‘Father of South Africa’ Nelson Mandela dies aged 95

Former South African President and Nobel Peace Prize winner Nelson Mandela has died aged 95.

Widely regarded as the “father of the nation” in South Africa and venerated internationally for his role in ending the racist apartheid regime, Mandela will be mourned by millions around the world.

Mandela rose to prominence as a founding member of the Youth League of the African National Congress (ANC) and was a leader during the 1952 Defiance Campaign. Initially committed to non-violent actions he then went on to co-found the militant Umkhonto we Sizwe in 1961. In 1962 he was given a life sentence for sabotage.

Mandela spent 27 years in prison predominantly on Robben Island, despite international pressure on the South African government to free him. He was finally released on 11^th February 1990. His struggle and that of black South Africans living under apartheid became the focus of enormous international pressure including a regime of economic sanctions.

He went on to oversee negotiations for the ending of the apartheid regime and was elected President of South Africa in 1994 and served for five years until 1999. He saw his primary task as building “a rainbow nation at peace with itself and the world.” He also set up the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (Chaired by Archbishop Desmond Tutu) which investigated the crimes and worst excesses of the apartheid regime. Mandela praised the Commission’s work, stating that it “had helped us move away from the past to concentrate on the present and the future”

He was jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize with F.W. de Klerk in 2009.