Profile of Graça Machel, Nelson Mandela's Third Wife Profile of Graça Machel, Nelson Mandela's Third Wife December 7, 2013 17:07 GMT Graca Machel, wife of former South African president Nelson Mandela. Many people were close to Nelson Mandela, and one of the people who knew him best is his widow, Graça Machel, a former guerrilla fighter and humanitarian worker. Graça Machel married 80-year-old Mandela two years after his divorce from second wife, Winnie, in 1998. According to Anthony Sampson's book, Mandela: The Authorised Biography: "they were married in the new house [in Houghton], Mandela in a gold-patterned open shirt, Graça wearing a long white dress with wide puffed sleeves, Elizabethan-style. "They were blessed beforehand by the Chief Rabbi, and also by the Muslim Sheikh Nazim Mohammed and the Hindu Mrs Nanachene. They were married by a Methodist Bishop, Myume Dandala - since they had both been brought up as Methodists, assisted by Desmond Tutu." The wedding reception for Nelson and Graça was combined with Nelson's birthday party at the Gallagher Convention Centre in South Africa.

There were 2,000 guests including Michael Jackson, Danny Glover and Stevie Wonder. Their courtship was far from a whirlwind romance, taking time to grow. With characteristic candour, Machel told a Portuguese newspaper that, as with her first husband: "Nelson and I were together some time before love came. It wasn't love at first sight. No, with me, things don't happen like that." However, Machel "wasn't pushy about being the new Mrs Mandela," said Charlayne Hunter-Gault, a former American journalist based in Johannesburg, quoted in the Washington Post. "She didn't flaunt it, and she showed a lot of respect for the feelings of people in South Africa." Machel was born Graça Simbine on 17 October 1945 on the coast of Mozambique, under Portuguese rule. Machel, whose father died before her birth, won a scholarship to high school in Mozambique's capital, Maputo, where she was the only black African in a class of white students. She is also fluent in French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and English, as well as her native Tsonga.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (R) with Nelson Mandela, former president of South Africa, and his wife Graca Machel (L). Her experiences at school influenced her later political beliefs. "Why is it that I'm made to feel strange in my own country? They're the foreigners, not me. Something is wrong here," Machel later said in interview with The Guardian. She trained as a guerrilla fighter with the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique, and she married Samora Machel, the movement's leader. He was killed in a plane crash over South Africa in 1986. Mandela wrote to her from jail, offering condolences. Machel replied: "From within your vast prison, you brought a ray of light in my hour of darkness." After Mozambique won independence from Portugal, Graça became the education minister and played a key role in boosting the nation's literacy rate. She has won many awards for her humanitarian activities, such as the Laureate of Africa Prize for Leadership for the Sustainable End of Hunger in 1992, and the Nansen Medal for her contribution to the welfare of refugee children in 1995.

Machel once talked about being married to two leaders who played vital roles in the history of two African nations: "It's not two leaders who fell in love with me, but two real people. I feel privileged that I have shared my life with two such exceptional men." Share Stay up to date with our daily newsletter YOU MIGHT LIKE THISSponsored Content by Taboola IBT Video Nelson Mandela’s Third Wife Graça Machel: First Lady Of Two Nations And A Leader In Her Own Right Nelson Mandela’s Third Wife Graça Machel: First Lady Of Two Nations And A Leader In Her Own Right 12/06/13 AT 4:17 AM Close As the world mourns Nelson Mandela, a spotlight also extends to his third wife, Graça Machel, who shared the final years of one of the world’s most respected leaders, and was the first lady of Mozambique when she was married to Mozambique’s first president, but opted to carve out a niche of her own in humanitarian efforts rather than stay in the shadows of her statesmen husbands.

Machel, 68, who was the widow of Samora Machel, Mozambique’s firebrand Marxist independence leader and first president, has the unique honor to have served as the first lady of two different nations. Machel retained the surname of her first husband, who was killed in a plane crash in 1986 close to the South African border. The white South African regime is suspected by many of engineering the crash. Machel was often dubbed Mozambique’s Jackie Kennedy for her grace, sophistication and dignity, and also for the tragic fate their husbands shared. Yet, she has publicly expressed displeasure for being called “Samora’s wife,” saying: “I’m me.” Nelson Mandela and Graca Machel dance during the launch of a literacy boosting "Learn, Teach and Serve the Nation" campaign in Soweto black township outside Johannesburg on Feb. 20, 1997. Photo: Reuters South African President Nelson Mandela and Graca Machel attend a wreath laying ceremony in a village on the South African - Mozambique border October 17, at the place where Samora Machel, President and a liberator of the former Portugese colony, was killed ten years ago in a mysterious plane crash.

Photo: Reuters Previous Next Machel married an 80-year-old Mandela two years after the latter’s messy divorce from his second wife, Winnie, in 1996. However, South Africans were not fully convinced that the former first lady of a neighboring country was the best match for their leader. But, Machel “wasn’t pushy about being the new Mrs. Mandela,” according to Charlayne Hunter-Gault, a former American journalist based in Johannesburg, who was quoted in the Washington Post , in July. “She didn’t flaunt it, and she showed a lot of respect for the feelings of people in South Africa.” Hunter-Gault said. Machel was born Graça Simbine on Oct. 17, 1945 in a family of peasants on the coast of Mozambique, under Portuguese rule. Machel, whose father died before her birth, received the best education her family could afford and won a scholarship to high school in Mozambique’s capital, Maputo, where she was the only black African in a class full of white students.

Related Stories President Obama Reacts To Mandela's Death Machel’s political ideologies were deeply influenced by her experience during her school years: “Why is it that I’m made to feel strange in my own country? They're the foreigners, not me. Something is wrong here,” Machel said about it later, as quoted by The Guardian. She was trained as a guerilla fighter during her years in Frelimo, or the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique, and would later meet and marry Samora Machel, the movement’s top leader. After the nation won independence from Portugal, Graça became the education minister and played a key role in boosting the nation’s literacy rate. She has been honored with several awards for her humanitarian activities, such as the Laureate of Africa Prize for Leadership for the Sustainable End of Hunger in 1992, and the Nansen Medal for her contribution to the welfare of refugee children in 1995. Machel once said, according to the Guardian, about being married to two leaders who played key roles in the history of two African nations: “It's not two leaders who fell in love with me, but two real people.

I feel privileged that I have shared my life with two such exceptional men.” Nelson Mandela and his three wives: Evelyn, Winnie and Graca Nelson Mandela and his three wives: Evelyn, Winnie and Graca World | Agence France-Presse | Updated: December 06, 2013 12:36 IST EMAIL COMMENTS File photo of Nelson Mandela with third wife Graca Machel Johannesburg: Nelson Mandela ducked out of an arranged marriage when he was a student, then went on to wed three times. His first two marriages collapsed under the strain of politics, but the third time around he found enduring happiness with the widow of Mozambican president Samora Machel. In sharp contrast to Graca Machel and his feisty second wife Winnie, Mandela's first wife was a demure country girl who kept well away from politics. Like him, Evelyn Wase hailed from the rural Transkei and had come to Johannesburg in the early 1940s to carve out a living in the big city. She was the cousin of African National Congress (ANC) stalwart Walter Sisulu and met Mandela in Sisulu's home in Soweto, southwest of Johannesburg, in 1944.

They married months later, in the same year that Mandela, Sisulu and Oliver Tambo formed the ANC's Youth League and politics of struggle against white minority rule came to consume his life. Descriptions of their first years tell of Evelyn as the happy housewife with Mandela bathing their three babies and helping with the cooking when his work at his law practice and political meetings were done. But by 1954, Evelyn had buried herself in religion like her husband had in politics and bitterly resented his absences. When Mandela was arrested for treason the first time, he came home on bail to find Evelyn had gone, leaving behind their two youngest children. She returned to the Transkei, ran a shop and remarried in her seventies. Winnie came into Mandela's life at the start of a second treason trial, which would see him jailed for 27 years, and they married in June 1958. She too came from the country, but took to the city, and once she met Mandela, also dived into politics with alacrity.

Soon after their wedding she was arrested for an incendiary speech, leading Mandela to remark -- proudly and prophetically -- "I think I married trouble." The couple had two daughters before the prison doors slammed behind Mandela in 1964. In the coming years Winnie would be in and out of jail as the police hounded her in a bid to demoralise him. In 1969, she was held in solitary confinement for 13 months on terrorism charges and in 1973 endured another six months in jail, but when the 1976 student riot revolt broke out in Soweto, Winnie was unbowed, urging crowds to "fight to the bitter end". The police saw her as a mastermind of the uprising. She was locked up for five months, then banished to the desolate town of Brandfort for seven years. When she returned to Soweto, the firebrand militant-martyr became a liability for Mandela and the anti-apartheid movement. In 1986, at a time when suspected traitors were being burned alive in the volatile townships, Winnie declared that South African blacks would be freed "with our matchboxes".

She surrounded herself with a band of thugs christened the Mandela United Football Club who murdered a young activist called Stompie Sepei. Her bond with Mandela had endured through letters and visits to prison and when he was released in 1990, Winnie was there holding his hand, but in private she rejected him for a young lover. Mandela stood by her when she was convicted for kidnapping Sepei and only in 1992 announced their separation. Winnie's six-year sentence was suspended on appeal and in 1994 she was appointed a deputy minister in his government, but was later sacked for insubordination. By the mid-90s, Mandela was courting Graca Machel -- a serious but warm woman 27 years younger than him who studied in Lisbon before she became a freedom fighter for Samora Machel's Frelimo movement, and eventually Machel's education minister and wife. Graca's first contact with Mandela came in 1986 when her husband died in an air crash many believe was orchestrated by the apartheid regime, and he wrote to her from prison. When they met in Mozambique's capital Maputo in 1990, Machel was still in mourning.

But two years later Mandela became the godfather of her stepchildren and in 1996 they were spotted at President Robert Mugabe's wedding. Mandela was smitten and let the press in on their love story, telling reporters: "Late in life, I am blooming like a flower because of the love and support she has given me." On July 18, 1998 -- Mandela's 80th birthday -- Machel broke her vow that she would not marry another president. While clearly a proud husband, Mandela sometimes found it hard to keep pace with the younger woman. "She is busier than I am. We meet for lunch, go off and then only see each other again for supper. I wish I had married a wife who was less busy," he quipped to students at a ceremony in March 2007.

The widow who made a decent man of Mandela | Astro Awani The widow who made a 'decent man' of Mandela AFP | December 09, 2013 11:27 MYT JOHANNESBURG: Nelson Mandela's widow Graca Machel, who barely left her husband's bedside in the final six months of his life, has hardly been seen in the wake of his death. Machel maintained a near round-the-clock bedside vigil during the 84 days Mandela spent in a Pretoria hospital and the subsequent three months he spent at home before he died on December 5. The Mozambican human rights campaigner had begun cancelling all but a handful of public engagements from June as Mandela's condition deteriorated. One of her rare public appearances came a month ago, when she was spotted at the premiere of the movie "Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom" tracing her husband's journey from prisoner to president. The Sunday Times newspaper said Machel had been with Mandela when he died, along with the anti-apartheid icon's ex-wife, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela.

Mandela's close friend and lawyer George Bizos visited Machel a day after Mandela died and told AFP she was "very emotional," but another family friend, Bantu Holomisa, praised her stoicism in grief. "Graca is very strong. She is a polished woman, I didn't see her break down," Holomisa said "She was giving directions and handing out tasks," he added. Machel was Mandela's third wife, and he was her second presidential husband. She was the widow of Mozambican president Samora Machel who died in a plane crash in 1986. She was 27 years younger than Mandela when they married on his 80th birthday in 1998. "We make sure we spend time with each other because we were so lonely before," she told Mandela's authorised biographer after the marriage. Mandela had been divorced from Winnie -- his second wife -- for two years when he re-married. "When I am alone, I am very weak," he said when discussing Machel in 2007. The couple marked their 15th wedding anniversary on July 18 as Mandela lay critically ill in hospital.

Machel met Mandela shortly after his release from prison in 1990. The 27 years he spent behind bars had strained his marriage with Winnie and they became estranged, separating in 1992 before finally divorcing four years later. Making an honest man of him "It wasn't love at first sight," Machel said of her first encounters with Mandela. "For me things don't happen like that. For me falling in love is like a spark connecting two people. With Samora, I was with him for some time and only later did I feel the spark, It was the same with Nelson." They were spotted at several events holding hands -- even stealing a kiss at Robert Mugabe's wedding -- and eventually the presidency declared Machel was officially Mandela's companion. At their wedding, Mandela's fellow Nobel peace laureate, archbishop Desmond Tutu, joked that Machel had made a "decent man" out of her new husband. Tutu would later say that South Africans owed Machel a "tremendous debt of gratitude" for the joy she brought Mandela in the latter stages of his life.

A formidable political operator in her own right and a renowned rights campaigner, Machel took time to win over South Africans sceptical about the outsider who had won the heart of their adored Madiba. Her initial relations with Mandela's ex-wife were extremely frosty, with Winnie mocking her as the president's "concubine." But just as Winnie and Mandela reconciled towards the end of his life, so his illness helped forge a bond between the two women. As Mandela grew frailer, Machel managed to stay above the ugly feuding that broke out between his various family factions. According to Bizos, she also carefully protected Mandela -- an avid TV watcher and newspaper reader -- from any news "which would disturb him." She never took Mandela's name and declined to describe him in the same reverential terms as the rest of the world, insisting he was "just a human being who is simple and gentle." Born in Mozambique's Gaza province to a humble rural family, she was the youngest of six children. She never saw her Methodist lay priest father, who was a migrant worker and died three weeks before she was born. She won a Methodist church scholarship to study at Lisbon University where she cut her teeth in political activism against Portuguese colonialism.

Machel joined the liberation war movement Frelimo and received military training in Tanzania in the 1970s. She later became education minister in independent Mozambique. A UN expert on children in armed conflict, she is also leading a global campaign against child brides. She is fluent in English, French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and her native Tsonga. In 2010 Time magazine named her among the world's 100 most influential people. The widow who made a 'decent man' of Mandela The widow who made a 'decent man' of Mandela Susan Nijanji Share View photos South African President Nelson Mandela (L) speaks with Graca Machel and his former prison warder Christo Brand (C) at Mandela's official residence in Pretoria on July 18, 1998 More Nelson Mandela's widow Graca Machel, who barely left her husband's bedside in the final six months of his life, has hardly been seen in the wake of his death. Machel maintained a near round-the-clock bedside vigil during the 84 days Mandela spent in a Pretoria hospital and the subsequent three months he spent at home before he died on December 5.

The Mozambican human rights campaigner had begun cancelling all but a handful of public engagements from June as Mandela's condition deteriorated. One of her rare public appearances came a month ago, when she was spotted at the premiere of the movie "Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom" tracing her husband's journey from prisoner to president. The Sunday Times newspaper said Machel had been with Mandela when he died, along with the anti-apartheid icon's ex-wife, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela. Mandela's close friend and lawyer George Bizos visited Machel a day later and told AFP she was "very emotional," but another family friend, Bantu Holomisa, praised her stoicism in grief. "Graca is very strong. She is a polished woman, I didn't see her break down," Holomisa said. "She was giving directions and handing out tasks," he added. Machel was Mandela's third wife, and he was her second presidential husband. She was the widow of Mozambican president Samora Machel who died in a plane crash in 1986. She was 27 years younger than Mandela when they married on his 80th birthday in 1998.

"We make sure we spend time with each other because we were so lonely before," she told Mandela's authorised biographer after the marriage. Mandela had been divorced from Winnie -- his second wife -- for two years when he re-married. "When I am alone, I am very weak," he said when discussing Machel in 2007. The couple marked their 15th wedding anniversary on July 18 as Mandela lay critically ill in hospital. Machel met Mandela shortly after his release from prison in 1990. The 27 years he spent behind bars had strained his marriage with Winnie and they became estranged, separating in 1992 before finally divorcing four years later. Making an honest man of him "It wasn't love at first sight," Machel said of her first encounters with Mandela. "For me things don't happen like that. For me falling in love is like a spark connecting two people. With Samora, I was with him for some time and only later did I feel the spark.

It was the same with Nelson." They were spotted at several events holding hands -- even stealing a kiss at Robert Mugabe's wedding -- and eventually the presidency declared Machel was officially Mandela's companion. At their wedding, Mandela's fellow Nobel peace laureate, archbishop Desmond Tutu, joked that Machel had made a "decent man" out of her new husband. Tutu would later say that South Africans owed Machel a "tremendous debt of gratitude" for the joy she brought Mandela in the latter stages of his life. "We want to say to Graca, thank you for giving Madiba a happy ending," the archbishop told a memorial service for Mandela in Johannesburg on Monday. A formidable political operator in her own right and a renowned rights campaigner, Machel took time to win over South Africans sceptical about the outsider who had won the heart of their adored Madiba. Her initial relations with Mandela's ex-wife were extremely frosty, with Winnie mocking her as the president's "concubine." But just as Winnie and Mandela reconciled towards the end of his life, so his illness helped forge a bond between the two women.

As Mandela grew frailer, Machel managed to stay above the ugly feuding that broke out between his various family factions. According to Bizos, she also carefully protected Mandela -- an avid TV watcher and newspaper reader -- from any news "which would disturb him." She never took Mandela's name and declined to describe him in the same reverential terms as the rest of the world, insisting he was "just a human being who is simple and gentle." Born in Mozambique's Gaza province to a humble rural family, she was the youngest of six children. She never saw her Methodist lay priest father, who was a migrant worker and died three weeks before she was born. She won a Methodist church scholarship to study at Lisbon University where she cut her teeth in political activism against Portuguese colonialism. Machel joined the liberation war movement Frelimo and received military training in Tanzania in the 1970s. She later became education minister in independent Mozambique. A UN expert on children in armed conflict, she is also leading a global campaign against child brides. She is fluent in English, French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and her native Tsonga. In 2010 Time magazine named her among the world's 100 most influential people.

Reblog Quiet dignity raises Graça Machel, wife of Nelson Mandela, above feuds - Telegraph Nelson Mandela Quiet dignity raises Graça Machel, wife of Nelson Mandela, above feuds As the family of Nelson Mandela tears itself apart, one woman is keeping her silence – and with it her dignity - Graça Machel, the 67-year-old third wife of the stricken former South African president. Nelson Mandela and his wife Graca Machel, followed by his grandson Zuko Dani (2nd R), arriving in Mvezo at a ceremony to install his grandson as chief of the Mvezo Traditional Council. Photo: AFP/Getty Images Follow She has kept vigil by his bedside at a hospital in Pretoria for the last month, saying almost nothing to the outside world. Reports of her husband's condition vary wildly, with court papers suggesting that Mr Mandela was in a "permanent vegetative state" and members of the family had been advised to switch off his life-support machine. However, this has been denied by Jacob Zuma, the current South African president, who continues to insist that his predecessor's health is "critical but stable". He is urging South Africans to prepare to celebrate Mr Mandela's 95th birthday on July 18.

But even as the mound of floral tributes outside the hospital grows every day, Mandela family members have chosen to fight each other in court and in the media for the right to control his name, legacy and final resting place. Related Articles Mandela can be uncomfortable but is seldom in pain, says wife 04 Jul 2013 Tribal elders say they are upsetting the ancestors. Former allies in the African National Congress accuse them of undermining all that the great leader stood for. "Please, please, please may we think not only of ourselves?" said Archbishop Desmond Tutu, on Friday . Using the clan name for his fellow Nobel laureate, he said: "It is almost like spitting in Madiba's face." In contrast, Archbishop Tutu told The Sunday Telegraph that Graça Machel was "a strong woman of enormous stature. But graciousness is the first word that comes to mind when one thinks of her: gracious wife, gracious feminist, gracious human being. "Gracious, but not to be trifled with or underestimated." She has rarely been seen outside the hospital since her husband was admitted with a lung infection on June 8.

Indeed, she did not even feel able to leave his side to meet Barack Obama, the president of the United States, who was in town last week. The 67-year-old Mozambican is a formidable political operator. She served as a minister in her own country for many years and was married to President Samora Machel before his death in a suspicious plane accident in 1986. When she married Nelson Mandela in 1998, Graça Machel became the first person to act as First Lady to two presidents. So it may not have been coincidence that she chose to make a rare public appearance on Thursday, with a few words about charity and unity, just as the Mandela family row over graves was reaching a bizarre climax. Mrs Machel took to the podium briefly at the launch of a sporting event for the Nelson Mandela Foundation. "Although Madiba sometimes may be uncomfortable, very few times he is in pain, but he is fine," she said. "I think the best gift which he has given this nation again is the gift of unity." Urging people to donate money to build a children's hospital rather than buying flowers, she expressed thanks for the way rich and poor, young and old had united around her husband.

"That's what he wanted." Even as she finished her short speech, Mr Mandela's eldest grandson was raging against the rest of the family as the grave row intensified. Mandla Mandela faces criminal charges of illegally tampering with graves after he moved the bodies of three of his grandfather's children to his own village of Mvezo without seeking permission from the rest of the family. Makaziwe Mandela, the eldest daughter, has fronted the court case against her nephew, and has also fought a separate case to have former advisers of Mr Mandela removed from the boards of trusts that manage income from the sale of his paintings. That fight is not about money, she says, but about the right of family members to control what is done in the Mandela name. However, the commercial use of that name could earn tens of millions of pounds after his death. Meanwhile, Nelson Mandela's second wife Winnie has sought to position herself as the voice of the Mandelas, as she was during his long years in prison. She describes herself as "the senior member of this family" and Mr Mandela as "our husband", despite divorcing in 1996.

There is a fortune at stake for whoever controls the Mandela name, but Graça Machel needs no part of it. She is a wealthy woman, with her own home and a stake in an investment company in Mozambique. Born in rural Mozambique, she was the daughter of a farmer and miner. She escaped poverty through a Methodist school education, studying philosophy in Portugal and then a law degree. She was as radical a revolutionary as Winnie Mandela in her youth, learning to strip a rifle in Frelimo, the Mozambican Liberation Front. After independence in 1975, Graça became the country's first education minister and married Samora Machel, its new president. Among the letters of condolence that she received after his death was one from Nelson Mandela, who was still in jail. She wrote back: "From within your vast prison, you brought a ray of light in my hour of darkness." The relationship became serious after his divorce. They were married on his 80th birthday. She was 52. Lately, she has also begun to assert her political views. In March she warned that South Africa was an "angry country" being brought to the brink of "something very dangerous" by increasing levels of violence.

Now the nation feels for her. There is growing respect for her, even as there is growing dismay at the way the Mandelas are behaving. She has nothing to prove to anyone. Few of the Mandelas can say the same. The widow who made a 'decent man' of Mandela The widow who made a 'decent man' of Mandela World | Agence France-Presse | Updated: December 09, 2013 07:53 IST EMAIL PRINT COMMENTS A file photo shows former South African President Nelson Mandela helped by his wife Graca Machel. Johannesburg: Nelson Mandela's widow Graca Machel, who barely left her husband's bedside in the final six months of his life, has hardly been seen in the wake of his death. Machel maintained a near round-the-clock bedside vigil during the 84 days Mandela spent in a Pretoria hospital and the subsequent three months he spent at home before he died on December 5. The Mozambican human rights campaigner had begun cancelling all but a handful of public engagements from June as Mandela's condition deteriorated.

One of her rare public appearances came a month ago, when she was spotted at the premiere of the movie "Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom" tracing her husband's journey from prisoner to president. The Sunday Times newspaper said Machel had been with Mandela when he died, along with the anti-apartheid icon's ex-wife, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela. Mandela's close friend and lawyer George Bizos visited Machel a day after Mandela died and told AFP she was "very emotional," but another family friend, Bantu Holomisa, praised her stoicism in grief. "Graca is very strong. She is a polished woman, I didn't see her break down," Holomisa said "She was giving directions and handing out tasks," he added. Machel was Mandela's third wife, and he was her second presidential husband. She was the widow of Mozambican president Samora Machel who died in a plane crash in 1986. She was 27 years younger than Mandela when they married on his 80th birthday in 1998.

"We make sure we spend time with each other because we were so lonely before," she told Mandela's authorised biographer after the marriage. Mandela had been divorced from Winnie - his second wife -- for two years when he re-married. "When I am alone, I am very weak," he said when discussing Machel in 2007. The couple marked their 15th wedding anniversary on July 18 as Mandela lay critically ill in hospital. Machel met Mandela shortly after his release from prison in 1990. The 27 years he spent behind bars had strained his marriage with Winnie and they became estranged, separating in 1992 before finally divorcing four years later. Making an honest man of him "It wasn't love at first sight," Machel said of her first encounters with Mandela. "For me things don't happen like that. For me falling in love is like a spark connecting two people.

With Samora, I was with him for some time and only later did I feel the spark, It was the same with Nelson." They were spotted at several events holding hands -- even stealing a kiss at Robert Mugabe's wedding -- and eventually the presidency declared Machel was officially Mandela's companion. At their wedding, Mandela's fellow Nobel peace laureate, archbishop Desmond Tutu, joked that Machel had made a "decent man" out of her new husband. Tutu would later say that South Africans owed Machel a "tremendous debt of gratitude" for the joy she brought Mandela in the latter stages of his life. A formidable political operator in her own right and a renowned rights campaigner, Machel took time to win over South Africans sceptical about the outsider who had won the heart of their adored Madiba. Her initial relations with Mandela's ex-wife were extremely frosty, with Winnie mocking her as the president's "concubine." But just as Winnie and Mandela reconciled towards the end of his life, so his illness helped forge a bond between the two women. As Mandela grew frailer, Machel managed to stay above the ugly feuding that broke out between his various family factions.

According to Bizos, she also carefully protected Mandela - an avid TV watcher and newspaper reader - from any news "which would disturb him." She never took Mandela's name and declined to describe him in the same reverential terms as the rest of the world, insisting he was "just a human being who is simple and gentle." Born in Mozambique's Gaza province to a humble rural family, she was the youngest of six children. She never saw her Methodist lay priest father, who was a migrant worker and died three weeks before she was born. She won a Methodist church scholarship to study at Lisbon University where she cut her teeth in political activism against Portuguese colonialism. Machel joined the liberation war movement Frelimo and received military training in Tanzania in the 1970s. She later became education minister in independent Mozambique. A UN expert on children in armed conflict, she is also leading a global campaign against child brides. She is fluent in English, French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and her native Tsonga. In 2010 Time magazine named her among the world's 100 most influential people.

The widow who made a 'decent man' of Mandela | Inquirer News The widow who made a ‘decent man’ of Mandela Agence France-Presse / 10:20 AM December 09, 2013 This Nov. 17, 2001 file photo shows Nelson Mandela and his wife Graca Machel sharing a private moment during a ceremony to rename a school Nelson Mandela Park Public School in Toronto. The former South African president, who spent much of 2013 in and out of the hospital, died Thursday, Dec. 5, 2013 at age 95. AP JOHANNESBURG – Nelson Mandela’s widow Graca Machel, who barely left her husband’s bedside in the final six months of his life, has hardly been seen in the wake of his death. Machel maintained a near round-the-clock bedside vigil during the 84 days Mandela spent in a Pretoria hospital and the subsequent three months he spent at home before he died on December 5. The Mozambican human rights campaigner had begun cancelling all but a handful of public engagements from June as Mandela’s condition deteriorated.

ADVERTISEMENT One of her rare public appearances came a month ago, when she was spotted at the premiere of the movie “Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom” tracing her husband’s journey from prisoner to president. The Sunday Times newspaper said Machel had been with Mandela when he died, along with the anti-apartheid icon’s ex-wife, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela. Mandela’s close friend and lawyer George Bizos visited Machel a day after Mandela died and told AFP she was “very emotional,” but another family friend, Bantu Holomisa, praised her stoicism in grief. “Graca is very strong. She is a polished woman, I didn’t see her break down,” Holomisa said “She was giving directions and handing out tasks,” he added. Machel was Mandela’s third wife, and he was her second presidential husband. She was the widow of Mozambican president Samora Machel who died in a plane crash in 1986. She was 27 years younger than Mandela when they married on his 80th birthday in 1998.

“We make sure we spend time with each other because we were so lonely before,” she told Mandela’s authorized biographer after the marriage. Mandela had been divorced from Winnie – his second wife – for two years when he re-married. “When I am alone, I am very weak,” he said when discussing Machel in 2007. The couple marked their 15th wedding anniversary on July 18 as Mandela lay critically ill in hospital. Machel met Mandela shortly after his release from prison in 1990. The 27 years he spent behind bars had strained his marriage with Winnie and they became estranged, separating in 1992 before finally divorcing four years later. Making an honest man of him “It wasn’t love at first sight,” Machel said of her first encounters with Mandela. “For me things don’t happen like that. For me falling in love is like a spark connecting two people.

With Samora, I was with him for some time and only later did I feel the spark, It was the same with Nelson.” They were spotted at several events holding hands – even stealing a kiss at Robert Mugabe’s wedding – and eventually the presidency declared Machel was officially Mandela’s companion. At their wedding, Mandela’s fellow Nobel peace laureate, archbishop Desmond Tutu, joked that Machel had made a “decent man” out of her new husband. Tutu would later say that South Africans owed Machel a “tremendous debt of gratitude” for the joy she brought Mandela in the latter stages of his life. A formidable political operator in her own right and a renowned rights campaigner, Machel took time to win over South Africans sceptical about the outsider who had won the heart of their adored Madiba. Her initial relations with Mandela’s ex-wife were extremely frosty, with Winnie mocking her as the president’s “concubine.” But just as Winnie and Mandela reconciled towards the end of his life, so his illness helped forge a bond between the two women. As Mandela grew frailer, Machel managed to stay above the ugly feuding that broke out between his various family factions.

According to Bizos, she also carefully protected Mandela – an avid TV watcher and newspaper reader – from any news “which would disturb him.” She never took Mandela’s name and declined to describe him in the same reverential terms as the rest of the world, insisting he was “just a human being who is simple and gentle.” Born in Mozambique’s Gaza province to a humble rural family, she was the youngest of six children. She never saw her Methodist lay priest father, who was a migrant worker and died three weeks before she was born. She won a Methodist church scholarship to study at Lisbon University where she cut her teeth in political activism against Portuguese colonialism. Machel joined the liberation war movement Frelimo and received military training in Tanzania in the 1970s. She later became education minister in independent Mozambique. A UN expert on children in armed conflict, she is also leading a global campaign against child brides. She is fluent in English, French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and her native Tsonga. In 2010 Time magazine named her among the world’s 100 most influential people.

The widow who made a 'decent man' of Mandela | News | Expatica South Africa The widow who made a 'decent man' of Mandela 9th December 2013, 0 comments Nelson Mandela's widow Graca Machel, who barely left her husband's bedside in the final six months of his life, has hardly been seen in the wake of his death. Machel maintained a near round-the-clock bedside vigil during the 84 days Mandela spent in a Pretoria hospital and the subsequent three months he spent at home before he died on December 5. The Mozambican human rights campaigner had begun cancelling all but a handful of public engagements from June as Mandela's condition deteriorated. One of her rare public appearances came a month ago, when she was spotted at the premiere of the movie "Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom" tracing her husband's journey from prisoner to president. The Sunday Times newspaper said Machel had been with Mandela when he died, along with the anti-apartheid icon's ex-wife, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela.

Mandela's close friend and lawyer George Bizos visited Machel a day later and told AFP she was "very emotional," but another family friend, Bantu Holomisa, praised her stoicism in grief. "Graca is very strong. She is a polished woman, I didn't see her break down," Holomisa said. "She was giving directions and handing out tasks," he added. Machel was Mandela's third wife, and he was her second presidential husband. She was the widow of Mozambican president Samora Machel who died in a plane crash in 1986. She was 27 years younger than Mandela when they married on his 80th birthday in 1998. "We make sure we spend time with each other because we were so lonely before," she told Mandela's authorised biographer after the marriage. Mandela had been divorced from Winnie -- his second wife -- for two years when he re-married. "When I am alone, I am very weak," he said when discussing Machel in 2007. The couple marked their 15th wedding anniversary on July 18 as Mandela lay critically ill in hospital.

Machel met Mandela shortly after his release from prison in 1990. The 27 years he spent behind bars had strained his marriage with Winnie and they became estranged, separating in 1992 before finally divorcing four years later. Making an honest man of him "It wasn't love at first sight," Machel said of her first encounters with Mandela. "For me things don't happen like that. For me falling in love is like a spark connecting two people. With Samora, I was with him for some time and only later did I feel the spark. It was the same with Nelson." They were spotted at several events holding hands -- even stealing a kiss at Robert Mugabe's wedding -- and eventually the presidency declared Machel was officially Mandela's companion. At their wedding, Mandela's fellow Nobel peace laureate, archbishop Desmond Tutu, joked that Machel had made a "decent man" out of her new husband. Tutu would later say that South Africans owed Machel a "tremendous debt of gratitude" for the joy she brought Mandela in the latter stages of his life.

"We want to say to Graca, thank you for giving Madiba a happy ending," the archbishop told a memorial service for Mandela in Johannesburg on Monday. A formidable political operator in her own right and a renowned rights campaigner, Machel took time to win over South Africans sceptical about the outsider who had won the heart of their adored Madiba. Her initial relations with Mandela's ex-wife were extremely frosty, with Winnie mocking her as the president's "concubine." But just as Winnie and Mandela reconciled towards the end of his life, so his illness helped forge a bond between the two women. As Mandela grew frailer, Machel managed to stay above the ugly feuding that broke out between his various family factions. According to Bizos, she also carefully protected Mandela -- an avid TV watcher and newspaper reader -- from any news "which would disturb him." She never took Mandela's name and declined to describe him in the same reverential terms as the rest of the world, insisting he was "just a human being who is simple and gentle." Born in Mozambique's Gaza province to a humble rural family, she was the youngest of six children.

She never saw her Methodist lay priest father, who was a migrant worker and died three weeks before she was born. She won a Methodist church scholarship to study at Lisbon University where she cut her teeth in political activism against Portuguese colonialism. Machel joined the liberation war movement Frelimo and received military training in Tanzania in the 1970s. She later became education minister in independent Mozambique. A UN expert on children in armed conflict, she is also leading a global campaign against child brides. She is fluent in English, French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and her native Tsonga. In 2010 Time magazine named her among the world's 100 most influential people. © 2013 AFP Nelson Mandela death: The women who loved him - BBC News BBC News Nelson Mandela death: The women who loved him 6 December 2013 Nelson Mandela had no shortage of female admirers, given his charm and impeccable dress sense. His biographer Anthony Sampson once said he was a "ladies' man and proud of it". He had three wives, who over more than six decades proved invaluable partners to him at different stages in his career, and have given an insight into the private man.

Evelyn Mase: First wife Nelson Mandela married Evelyn Mase, a cousin of his political mentor Walter Sisulu, three years after arriving in Johannesburg to avoid an arranged marriage in the rural region of Eastern Cape. He was 26 and she was 22. The world worships Nelson too much. He is only a man Evelyn Mandela "I think I loved him the first time I saw him," she is quoted as saying in Higher Than Hope, a biography of Mr Mandela that came out in 1990 when he was released from prison. "Within days of our first meeting we were going steady and within months he proposed." They were married for 13 years. During much of that time, her nurse's salary supported the family while Mr Mandela pursued his law studies. Together they had four children. The death of their second child aged nine months had a devastating effect on Evelyn, who became more religious, while Mr Mandela became more political.

Nelson and Evelyn Mandela's children 1945 - Thembi, died in a car crash in 1969 1947 - Makaziwe, died of meningitis before her first birthday 1950 - Makgatho, died of Aids in 2005 1954 - Makaziwe She was a Jehovah's Witness with no interest in politics. ''I could not give up my life in the struggle, and she could not live with my devotion to something other than herself and her family,'' Mr Mandela wrote in his autobiography Long Walk to Freedom. It was a bitter end to the marriage, and Mr Mandela returned home on bail after his arrest on treason charges to find she had moved out. Five years after Mr Mandela was sentenced to life in prison in 1964, their eldest son Thembekile died in a car crash. According to biographer Anthony Sampson, he sent Evelyn, who was then running a grocery store in a village in what is now the Eastern Cape, a message of condolence - it was their only communication while he was in prison.

Best of the BBC's archive More from BBC World Service When her former husband's release from jail in 1990 was compared to the second coming of Christ, she told journalist Fred Bridgland: "It's very silly when people say this kind of thing about Nelson. "How can a man who has committed adultery and left his wife and children be Christ? The world worships Nelson too much. He is only a man." But she later seemed to have grown accustomed to the adulation. In an interview just after the general election which saw Mr Mandela elected as the country's first black president, she said she had not seen him since he had been released from prison, but she knew "the people love him very much". "When I go to their houses to talk to them about Jehovah, I always see his picture on the walls. His strength has come from God. "God uses people to do his work even if they are not righteous." In 1998, more than 40 years after separating from Mr Mandela, Evelyn married Simon Rakeepile, a fellow Jehovah's Witness. She died in 2004.

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela: Second wife Nelson Mandela's romance with Winnie Madikizela blossomed during his treason trial. She was a 22-year-old social worker, 16 years younger than him and she would become a political firebrand. "I was both courting her and politicising her," Mr Mandela said in his autobiography. In her 1984 memoir Part of My Soul Went with Him, she said that Mr Mandela never formally proposed. "One day Nelson just pulled up on the side of the road and said: 'You know, there is a woman who is a dressmaker, you must go and see her, she is going to make your wedding gown. How many bridesmaids would you like to have?' "That's how I was told I was getting married to him! It was not put arrogantly; it was just something that was taken for granted. I just asked: 'What time?'" The honest truth of God is that I didn't know him at all Winnie Mandela She said in an 1983 interview with filmmaker Kevin Harris that to all intents and purposes she was marrying a prisoner.

"He had to get permission to get married because he was not only a prisoner, he was banned and the trial was on in Pretoria at the time. So he was given four days in which to go to the Transkei and get married." The couple went on to have two daughters, but spent little time together as a family. "He did not even pretend that I would have some special claim to his time. There never was any kind of life I can recall as family life, a young bride's life where you sit with your husband. You just couldn't tear Nelson from the people: The struggle, the nation came first," she said in her memoir. Three years after their wedding, Mr Mandela went underground - he was captured and imprisoned for sabotage in 1962 for five years. "The honest truth of God is that I didn't know him at all," she later admitted to Mr Sampson. 'He is human' While he was in prison, the Rivonia trial began, and the defendants could have faced the death sentence - instead they got life in prison.

Nelson and Winnie Mandela's children 1959 - Zenani - Now ambassador to Argentina 1960 - Zindzi From this time, Winnie was determined to keep the struggle going with her name. She faced banning orders, imprisonment and was exiled to a township near Brandfort. Visits to see her husband were difficult. "Exile is like being in prison at your own expense… worst of all was being without my children and not having the opportunity to play the role of a parent… virtually both of us have really not had that opportunity to be parents to our children," she told Mr Harris. Despite her controversial politics in the late 1980s - and her involvement in the abduction of a teenage boy accused of being a police spy who was murdered by one of her bodyguards - the couple put on a united front for Mr Mandela's release in 1990. She said there had been a great fear that the ANC leadership would die in prison. On the day of his release, before he walked free, Mr Mandela was full of excitement and they were both shocked by his reception, she recalled in an interview in The Guardian newspaper in 2010.

Image caption The couple grew apart after his release from prison "He is human," she said. "He must have at a certain point been afraid, afraid of what he was coming out to… having left in the 60s, you come back to a society that expected so much of you at the age of over 70." The couple separated before Mr Mandela became president, over growing political and personal differences, and reports of her infidelity. They later divorced and during court proceedings it was revealed that after Mr Mandela's release from prison, she had never entered their bedroom while he was awake. On the 20th anniversary of his release and at a time when her political star had again risen, Winnie recalled their married life together in a speech: "He was loving, fond of children, a people's person and a very hard worker. "His fearlessness, his unassailable morality, his unwavering commitment to the struggle for total freedom and his insistence on marching to his own beat were the hallmarks of his character. "Yet he also had the ability to take on adversaries and win them over, and to take complex issues and bring them down to earth. "And he was no angel, like most human beings.

He never claimed to be a saint." Profile: Winnie Madikizela-Mandela Graca Machel: Third wife Graca Machel knew what it was to be married to a liberation movement when she married Mr Mandela towards the end of his presidency. Even politically if you watch him sometimes you can feel there's a bit of naivete Graca Machel She was the widow of Mozambican independence leader and president Samora Machel, who died in a plane crash in 1986 - an accident that was alleged to have been engineered by South Africa's apartheid-era regime, though this is still under investigation. "It's just wonderful that finally we have found each other and can share a life together," Mr Mandela's biographer Anthony Sampson quoted her as saying two years before their marriage. "He can love very deeply, but he tries to control it very well in his public appearance," she told the author. "In private he can allow himself to be a human being. He likes people to know he is happy. Image caption Nelson Mandela married Graca Machel in 1998 on his 80th birthday "When he is unhappy he lets you know. "He's a very simple person, very gentle.

He is down to earth. Even politically if you watch him sometimes you can feel there's a bit of naivete." Twenty-seven years his junior, she was reportedly reluctant to marry him because of her sense of obligation to the people of Mozambique, and the tension between Mr Mandela and Winnie Mandela following their divorce. 'He is vain' According to Mr Sampson, she agreed to spend two weeks every month with him in Johannesburg in 1996, finding it hard at first to adjust to his early rising and bedtimes. He could be "very impatient" and "very stubborn" - and in a sentiment shared with Mr Mandela's other wives, she told Mr Sampson: "He is a symbol, that's correct, but he's not a saint." Eventually bowing to pressure, she agreed to marry him and they tied the knot on his 80th birthday in 1998. She already had six stepchildren and two of her own children, and together they enjoyed their large families and many grandchildren. Graca, who continued her political and humanitarian career, also oversaw his several retirements and tried to protect him from the demands of an adoring world.

And for several years before his death, she was at pains to prepare South Africa. "Madiba is a very proud person. He is vain so when he realises that he can't walk tall and firm like he used to be, he doesn't like it," she told CNN on his 91st birthday . "To see him ageing is something that pains you. "You understand you know it has to happen. That spirit, that sparkle, somehow is fading." Nevertheless she told the BBC in 2010 it was wonderful to watch Mr Mandela "get old gracefully".

Question: In 1998, whose widow became Nelson Mandela's third wife?
Answer: Samora MACHEL