Dec 05, 2013 05:57 PM EST By Staff Reporter, UniversityHerald Reporter

Nelson Mandela died at the age of 95, according to a televised announcement by Jacob Zuma, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Mandela had recently overcome a bout of tuberculosis, but couldn't beat the ensuing lung infection. His death culminates a string of respiratory trouble that began in the damp and unsavory prison cells he inhabited during the 1980s, according to Google's cultural institute. He was hospitalized for the first time in 1988 -- two years before his release -- for tuberculosis.

June marked the fifth time he'd been hospitalized in the last two years. He left in August, but only to receive more individualized care at home, which was thoroughly sterilized and equipped with upwards of twenty doctors.

"He is teaching us lessons; lessons in patience, in love, lessons of tolerance," Mandela's daughter, Makaziwe, of her father's final months.

Mandela hasn't been on the political stage since he formally retired a decade ago. His last major public moment was the 2010 world cup in South Africa. In 2003, he criticized George Bush and the United State's war in Iraq. Four years earlier, in 1999, he announced he wouldn't be running for another term as South Africa's president, a "move almost unheard of among African leaders," according to the LA Times.

South Africans affectionately called Mandela "Mandiba" for the name of his clan. His presidency from 1994-1999 fostered economic growth, enabled freedom of the press, improved race relations, and started the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which publicized the horrific crimes committed during apartheid. Thoughout his five years he demonstrated a "courtly demeanor and commitment to consensus governance," according to the LA Times. 

Mandela's 1990 release from prison after 27 years was the beginning of the end of apartheid; though "the state of being apart" officially was banned  that same year, most historians consider the first multi-racial elections in 1994 and Mandela's election as the first black president to be its true end.

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