NELSON MANDELA; IN LIFE AND IN DEATH

South African President Jacob Zuma announced that Mandela, "the founding president of our democratic nation, has departed," adding that he "passed on peacefully."

"Our nation has lost its greatest son. Our people have lost a father."

Mandela's respiratory problems in recent years may have been connected to his imprisonment, when he contracted tuberculosis after working in a prison quarry. He had been in hospital in recent months. 

President Jacob Zuma's announcement of the death late on Thursday shook South Africa. The streets of the capital Pretoria and of Johannesburg were hushed, and in bars and nightclubs, music was turned off as people gathered to quietly talk about the news.

A sombre Zuma told the nation in a televised address that Mandela "passed on peacefully in the company of his family around 8:50pm on the 5th of December 2013".

"He is now resting. He is now at peace," Zuma said.

BIOGRAPHY

Born the son of a tribal chief on July 18, 1918, in the village of Mvezo in Transkei in the Eastern Cape province, he was given the name Rolihlaha Mandela. Rolihlaha roughly translates from Xhosa as "troublemaker." For the white South African government, he would soon live up to his name.

When Mandela was nine, his father died, and he was sent to live with the chief of the Thembu people.

After Mandela was expelled from university because of his protest activity, the Thembu chief arranged a marriage for Mandela, which he avoided by leaving the Transkei for Johannesburg in 1941. 

He earned a BA from the University of South Africa in 1943 and then a law degree. 

Mandela in the office of Mandela & Tambo, a law practice set up in Johannesburg by Mandela and Oliver Tambo to provide free or affordable legal representation to black South Africans.

Around this time, he joined the African National Congress (ANC).

Mandela became president of the African National Congress Youth League in 1951.

In 1944, Mandela co-founded the ANC Youth League. He and other ANCYL leaders pushed for a more militant strategy, one that paid more attention to the needs of the black masses.

That same year, Mandela married Evelyn Mase, a cousin of ANC leader Walter Sisulu. Nelson and Evelyn had four children.

The implementation of apartheid in 1948 gave added urgency to the ANCYL's cause, and by 1949 it had taken over the leadership of the ANC. A new program emphasized self-determination for blacks, which was to be achieved through boycotts, strikes, demonstrations and civil disobedience.

In 1948, Mandela was elected ANCYL secretary and, in 1951, its president.

The new ANC program was implemented in 1952 as the "Defiance Against Unjust Laws Campaign." That led to a violent government response and increased prominence for Mandela, who was elected president of the Transvaal ANC and national deputy president that year.

4½-year treason trial

The South African government continued to implement apartheid laws and intensify repression. In 1956, with the protest movement gaining strength, the government charged Mandela and 155 other leaders with treason and other charges.

Mandela led the defence in the 4½-year trial, using the courtroom to defend the ANC and the anti-apartheid cause.

While the trial dragged on, police attacked unarmed protesters in the Johannesburg suburb of Sharpeville in 1960. That sparked a new wave of protests, which led the government to ban the ANC and declare a national emergency. Mandela was again detained.

Finally, in March 1961, the judge acquitted all the defendants in the treason trial, finding there was insufficient evidence and that the ANC policy was non-violent.

From left: Patrick Molaoa, Robert Resha and Mandela walk to the courtroom for their treason trial in Johannesburg.

During the trial years, Mandela's marriage to Evelyn "collapsed because of differences in politics," according to Mandela, and they divorced. (Evelyn died in 2004.) In 1958, he married Winnie Madikileza and became father to two more daughters.

Mandela married his second wife, social worker Winnie Madikizela, in 1958. At the time, he was an active member of the African National Congress and had begun his lifelong commitment to ending segregation in South Africa.

After the trial, Mandela went underground. In August 1962, Mandela was arrested and charged with helping organize a three-day general strike and leaving the country without a valid travel document.

Once again, Mandela used the courtroom to present his ideas of equality. He argued he could not receive a fair trial from a judicial system intended to enforce white supremacy. He was convicted on both charges and sentenced to five years in prison.

A police raid on the ANC underground headquarters in 1963 uncovered documents about an ANC guerrilla movement called Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation), which Mandela had helped found in 1961. Umkonto claimed to have carried out more than 70 acts of sabotage against the government. Mandela was charged with treason and sabotage.

During the trial, Mandela declared from the dock, "I have cherished the idea of a democratic and free society, in which all persons will live together in harmony, and with equal opportunities. It is an idea for which I hope to live and to see, but, my lord, if it need be, it is an idea for which I am prepared to die." He received a life sentence.

27 years in prison

Mandela spent 18 years in the Robben Island prison, in which time he was forced to quarry limestone, harvest seaweed and endure brutality from the guards.

In 1982, along with other imprisoned ANC leaders, he was transferred to Pollsmoor prison outside Capetown. He was hospitalized with tuberculosis in 1988, recovered and returned to prison.

During his years of imprisonment, Mandela had no contact with the outside world, except visits with Winnie.

In 1989, reformer F. W. de Klerk became leader of the governing party and then South African president. Mandela's release seemed imminent.

On Feb. 11, 1990, TV networks around the world broadcast Mandela's walk out of the prison gates to freedom.

Mandela votes for the first time in his life on March 26, 1994.

That summer, he embarked on a tour of 13 countries, including Canada, to advocate for a continuation of the international economic sanctions campaign.

In 1993, Mandela and de Klerk finally reached agreement on ending apartheid and holding democratic elections. That year, the two men were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

The next year, Mandela published his autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom.

Democratic South Africa's first president

In 1994, not only did Mandela vote for the first time, but he was also elected democratic South Africa's first president. The ANC received 63 per cent of the vote.

Many predicted bloodshed and feared the possibility of civil war, fuelled by those seeking retribution for years of apartheid policies. But Mandela oversaw a peaceful transition, embarking on a strategy of reconciliation and urging forgiveness for the perpetrators of past apartheid-era crimes.

He helped establish the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which sought to  record human rights violations from all sides of the apartheid struggle, but also had the power to grant amnesty to those who committed abuses.

For two years, Mandela headed a coalition government, with de Klerk as deputy president, until de Klerk and his party left the government.

In 1996, Nelson divorced Winnie and two years later married Graca Machel, the former first lady of Mozambique.

The new South Africa was not easy to govern. In addition to other challenges, the crime rate soared as Mandela's government worked to improve social conditions and rebuild the economy.

After one term as president, Mandela stepped down. Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki, at right, was sworn in as his replacement in June 1999.

In 1999, at the completion of one term in office, Mandela stepped down as president, "an old man who wants to go into eternity with a smile on his face," he said.

International mediator

However, the "old man" kept up the pace, mediating peace talks in Burundi that year and the next year overseeing negotiations between Libya and the west concerning the 1988 Lockerbie bombing.

In 2001, he visited Canada for the third time, becoming an honorary Canadian citizen.

In 2003, he established the Mandela Rhodes Foundation to provide scholarships and mentoring for African youth.

Mandela sits with his wife, Graca Machel, and his grandchildren at his son's funeral on January 15, 2005. He disclosed that his son, Makgatho Lewanika Mandela, had died of AIDS and said the disease should be given publicity so people would stop viewing it as extraordinary.

Mandela attends an HIV/AIDs concert in Johannesburg on February 17, 2005.

The following year, he established 46664, a global HIV/AIDS campaign named for Mandela's prisoner number at Robben Island and famous for organizing benefit concerts around the world. (Mandela's son Makgatho died of AIDS in 2005.)

While Mandela said in 2004 that he was officially retiring from public life, he nevertheless went on to initiate The Elders in 2007. This group of former global leaders focuses on peace building, securing the release of political prisoners, humanitarian relief and women's rights.

Nelson Mandela, who guided South Africa from the shackles of apartheid to multi-racial democracy and became an international icon of peace and reconciliation, died Thursday at age 95.

Imprisoned for nearly three decades for his fight against white minority rule, Mandela emerged determined to use his prestige and charisma to bring down apartheid while avoiding a civil war.

"The time for the healing of the wounds has come. The moment to bridge the chasms that divide us has come," Mandela said in his acceptance speech on becoming South Africa's first black president in 1994.

Tributes began flooding in almost immediately for a man who was a global symbol of struggle against injustice and of racial reconciliation.

UK Prime Minister David Cameron called Mandela "a hero of our time". "A great light has gone out in the world," he said.

Praise also came from African leaders. Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan said the death "will create a huge vacuum that will be difficult to fill in our continent."

Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu said Mandela was "one of the most honorable figures of our time ... a man of vision, a freedom fighter who rejected violence."

Ordinary South Africans were in shock. "It feels like it's my father who has died. He was such a good man, who had good values the nation could look up to. He was a role model unlike our leaders of today," said Annah Khokhozela, 37, a nanny, speaking in Johannesburg.

Mourners gathered outside Mandela's home and spontaneous tributes sprang up around the world.

The famed Apollo Theater in the Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan, which Mandela visited in 1990, lit its marquee with the words: "In memory of Nelson Mandela ... He changed our world."

In Washington, flowers and candles were set at the base of a statue of Mandela outside the South African Embassy.

Outside Mandela's old house in Vilakazi Street, Soweto, a crowd of people, some with South African flags draped around them, gathered to sing songs in praise of the revered statesman. "Mandela you brought us peace" was one of the songs.

"I have mixed feelings. I am happy that he is resting, but I am also sad to see him go," said Molebogeng Ntheledi, 45, reflecting the mix of reverence and resignation with which South Africans had been following Mandela's fight against illness.

National figures were quick to play down fears expressed by a minority that the passing of the great conciliator might lead again to a return of the racial and political tensions that racked South Africa during the apartheid era.

The loss of its most beloved leader comes at a time when the nation has been experiencing bloody labour unrest, growing protests against poor services, poverty, crime and unemployment and corruption scandals tainting Zuma's rule.