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South Africa, world celebrates Mandela’s life

Once considered a terrorist by the United States and Britain for his support of violence against the apartheid regime, at the time of his death he was an almost unimpeachable moral icon.

Mandela’s extraordinary life story, quirky sense of humour and lack of bitterness towards his former oppressors ensured global appeal for the charismatic leader.

He spent 27 years behind bars before being freed in 1990 to lead the African National Congress (ANC) in negotiations with the white minority rulers, which culminated in the first multi racial elections in 1994.

A victorious Mandela served a single term as president before taking up a new role as a roving elder statesman and leading AIDS campaigner before finally retiring from public life in 2004.

The man he replaced, South Africa’s last white president FW de Klerk, also paid tribute.

“South Africa has lost one of its founding fathers and one of its greatest sons,” he said.

Born in July 1918 in the southeastern Transkei region, Mandela started a career as a lawyer in Johannesburg in parallel with his political activism.

He became commander in chief of Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation), the armed wing of the then banned ANC, in 1961, and the following year underwent military training in Algeria and Ethiopia.

While underground back home in South Africa, Mandela was captured by police in 1962 and sentenced to five years in prison.

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He was then charged with sabotage and sentenced in 1964 to life in prison at the Rivonia trial, named after a Johannesburg suburb where a number of ANC leaders were arrested.

He used the court hearing to deliver a speech that was to become the manifesto of the anti apartheid movement.

“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. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society.

“It is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.”

He was first sent to prison on Robben Island, where he spent 18 years before being transferred in 1982 to Pollsmoor prison in Cape Town and later to Victor Verster prison in nearby Paarl.

When he was finally released on February 11, 1990, he walked out of prison with his fist raised alongside his then wife Winnie.

Ex-prisoner 46664 took on the task of persuading de Klerk to call time on the era of racist white minority rule.

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