South Africa Celebrates the Life of Nelson Mandela
A year after his death, Nelson Mandela's quest for equality has not been lost on his country.
A singer performs onstage during a ceremony on Friday in Beijing. People around the world honored Mandela on the first anniversary of his death.
South Africa observed a respectful silence Friday in memory of Nelson Mandela – civil rights activist, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and the country's first black president – on the first anniversary of his death.
Mandela, who became the face of South African racial equality in a time of oppressive apartheid rule, died last year from a lung infection at the age of 95, according to the Daily Mail. A year later, Mandela’s 67 years of public service were recognized by 6 minutes and 7 seconds of silence across the country.
South Africans also honored Mandela Friday with prayers, speeches, ceremonies and blasts from the country’s iconic vuvuzela horns. Wreaths were placed at the foot of the Nelson Mandela statue in Pretoria, and people around the world paid tribute to Mandela’s strides toward racial equality.
“One year ago, the world lost a leader whose struggle and sacrifices inspired us to stand up for our fundamental principles, whose example reminded us of the enduring need for compassion, understanding and reconciliation, and whose vision saw the promise of a better world,” President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama said in a statement Friday, according to USA Today. “While Mandela left behind a world more just and free, there is much more work to be done. On this day, and on every day, we honor his spirit and his memory.”
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Mandela was an activist at the height of a South African apartheid regime extremely oppressive of native Africans. Mandela joined the anti-apartheid African National Congress in 1943 and eventually helped found the organization’s Youth League.
Mandela was 34 years old when he opened the first black legal firm in a segregated South Africa in 1952, according to the South African government. That same year he also became one of the African National Congress’ deputy presidents.
But Mandela and 19 others were arrested in 1952 and charged for their participation in a national protest. Mandela was sentenced to nine months in prison with hard labor, to be suspended for two years. He was later arrested for participation in civil disobedience in 1956 and charged with high treason, along with 155 other resistance leaders, according to CNN.
Though he was eventually found not guilty, Mandela’s arrests continued as he opposed South African segregation. In 1962, he was charged with incitement and improperly leaving the country, according to the Nelson Mandela Foundation. Mandela was originally sentenced to five years hard labor, but this later turned into a life sentence on four counts of sabotage, according to CNN.
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Mandela spent 27 years in prison before being freed on Feb. 11, 1990, a few months after South African President P.W. Botha’s resignation effectively ended the country’s apartheid regime. Though he was unable to lead on the front lines of South Africa’s civil rights struggle, Mandela became something of a martyr to his cause while incarcerated.
Mandela and President F.W. de Klerk shared the Nobel Peace Prize for toppling apartheid in South Africa in 1993 and, the next year, Mandela became South Africa’s first black president. Nelson’s African National Congress political party has won every presidential election in South Africa since 1994, and the country has not had a white leader since de Klerk, according to The New York Times.
“[Mandela] served South Africa, and all humanity, in a way that no one individual has ever done or is ever likely to in the foreseeable future,” said Patrick Craven, spokesman for the Congress of South African Trade Unions, according to the Times. “He left it up to us and future generations to continue that struggle.”
South Africa’s first black president stepped down after serving a four-year term in 1999, according to CNN. Mandela then dabbled in humanitarian causes, focusing primarily on HIV/AIDS and Burundi’s racially-charged civil war. The U.N. in 2009 began honoring Mandela’s July 18 birthday as Nelson Mandela International Day.
“Our obligation to [Mandela] is to continue to build the society he envisaged, to follow his example,” Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Mandela’s fellow Nobel Peace Prize laureate for fighting to end apartheid, said Friday, according to the Times.
