Nelson Mandela: Beacon of hope for all mankind

NELSON Mandela was one of modern history's greatest figures and pre-eminent human rights campaigners.

South Africans hold pictures of former South African president Nelson Mandela as they pay tribute

NELSON Mandela was one of modern history's greatest figures and pre-eminent human rights campaigners, a man of immense moral integrity and courage whose influence stretched far beyond South Africa and who was frequently equated with Mahatma Gandhi.

Born the son of a tribal chief in the Thembu royal family on South Africa's east coast in 1918, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela dedicated his life to the fight against the system of racial segregation known as apartheid. He spent 27 years in prison after being convicted of treason, emerging as the first black president of his country in 1994.

His vision from an early age was for a non-racial, democratic nation in which everyone, black and white alike, would enjoy equal rights and freedoms. Despite many setbacks, Mandela never faltered in his determination to achieve that goal.

He became politically active at the University of Fort Hare, for decades the foremost place of learning for many of post-colonial Africa's leaders. At the university he met Oliver Tambo, who was later to become the first president of the African National Congress, which was eventually to lead South Africa to its emancipation from apartheid rule. The two men established the country's first black law firm in the goldmining city of Johannesburg, and, with Walter Sisulu, another luminary of the anti-apartheid struggle, founded the ANC Youth League.

When the white government outlawed the ANC in 1960, Mandela went underground and, after training in Algeria, formed a military wing for the organisation that was known as Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation).

Under his leadership, MK embarked on a campaign of guerilla warfare and sabotage that was strongly supported by the Soviet Union and countries of the Eastern bloc.

While Mandela was operating underground, Tambo left South Africa and became leader of the ANC in exile, living mainly in London where he played a crucial role in winning support for the movement from Western governments, much to the chagrin of the white rulers in Pretoria.

For 17 months Mandela managed to elude police hunting for him, in the process becoming known as The Black Pimpernel.

In 1962 his luck ran out and, after being caught in a police trap, he was sentenced to five years in prison for leaving the country illegally. Worse was to come, however. Police later discovered further evidence of the extent of Mandela's involvement in the leadership of the ANC, and he was put on trial for treason and sentenced to life imprisonment. He was sent to the windswept desolation of Robben island in Table Bay Harbour, off Cape Town.

Mandela, a man of enormous personal dignity, was imprisoned for 27 years, frequently in conditions of extreme privation, including being assigned to chip rocks in a quarry. But even as the ANC in exile struggled to survive the onslaught of the white government, which frequently launched sabotage and assassination attacks against it, Mandela never wavered in his determination to achieve emancipation for his people.

Finally, with South Africa a global pariah and subjected to crippling sanctions and isolation, the apartheid regime started to buckle, seeking an accommodation with the ANC that led to Mandela's release from jail in Cape Town in 1990 - a prelude to him playing the key role in multi-party negotiations and the country's first democratic election in 1994, which was won overwhelmingly by the ANC.

He became president, serving for five years during which he pursued an ambitious reform agenda aimed at giving his people what they had been denied by apartheid.

A year earlier, Mandela, along with the last white president, FW de Klerk, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for the part he played in the struggle to end apartheid. In office as president he was the pivotal figure in achieving reconciliation and harmony between the minority white and black majority communities, something most believed was impossible as apartheid collapsed and the ANC prepared to take power. In this quest for reconciliation, however, he was as resolute as he was in seeking to end apartheid and to the end of his life he was seen by whites and blacks alike as a constant reassurance that the ideals of their new-found democracy would be maintained.

Globally, Mandela was embraced as an inspiration to oppressed people everywhere, his courage in the face of adversity giving hope to millions across the world. "No power on earth can stop an oppressed people determined to win their freedom," he told them, adding that "to overthrow oppression is the highest aspiration of every free man".

On another occasion he said that "to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains but to live in a way that respects and enhances the lives of others".

While Mandela was lauded across the world, his personal life was sometimes deeply unhappy. His first marriage was to a local woman from his tribal home, Evelyn. But they divorced in 1957. He then married the firebrand Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, an ANC militant from whom he was divorced in 1996.

On his 80th birthday, in 1998, he married Graca Machel, widow of Mozambique's former president Samora Machel, who had died in a suspicious aircraft crash.

In recent years, having forsaken the bright lights of Johannesburg and his global celebrity status, he lived quietly, surrounded by Machel and the rest of his family in the village of Qunu, in the Eastern Cape. His last public appearance was at the end of the World Cup soccer final in 2010.