Nelson Mandela, the South African activist, statesman, and Nobel laureate was born in 1918 to the then Tembu tribal chief in Umtata (now known as province of Eastern Cape). South Africa had a long history of Apartheid (separateness). The revolutionary leader grew up amidst this restrictive regime where the blacks were considered inferior to the whites. As the fashion of the day, he too became a lawyer. He joined the African National Congress (ANC), a civil rights group, and helped establish the organisation’s Youth League. In 1959, he got married to Nkosikazi Nomzano, a South African political activist, and a trained medical social worker. In 1964, when Mandela was sentenced to life imprisonment she continued to carry out the mission of the ANC. And in 1990, he was released from prison.

The country’s first multiracial election was held in May 1994. Nelson Mandela became the first elected black president of South Africa. His untiring struggle against apartheid brought life to many who hungered for human dignity. Mandela and De Klerk shared the 1993 Nobel Prize for establishing democracy and racial harmony in South Africa.

Mandela’s continual fight for civil rights has become an inspiration and a challenge to each one of us. Let his zeal fall on us to create a world where there is peace, justice and equality.

                                                  —Dominic D’Silva