Political activist, political prisoner, political leader, Nelson Mandela, towering figure in South Africa and in global politics, has died. He spent a good part of his life seeking for equality. For decades, Mandela's home nation of South Africa practiced a apartheid. It's a social system where black South Africans were forced to live separately and did not have the same rights as white South Africans. Mandela's efforts lead to the end of apartheid and earned him the Nobel Prize. Mandela battled health issues in the recent months, and he was 95 years old. When South Africa president Jacob Zuma announced Mandela's death yesterday, he said, (quote) He is now resting. He is now in peace. Our nation has lost its greatest son. Our people have lost a farther.

Nelson Mandela's struggle for freedom defined his life. He was born in the most remote hills of South African's east cave. He was given the name H, which means trouble maker. He was only given the name Nelson by school teacher LR. After moving to Johannesburg and studying law, Mandela's trouble making politics began. And as a boxer, he became addict picking ficks and sparing with the partial authorities which had increased its pressure against the black population. It was then that Mandela made the crucial decision to take up armed struggle, launching African national congressional armed wing. He was militant and fire brand to fiercely burning his pass book and tread on the document that partisan authorities use to control the movement of South Africa's black population.

The Africans require one franchise on the basis of one man one vote. They want political independence.

That simple demand Nelson Mandela took to fight for democracy eventually saw him and others trialed for treason and sabotage by the apartheid government at punishable five day . Mandela got into prison instead, banished in an island, one of the country's most brutal and isolated prisons. Another political prisoner Mike Maharaj remembered the first time he saw Mandela in the prison yard.

I could see form the way he walked, from his conduct, that he was a man already stamping his quality in prison /.

Mandela was released 27 years later.

I have fought about freedom in my lifetime. Your struggle, your commitment, and your discipline, has released me to stand before you today.

And his lack of / towards the apartheid authority helped him to leave one of the remarkable political transitions of the 20th century. Mandela betrayed lawyer and life long rebel out of renewable party leaders. And he steers South Africa's peaceful transition to democracy. He won an Nobel Peace Prize to get with his former enemy the party leader, W D Clerk, and then he became South Africa's first black president in 1994.

Among Mandela's career as president , almost more than anything else, is after five years he stepped down. We have seen very few of presidents of South Africa whoever give up willingly.

In his retirement he was busy with fund raising for charities close to his heart. He celebrated his 90th birthday with much fan and told CNN in an interview, if there were a look back he would not do anything differently.

because of things that enchanted me, with things that is believed by myself.

Now those loves and respects him look to his legacy.

And if we want to learn form him, learn back form histories, it is made up of mistakes.

stumbling, picking yourself up, and dashing off the dark, treading the bush, walking forward. and that is what Mandela is .

B. CNN. Johannesburg, South Africa.