Nelson Mandela at age 95 Too Soon

Dec.05, 2013 -Nelson Mandela, who led the fight against apartheid and then pushed for reconciliation as his country’s first black president, died after a prolonged illness Thursday. He was 95 years young at the time is his death.

“He passed on peacefully in the comfort of his family,” South African President Jacob Zuma said in an address to the world just before midnight Thursday in the African nation. “We’ve lost our greatest son.”

Photo Credit Twitter Nelson Mandela

Mandela shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993 with F.W. de Klerk, South Africa’s last president during the era of state-sanctioned racial segregation. He was also a boxer.
Born July 18, 1918, few would have predicted that Mandela would choose the path of peace as he stood accused with his African National Congress cohorts of trying to overthrow the government by force.

Sentenced to life in prison, Mandela was for 27 years reduced to a simple Inmate number 46664. He served 18 of those years on Robben Island, where he contracted the tuberculosis that would dog him for the rest of his life.

Photo Credit Twitter Nelson Mandela
Nelson Mandela age 95 Has past away.

Mandela “made us realize, we are our brother’s keeper and that our brothers come in all colors,” said another icon, boxing great Muhammad Ali.

“I stand here before you not as a prophet but as a humble servant of you, the people,” he said after emerging from custody. “Your tireless and heroic sacrifices have made it possible for me to be here today. I therefore place the remaining years of my life in your hands.”

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was born July 18, 1918, the son of a tribal chief in Transkei, one of the future “Bantustans,” independent republics set up by the apartheid regime to cement the separation of whites and blacks.

Mandela’s royal upbringing gave him a dignified bearing that became his hallmark. Many South Africans of all races would later call him by his clan name, Madiba, as a token of affection and respect.

Growing up at a time when virtually all of Africa was under European colonial rule, Mandela attended Methodist schools before being admitted to the black University of Fort Hare in 1938. He was expelled two years later for his role in a student strike.

He moved to Johannesburg and worked as a policeman at a gold mine, boxed as an amateur heavyweight and studied law.

His first wife, nurse Evelyn Mase, bore him four children. A daughter died in infancy, a son was killed in a car crash in 1970 and another son died of AIDS in 2005. The couple divorced in 1957 and Evelyn died in 2004.

Sorry for the loss to the friends and family of Nelson Mandela. God Bless you all!