Matt Spetalnick, Mark Felsenthal, and Jeff Mason, Michele Nichols in New York, Stella Mapenzauswa and Peroshni Govender in Johannesburg; Writing by Ed Cropley and Pascal Fletcher; Editing by Peter Graff)
SOURCE: Reuters
BBC: Jacob Zuma announces Mandela's death
Nelson Mandela has died at home aged 95, South Africa's president Jacob Zuma has announced.
In address to the nation, Mr Zuma said Nelson Mandela "passed away peacefully".
The Telegaph: Nelson Mandela dies: reaction and developments
Click here to read condolences and remarks from leaders around the world.
Mail & Guardian (S. Africa): Madiba: A symbol of the power of good
The words "Nelson Mandela is dead" feel strange in the mouth today, almost impossible to say, given the unique way he was both martyred and canonised during his lifetime. He embodies a paradox: on the one hand we love him for his humanity; on the other, he already passed long ago from the world of the flesh. He is a peak of moral authority, rising above the soulless wasteland of the 20th century; he is a universal symbol for goodness and wisdom, for the ability to change, and the power of reconciliation. In person, he was not notably affectionate, but his image beams a very particular sensation: you just look at him and you feel held, hugged.
Mandela epitomised those instincts we most associate with childhood: trust, goodness, optimism; an ability to vanquish the night's demons with the knowledge that the sun will rise in the morning. But he also made us feel good, and warm, and safe, because he found a way to play an ideal father, beyond the confines of his biological family or even his national one. He was the father we would all have wanted if we could have designed one. He was wise with age, benignly powerful, comfortingly irascible, stern when we needed containing, breathtakingly courageous, affirming when we needed praise - and, of course, possessed of the two childlike qualities that make for the best of fathers: an exhilarating playfulness and a bottomless capacity to forgive.
Mandela is often paired with MK Gandhi. Unlike the godly Indian liberator, however, he was an unapologetic (even if delightfully self-deprecating) patriarch. A leader's claim that his subjects are his children can be the very definition of tyranny, but what made Mandela so singular a leader of modern times is the way he re-appropriated such clichés. He inhabited his paternity in such a way that it seemed fresh and emancipatory even as it comforted in the way it recalled more traditional understandings of what a leader should be.
Independent Online (S. Africa): Nelson Mandela has died
Former president Nelson Mandela has died.
Mandela died peacefully at his home in Johannesburg, surrounded by his family on Thursday evening, President Jacob Zuma said.
"Although we knew that this day would come, nothing can diminish our sense of a profound and enduring loss," Zuma said addressing the nation on television.
"His tireless struggle for freedom earned him the respect of the world."
He sent condolences to the anti-apartheid icon's wife Graca Machel, his former wife Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, his children, his grand-children, his great grand-children and the entire family.
Zuma said this was South Africa's moment of "deepest sorrow".
"Our nation has lost its greatest son," he said.
"Fellow South Africans, Nelson Mandela brought us together, and it is together that we will bid him farewell."
He said Mandela would be given a state funeral and he ordered that all flags be flown at half mast from Friday and to remain like that until after the funeral.
"As we gather to pay our last respects, let us conduct ourselves with the dignity and respect that Madiba personified," Zuma said.
"Let us be mindful of his wishes and the wishes of his family."
He asked that people, wherever they were gathering in South Africa and the world, recall the values which Mandela fought for and strive to not rest until his vision of a truly united South Africa was realised.
"We will always love you Madiba. May your soul rest in peace.
"God Bless Africa. Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika." - Sapa
Independent Online (S. Africa): World leaders pay tribute to Mandela
US President Barack Obama lauded Nelson Mandela on Thursday as "one of the most influential, courageous and profoundly good human beings that any of us will share time with on this earth."
Obama pointed to the transformation that Mandela oversaw in South Africa, noting, "He no longer belongs to us; he belongs to the ages."
The first black US president also said South Africa's first black leader had had a tremendous influence on his own political career, noting his first political action as a youth had been an anti-apartheid protest.
"I cannot fully imagine my own life without the example that Nelson Mandela set, and so long as I live I will do what I can to learn from him."
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon sent his deepest condolences to Mandela's family and the people of South Africa on Thursday calling Mandela "a giant for justice and a down-to-earth human inspiration."
"Many around the world were greatly influenced by his selfless struggle for human dignity, equality and freedom," Ban said.
"He touched our lives in deeply personal ways."
Ban said that Mandela advanced the values of the United Nations more than anyone else. "Let us continue each day to be inspired by Nelson Mandela's life-long example of working for a better and more just world," Ban said.
British Prime Minister David Cameron on Thursday said "a great light had gone out", revealing that flags would be flown at half-mast at his Downing Street Office.
"A great light has gone out in the world," Cameron wrote on his official Twitter account.
"Nelson Mandela was a hero of our time. I've asked for the flag at No.10 to be flown at half mast."
A Downing Street spokesman said a fuller statement was expected later.
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