Nelson Mandela dead at 95

(Vatican Radio) South Africa’s icon of non-violent resistance against Apartheid and first president of a reconciled country, Nelson Mandela is dead at the age of 95. He served twenty-seven years in prison, from 1962 until 1990, to emerge as the leader of the movement to end the systematic racial discrimination that had characterized South African society for generations, and achieve racial reconciliation. For his work toward non-violent reform and national reconciliation, Nelson Mandela was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1993, together with former president F.W. de Klerk.

Mandela served as president from 1994 until 1999, after successfully leading negotiations to end Apartheid and hold a multi-racial general election. The editor of South Africa’s largest Catholic weekly newspaper, the Southern Cross, Gunther Simmermacher, told Vatican Radio that Mandela was a figure of unparalleled moral stature. “Nelson Mandela was a legend in his own lifetime,” said Simmermacher. “He was a symbol for the struggle against Apartheid,” who “personified that spirit [of non-violence],” which achieved the end of the Apartheid regime and national reconciliation.

Mandela voluntarily handed over power at the end of his term as president – something Simmermacher told Vatican Radio was significant not only for South Africa. “Mandela’s presidency certainly set a template for peaceful transition,” said Simmermacher, not only for South Africa, but for other countries, as well.” After his retirement from the presidency, Mandela maintained an active public presence for nearly a decade, lending his stature to the fight against HIV/AIDS, equal opportunity in higher education, and a host of other peace and justice issues. Listen to Chris Altieri's extended conversation with Gunther Simmermacher: