Retirement and Later Career
By the 1999 general election,
Nelson Mandela had retired from active politics. He continued to maintain a
busy schedule, however, raising money to build schools and clinics in South
Africa's rural heartland through his
foundation, and serving as a mediator in Burundi's civil war. He
also published a number of books on his life and struggles, among them No Easy Walk to Freedom; Nelson Mandela: The Struggle is my
Life; and Nelson Mandela's
Favorite African Folktales.
Mandela was diagnosed and treated for prostate cancer in 2001.
In June 2004, at the age of 85, he announced his formal retirement from public
life and returned to his native village of Qunu.
On July 18, 2007, Mandela
convened a group of world leaders, including Graca Machel (whom Mandela would
wed in 1998),Desmond Tutu, Kofi Annan, Ela Bhatt, Gro Harlem Brundtland,Jimmy Carter, Li Zhaoxing, Mary Robinson and Muhammad Yunus, to address some of the world's toughest
issues. Aiming to work both publicly and privately to find solutions to
problems around the globe, the group was aptly named "The Elders."
The Elders' impact has spanned Asia, the Middle East and Africa, and their
actions have included promoting peace and women's equality, demanding an end to
atrocities, and supporting initiatives to address humanitarian crises and
promote democracy.
In addition to advocating for peace and equality on both a
national and global scale, in his later years, Mandela remained committed to
the fight against AIDS—a disease that killed Mandela's son, Makgatho, in 2005.
Nelson Mandela made his
last public appearance at the final match of the World Cup in South Africa in
2010. He remained largely out of the spotlight in his later years, choosing to
spend much of his time in his childhood community of Qunu, south of
Johannesburg.
Culled from www.biography.com
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