South Africa’s beloved first black president, Nelson Mandela, turned 94 on the 18th of July, 2012 in his home village of Qunu. The celebration, with his family, included a birthday cake and his favorite dish of tripe with samp, or coarsely ground cornmeal.
Nelson Mandela, Bill Clinton
Schoolchildren and celebrities sang “Happy Birthday Madiba,” as South Africans affectionately call the former leader, using his clan name. Millions of South Africans donated 67 minutes of their time to public service, one minute for each of the years he dedicated his life to service.
Michelle Obama, Nelson Mandela
Tributes poured in from around the world, while the Internet in South Africa lit up with birthday messages for Mandela, who spent 27 years in prison under the apartheid regime and emerged to become president in the country’s first democratic elections in 1994.
Mandela retired from public life in 2004 and rarely appears in public. He spends most of his time in his rural home village of Qunu outside Mthatha in South Africa’s Eastern Cape Province.
With South Africa ever concerned about the increasingly frail health of the man people simply call “our icon,” Mandela’s wife, Graca Machel, reassured journalists Tuesday that he had recovered well from illness. Mandela dedicated his life to freeing blacks from white oppression.
A Trendy Africa Media Report.
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