'The sun never sets on glorious achievements'

Few men and women have lived to fulfill the ideals and goals that they set out for themselves. Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela is preeminent among such extraordinary people. To paraphrase a statement he made in court during the Rivonia Trial, freedom and racial equality was an ideal that he would live for, "but if need be, an ideal for which I am prepared to die".

He knew full well what he faced: the death sentence and life imprisonment were in prospect. In the event, he got the latter in the prime of his life. He had described his trial as that of a black man in a white man's court from which he expected no justice.