“Nelson Mandela gave 27 years of his life, walked out of prison, and included his oppressors in his government so that they could all be free. He taught us that none of us can ever be free at another’s expense.” – President Bill Clinton, 2008[1]

Nelson Mandela, the first black president of South Africa, is credited with helping the nation end the institution of apartheid and transition into a nonracial democracy – a “Rainbow Nation” – during the mid-1990s. Around the world he is considered a hero and a symbol of peace.

Born on July 18, 1918 to the chief of the Madiba clan of South Africa’s Tembu people, Mandela renounced his claim to the leadership of the clan, deciding instead to study to become a lawyer.

Following his qualification, in 1944 Mandela became involved with the African National Congress (ANC), which opposed apartheid and the ruling, white National Party. Traveling across the nation, Mandela preached a principle of nonviolent opposition to the apartheid. His work against apartheid made him a target of South Africa’s regime, and in December 1956 Mandela was arrested on a charge of treason, of which he was acquitted in 1961.

However, following the Sharpsville massacre, an incident in the Sharpsville Township in which white police killed or wounded nearly 250 blacks, and the banning of the ANC, Mandela abandoned his nonviolent views. He was a cofounder of Umkhonto we Sizwe (“Spear of the Nation”), the military wing of the ANC, and in 1962 traveled to Algeria for training in sabotage and guerrilla warfare. The same year, shortly after he returned to South Africa, Mandela was arrested at a road block and sentenced to five years in prison.

While imprisoned, Mandela was tried along with several other men in October 1963 for sabotage, treason, and conspiracy in the Rivonia Trial. During a speech, Mandela admitted the truth of some of the charges laid against him. His speech is considered a memorable example of the defense of liberty and was published that year with the title I Am Prepared to Die.

Mandela was found guilty at the Rivonia Trial and sentenced to life in prison on June 12, 1964.

Mandela was imprisoned from 1964 to 1990, when, on February 11, President de Klerk granted his release. During the 27 years Mandela was in prison, he refused several offers of conditional freedom, including freedom on the provision that he renounce the use of violence, from the government.

Mandela, known affectionately by his clan name Madiba, remained quite popular among South Africa’s black population, and became the president of the ANC in 1991. As president of that association, Mandela engaged in negotiations with President de Klerk to end apartheid, for which the men received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993.

With South Africa’s first all-race elections on April 27, 1994, Mandela was elected President of South Africa, and inaugurated in Pretoria on May 10.

Mandela made reconciliation between whites and blacks the main topic of his presidency. He notably expressed complete forgiveness towards those who had imprisoned him on Robben Island, and later on the mainland, during his prime.

While in office, Andrew Quinn and Jon Herskovitz write that Mandela “won over many whites when he donned the jersey of South Africa’s national rugby team – once a symbol of white supremacy – at the final of the World Cup in 1995 at Johannesburg’s Ellis Park stadium,” in their December 5 Reuters article.

Mandela resigned his office in 1999 after one term. During his retirement, Mandela worked to bring attention to the AIDS crisis in his nation and in 2007 formed The Elders, an organization of world leaders working together for peace and to solve problems like poverty and climate change.

Although long expected due to his failing health, Mandela’s death gave the world pause.

When the United Nations Security Council learned of his passing while in session, they stopped their meeting for a moment’s silence. In a White House statement that night, President Obama said, “I cannot fully imagine my own life without the example that Nelson Mandela set, and so long as I live I will do what I can to learn from him,” according to Ed Cropley and Pascal Fletcher’s December 5 Reuters article.

Jacob Zuma, the current president of South Africa, accorded Mandela a state funeral. As reported on December 5 by Reuters’ Johannesburg bureau, in an address to the nation on the day of Mandela’s death, Zuma said of him, “Our nation has lost its greatest son. Our people have lost a father.” He further said that “what made Nelson Mandela great was precisely what made him human. We saw in him what we seek in ourselves.”

In commenting on Mandela’s death, Williston’s Peter Valine said that “Mandela embodies a spirit of optimism-that even in the darkest moments that the power of a single dedicated and persistent individual can be uplifting to the point at which it transforms the society in which one lives.”

In the continuation of that spirit, Nelson Mandela’s December 10 memorial service attracted state leaders from around the globe, some of whom are lodged in conflict, including Presidents Obama and George W. Bush, Cuba’s Raul Castro, Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe, and Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron.

Nelson Mandela died on December 5, 2013. He was 95.

[1] “Factbox: Quotations about Nelson Mandela.” Reuters.com. Ed. Angus MacSwan. Thomson Reuters, 5 Dec. 2013. Web. 5 Dec. 2013.