South African civil rights icon Nelson Mandela has died at the age of 95. Mandela is known throughout the world as the person who dismantled the South African Apartheid regime. Before his death, Mandela had been treated for a persistent lung infection this year, and in recent times has chosen to be in his home in Johannesburg. "He is now resting," says South African President Jacob Zuma. "He is now at peace."
Mandela began his walk to greatness as an activist with the African National Congress by helping to arrange defiance campaigns and general strikes against the Apartheid regime. After several arrests and violent police crackdowns, Mandela was arrested in 1963 on sabotage charges and for plotting the overthrow of the government. During his trial, Mandel admitted that he acted in somewhat violent ways and also admitted to the sabotage charges. However, he said his actions were towards a free society. "I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities," Mandela uttered to the court. "It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die."
Mandela was sentenced to life in prison amid fears of a communist uprising.
The great man was seen as a political prisoner for 18 years as he was laid to waste in an 8-by-7-foot cell in South Africa's Robben Island prison. However, in 1990, Nelson Mandela was released and quickly became one of the world's most powerful and loved political figures. Four years after his release, Mandela was elected president of South Africa. He served until he withdrew from all things political in 1999.
In the wake of his death, many political figures have lined up to mourn Mandela. "Let us recall the values for which Madiba fought," South African President Jacob Zuma said. "Let us reaffirm his vision of a society in which none is exploited, oppressed or dispossessed by another."
"We've lost one of the most influential, courageous and profoundly good human beings that any of us will share time with on this Earth," Barack Obama said. "He no longer belongs to us -- he belongs to the ages."
Nelson Mandela was a man who wanted to be remembered fondly, but not as a special person. "I would like to be remembered, not as anyone unique or special, but as part of a great team in this country that has struggled for many years, for decades and even centuries," he said. "The greatest glory of living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time you fall."
The world will miss him.
