Nelson Mandela has died.

South Africa's first black President, Nelson Mandela, has died aged 95.

Mr Mandela, 95, led South Africa's transition from white-minority rule in the 1990s, after 27 years in prison.

He had been receiving intense home-based medical care for a lung infection after three months in hospital.

In a statement on South African national TV, South African Presiden Jacob Zuma said Mr Mandela had "departed" and was at peace.

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate was one of the world's most revered statesmen after preaching reconciliation despite being imprisoned for 27 years. After being jailed for life in 1964, Mandela (often referred to by his Xhosa clan name, Madiba, or as Tata, meaning "Father") became a worldwide symbol of resistance to apartheid.

He was born in the rural Transkei on 18 July 1918 into an African royal family largely dispossessed by colonising; his grandfather had been a king and his father was a chief. He was named Rolihlahla, or "troublemaker". After attending Methodist boarding schools (where he was rechristened "Nelson") he went to the only black university in South Africa, Fort Hare. He began to rebel against authority and was expelled.

After experiencing racism at the University of Witwatersrand, he joined the African National Congress in 1944 and helped establish its youth league. Together with a group of young, intelligent and highly motivated colleagues, including Walter Sisulu and Oliver Tambo, he set about transforming the ANC into a mass political movement.

In the early 1950s he toured South Africa, organising campaigns of mass civil disobedience. In 1955, Mandela played a key role in writing the ANC's Freedom Charter, which stated that South Africa belonged "to all who live in it, black and white, and that no government can justly claim authority unless it is based on the will of all the people".

The following year, he was among 156 political activists, including much of the ANC's leadership, to be arrested and charged with treason. After a trial that lasted four-and-a-half-years, all the accused were eventually acquitted in 1961.

A key point for Mr Mandela came two years later, when 69 people were shot dead in a protest against the Pass Laws. Hundreds of political activists, including Mr Mandela, were arrested and detained without trial while the government declared a state of emergency and banned the ANC. The ANC began to advocate violence and Mandela was made commander of its newly formed military wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe. The group's policy was to attack property - under his auspices, the ANC carried out a sabotage campaign, blowing up government pass offices, electricity pylons and attacking police stations.

Mandela travelled outside the country looking for support, but was arrested in South Africa in 1962 and was jailed for five years. Two years later, he was sentenced to life imprisonment for organising sabotage at what became known as the Rivonia trial. He was sent to Robben Island jail.

The rise of the militant Black Consciousness Movement during the 1970s and the death in custody of one of the movement's founders, student activist Steve Biko, rekindled interest in Mr Mandela and the ANC. an active worldwide anti-apartheid movement was growing, focusing on the express aim of freeing Nelson Mandela and his fellow prisoners.

Sanctions, demonstrations and music concerts - including one held on Mr Mandela's 70th birthday in 1988 - were just a few of the many ways that his plight was kept in the public eye.

South Africa became more isolated, businesses and banks refused to do business with it and the clamour for change increased. In 1990, the South African government, which had already begun to reverse apartheid legislation under the leadership of anti-apartheid President FW de Klerk, finally agreed to open negotiations, and Nelson Mandela was released.

Prison had taken away the prime of his life. It had taken away his family life. Relations with some of his children were strained. His marriage to Winnie Mandela would end in divorce.

He was jointly-awarded the Nobel Peace Prize with FW de Klerk in 1993 and was elected South Africa's first black president in 1994, two years after white South Africans voted in a referendum to end the Apartheid system. He stepped down after five years in office, time which he used to promote peace and reconciliation between black and white South Africans and campaign for racial, ethnic and sexual equality in Africa.

"Our nation has lost its greatest son," President Zuma said. "What made Nelson Mandela great was precisely what made him human. We saw in him what we seek in ourselves."

"Fellow South Africans, Nelson Mandela brought us together and it is together that we will bid him farewell."

Mr Mandela's body will be moved to a mortuary in Pretoria, and the funeral is likely to take place next Saturday.

"No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin, his background or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate they can learn to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite" - Nelson Mandela.

edited 5th Dec '13 6:20:05 PM by TheBatPencil

RIP

That is most tragic.

A heroic anti-colonialist and anti-apartheid figure and an incredibly example of humanity. Rest in peace, Madiba.

A towering legacy.

It's been coming for over a year, now. Rest in peace, Tata: you've earned it.

The NSA will keep him on the terrorist list for another 25 years as a precaution.

In all seriousness though, the man was a pretty shining example for humanity. He'll be missed.

edited 5th Dec '13 2:34:43 PM by Pykrete

The guy wasn't perfect, particularly to his family.

Still sad to see him go after all he's done, though.

Obama: Mandela an inspiration to millions.

George W. Bush: Mandela Was Force 'For Freedom And Equality'.

Desmond Tutu Pays Tribute to Nelson Mandela.

That's saddening. Though I honestly thought he was dead already. His effects on the struggle for racial equality will be remembered and taught for a long, long time.

Good Night, sweet prince. :(

You really were one of the best examples of the inherent good in humanity,

I wonder how things will happen in South Africa after the period of mourning.

A good demonstration of how comity can triumph over hate.

So long as a person is remembered, they never truly die.

D'aaawww, you're going to make me cry.

It's a shame. We've lost a great man today.

Indeed

Nelson Mandela put the spotlight on the shameful government of his country when it needed to be so humiliated, and through his eventual triumph he brought his people a pride that towers over the system they replaced, finally bringing his beautiful country the honour it deserved.

I'm sure he never had any doubt that his immense personal suffering, should it lead to victory, would be easily repaid with the fruits of that achievement. His life in prison, when he was hated by his government but loved by people who support freedom around the world, was also - but not only - a metaphor and a symbol of the status of the oppressed people of South Africa.

edited 5th Dec '13 5:24:09 PM by BestOf

"To be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others."

- Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela

Anyone else find it amusing (in a totally not funny way) that Mandela's death comes on the same day as a fresh western intervention in Africa (Central African Republic).

Not really, granted I don't view that particular intervention as unjustified.

Sad to see such a great man go though. However I've lived with two dying grandparents and while I can't say for sure in his case my experience tells me that at 95 with a persistent infection, death was probably a mercy for him. He's no longer in pain, that's the important thing.

I'm also one of the people who honestly thought he was already dead and was surprised to learn he was still living until now.

Nonetheless, his contributions to society are undoubtedly important, and he will surely be missed.

I was having similar thoughts. Part of me wants to say, "What a tragedy," or something similar, but honestly, he was likely reaching a point where the best he could do was, "prolong dying," rather than, "prolong living." He passed on in his home, at the age of ninety five, after somehow playing a key role in ending South African apartheid peacefully, with millions of people worldwide mourning his death and commenting on what a swell guy he was. There are...worse ways to go, all things considered.

Granted, I'm not sure if I'd be willing to say, "I'm glad he's dead;" especially in public, but there's some comfort in the fact that, as a nonagenarian, he had probably already come to terms with his mortality. It's not the kind of thing that catches you by surprise at that point.

@Silasw

It isn't so much a Western intervention as the UN asking the French to come in and help an African one, because African armies tend to be of... middling...quality.

I think his death was a conspiracy in order to drum up publicity for his new film with Idris Elba.

Idris Elba doesn't need the help.

*moment of silence*