apartheid icon who spent 27 years in prison, led his
country to democracy and became its first black
president, died Thursday at home. He was 95.
"He is now resting," said South African President
Jacob Zuma. "He is now at peace."
"Our nation has lost its greatest son," he continued.
"Our people have lost a father."
A state funeral will be held, and Zuma called for
mourners to conduct themselves with "the dignity
and respect" that Mandela personified.
"Wherever we are in the country,
wherever we are in the world ... let
us reaffirm his vision of a society in
which none is exploited, oppressed
or dispossessed by another," he
said as tributes began pouring in from across the world. President Obama said his first
political action was an anti- apartheid protest inspired by Mandela, who "achieved more than
could be expected of any man."
"I cannot fully imagine my own life
without the example Nelson Mandela set," he said.
Though he was in power for only five years, Mandela was a figure of enormous moral influence the world over – a symbol of revolution, resistance
and triumph over racial segregation.
He inspired a generation of activists, left celebrities
and world leaders star- struck, won the Nobel Peace Prize and raised millions for humanitarian causes. South Africa is still bedeviled by challenges, from class inequality to political corruption to AIDS. And with Mandela's death, it has lost a beacon of
optimism.
In his jailhouse memoirs, Mandela wrote that even
after spending so many years in a Spartan cell on
Robben Island – with one visitor a year and one letter
every six months – he still had faith in human nature.
"No one is born hating another person because of the
color of his skin, or his background, or his religion,"
he wrote in "Long Walk to Freedom."
"People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to
hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more
naturally to the human heart than its opposite."
Farewell NELSON MANDELA!!! Farewell MADIBA Farewell ROLIHLAHLA!!! Your Legacy Lives On!!!
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