South Africa’s first black president Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela died on Thursday December 5 at the age of 95 finally succumbing to to a lung infection that he had been suffering from for some time. When his death was announced, word spread quickly. South Africans flocked to pay tribute to this the father of the nation, while world leaders paid their tributes. President Obama said: "The world has lost an "influential, courageous and profoundly good man ... he no longer belongs to us. He belongs to the ages."
Mandela was the author and the architect of modern South Africa. The country has prospered in the 20 years since he was elected its first black president - though inequalities remain to be addressed the fact that it is now spoken of in the same breath as the rapidly expanding BRIC economies is largely due to the stability it has maintained over those years.
Mandela's insistence on truth and reconciliation continues to underpin that stability. As many South Africans woke up to the news that Nelson Mandela had died, it was Mandela's fellow Nobel laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu who summed his life up best: "The world is a better place for Nelson Mandela. He showed in his own character, and inspired in others, many of God's attributes: goodness, compassion, a desire for justice, peace, forgiveness and reconciliation. He was not only an amazing gift to humankind, he made South Africans and Africans feel good about being who we are. He made us walk tall. God be praised."
