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Working in a cave complex deep beneath South Africa's Malmani dolomites, an international team of scientists has brought to light an unprecedented trove of hominin fossils -- more than 1,500 well-preserved bones and teeth -- representing the largest, most complete set of such remains found to date in Africa. The discovery, cached in a barely accessible chamber in a subterranean labyrinth not far from Johannesburg, adds a new branch to the human family tree, a creature dubbed Homo naledi.
The remains, scientists believe, could only have been deliberately placed in the cave.Skeletal fossils of Homo naledi are pictured above in the Wits bone vault at the Evolutionary Studies Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, on Sept. 13, 2014. The fossils are among nearly 1,700 bones and teeth retrieved from a nearly inaccessible cave near Johannesburg. The fossil trove was created, scientists believe, by Homo naledi repeatedly secreting the bodies of their dead companions in the cave. Analysis of the fossils -- part of a project known as the Rising Star Expedition -- was led in part by paleoanthropologist John Hawks, professor of anthropology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
So far, parts of at least 15 skeletons representing individuals of all ages have been found and the researchers believe many more fossils remain in the chamber. It is part of a complex of limestone caves near what is called "The Cradle of Humankind," a World Heritage Site in Gauteng province well known for critical paleoanthropological discoveries of early humans, including the 1947 discovery of 2.3 million-year-old Australopithecus africanus.
Nelson
Mandela, the revered South African anti-apartheid icon who spent 27
years in prison, led his country to democracy and became its first black
president, died Thursday at home. He was 95.
"He is now resting," said South African President Jacob Zuma. "He is now at peace."
"Our nation has lost his greatest son," he continued. "Our people have lost their father."
A
state funeral will be held, and Zuma called for mourners to conduct
themselves with "the dignity and respect" that Mandela personified.
"Wherever
we are in the country, wherever we are in the world, let us reaffirm
his vision of a society… in which none is exploited, oppressed or
dispossessed by another," he said as tributes began pouring in from
across the world.
Though he was in power for only five years, Mandela was a figure of
enormous moral influence the world over – a symbol of revolution,
resistance and triumph over racial segregation.
He inspired a
generation of activists, left celebrities and world leaders star-struck,
won the Nobel Peace Prize and raised millions for humanitarian causes.
South
Africa is still bedeviled by challenges, from class inequality to
political corruption to AIDS. And with Mandela’s death, it has lost a
beacon of optimism.
Feb.
1990: NBC's Robin Lloyd reports on Nelson Mandela on the eve of his
release from prison in 1990. Mandela's name has become a rallying cry
for the overthrow of apartheid, but no one but prison guards and
visitors have actually seen him since he was jailed 27 years ago.
In
his jailhouse memoirs, Mandela wrote that even after spending so many
years in a Spartan cell on Robben Island – with one visitor a year and
one letter every six months – he still had faith in human nature.
“No
one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or
his background, or his religion,” he wrote in “Long Walk to Freedom.”
“People
must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught
to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its
opposite.”
Mandela retired from public life in 2004 with the
half-joking directive, “Don’t call me, I’ll call you,” and had largely
stepped out of the spotlight, spending much of his time with family in
his childhood village.
His health had been fragile in recent
years. He had spent almost three months in a hospital in Pretoria after
being admitted in June for a recurring lung infection. He was released
on Sept. 1.
In his later years, Mandela was known to his
countrymen simply as Madiba, the name of his tribe and a mark of great
honor. But when he was born on July 18, 1918, he was named Rolihlahla,
which translated roughly – and prophetically – to “troublemaker.”
Mandela
was nine when his father died, and he was sent from his rural village
to the provincial capital to be raised by a fellow chief. The first
member of his family to get a formal education, he went to boarding
school and then enrolled in South Africa’s elite Fort Hare University,
where his activism unfurled with a student boycott.
As a young law
scholar, he joined the resurgent African National Congress just a few
years before the National Party – controlled by the Afrikaners, the
descendants of Dutch and French settlers – came to power on a platform
of apartheid, in which the government enforced racial segregation and
stripped non-whites of economic and political power.
As an ANC
leader, Mandela advocated peaceful resistance against government
discrimination and oppression – until 1961, when he launched a military
wing called Spear of the Nation and a campaign of sabotage.
April, 1994: Former political prisoner Nelson Mandela is on the verge of being elected South Africa's first black president.
The
next year, he was arrested and soon hit with treason charges. At the
opening of his trial in 1964, he said his adoption of armed struggle was
a last resort born of bloody crackdowns by the government.
“Fifty
years of non-violence had brought the African people nothing but more
and more repressive legislation and fewer and few rights,” he said from
the dock.
“I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free
society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal
opportunities. It is an ideal for which I hope to live for and achieve.
But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.”
Subscribe on YouTube: http://bit.ly/U8Ys7n
Nelson Mandela, who led the emancipation of South Africa from white
minority rule and served as his country's first black president, died at
95.
Read the story: http://nyti.ms/1jrjEyE
..........
An
ambulance transporting former South African president Nelson Mandela
arrives at the home of the former statesman in Johannesburg, South
Africa, Sept. 1, 2013.
Thuso Khumalo
September 01, 2013
JOHANNESBURG
— Former South African president Nelson Mandela has been discharged
from Medi-clinic Heart Hospital in the country’s capital, Pretoria,
where he spent close to three months being treated for a recurring lung
infection. However, his health is said to remain critical and at times
unstable, and his doctors will keep providing him with intensive care at
his Johannesburg home. Thuso Khumalo has more from Johannesburg.
A
spokesman for South African President Jacob Zuma has confirmed that
Mandela left the hospital Sunday morning. Presidential spokesperson Mac
Maharaj says the anti-apartheid icon is now recovering at his home in
the Johannesburg suburb of Houghton. Mandela had been hospitalized since
June 8.
Maharaj referred to Mandela using his clan name, Madiba.
We
would like to wish him all the best as he continues his recovery at his
Johannesburg home. Madiba's condition remains critical and is at times
unstable," said Maharaj. "Nevertheless, his team of doctors are
convinced that he will receive the same level of intensive care at his
Houghton home that he received in Pretoria.
Maharaj went further
to dispel fears that South Africa’s first black president will not
receive adequate medical care at his home.
His home has been
reconfigured to allow him to receive intensive care there," said
Maharaj. "The health care personnel providing care at his home are the
very same who provided care to him in hospital. If there are health
conditions that warrant another admission to hospital in future, this
will be done.
24 rhino horns seized
July 2013. 16 people were arrested and charged with smuggling, and 24 rhino horns were seized.
It
appears that the gang members posed as hunters in South Africa, where
they shot the rhinos on game farms; the horns were then imported to
Europe, sometimes using fake documents. The gang planned to export the
rhinos to Asia but it appears that they have been seized before they
could complete the shipment.
This is not the first time rhinos
have been shot, supposedly by ‘big game hunters' who turned out to be
working for smuggling syndicates. South Africa changed their rules after
discovering that rhino hunting licences had been awarded to Thai
prostitutes posing as hunters. Possibly as many as dozens of rhino were
shot, not by the Thai girls who thought they were on safari, but by
‘professional hunters. The horns were then given export licences before
being shipped to the gang leaders in Asia.
Despite
protests elsewhere, many locals in the township of Soweto have been
looking forward to the arrival of Barack Obama, who was due to visit the
nearby University of Johannesburg on Saturday to meet with South
African students and entrepreneurs.
The
noise is deafening, the smell of burnt food overpowering. It is 10 am
on Saturday, June 29, and already Bara, Soweto township’s largest
market, is in full swing.
Just a few hundred metres away lies the Soweto campus of the University of Johannesburg, where US President Barack Obama is expected to make an appearance later in the day as part of his first ever visit to South Africa.
The voice of James Blunt rings out from an old CD player sitting on the pavement and resonates around the market stalls.
"An American singer for the arrival of an American," says the CD player’s owner, Edward, though Blunt is actually British.
"I
know that the US president comes to us today, I'm happy," he says as he
sits cross-legged in front of a pile of clothes which he sells for 20
rand (1.50 euros) apiece. ‘He is an African’
Edward is just one of many locals looking forward to Obama’s arrival and the economic rewards it could bring for the region.
"If
you see him, tell him to come here with even more business," says
Stanley, a 78-year-old South African wearing a black cap to shield
himself from the sun as the day begins to warm up.
Standing next to him, his friend Eva is also looking forward to the President’s visit.
"We need jobs, and that’s something he can provide," she says with a laugh.
There is also a sense of pride among some South Africans at welcoming the first ever black US president to their country.
"He
is an African" says Petruce enthusiastically, speaking in Zulu while
handing out flyers for his stall where he sells DVDs at 10 rand (75
cents) each.
"I think he treats people well, he is a man of peace
like Mandela. Economics is fine, but respect for human beings is
better," he adds. Mandela has spent the past three weeks in a Pretoria hospital
where his health is said to be in a critical condition. But for both
Petruce and Eva, there is no sense that the timing of Obama’s visit is
in any way disrespectful.
"Life must go on," says Eva, "I do not
think Mandela would have wanted us not to give him a warm welcome, he
wouldn’t have liked that.”
Barack
Obama, then a rising Democrat senator, meets Desmond Tutu during a
visit to South Africa in 2006. Photograph: Obed Zilwa/AP
Symbolism will hang heavy this weekend when Barack Obama visits Soweto, the cradle of South Africa's black liberation struggle, and Robben Island, the prison where Nelson Mandela, who remained in critical condition in hospital last night, languished for years, plotting his nation's rebirth.
Obama
should not expect red-carpet treatment from all South Africans, despite
the historic affinity between the civil rights and anti-apartheid
movements. Workers, students and Muslim groups are among those
determined to give Obama a bumpy landing when he descends on Africa's biggest economy.
"NObama"
is the cry from the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and
the South African Communist party, which have called for "all workers"
to join mass protests including a march on the US embassy in Pretoria on Friday.
Academics and students have vowed to boycott the University of Johannesburg's award of an honorary law doctorate to Obama. The Muslim Lawyers' Association has called for the president to be arrested as a war criminal.
While these may appear fringe group stunts that US presidents face all over the world, South Africa
is an unusual case. Cosatu and the Communist party form a "tripartite
alliance" with the governing African National Congress (ANC) and expect
to be heard. Cosatu in particular, with 2.2 million members, is central
to the ANC's election machinery and well rehearsed in mobilising
demonstrations that have been known to turn violent. The secretary general of the Communist party, Blade Nzimande, doubles as the country's higher education minister and the ANC has plenty of self-professed communists and Marxists with a flair for anti-western rhetoric.
Obama
is a target for those who prefer to blame South Africa's malaise of
inequality and joblessness on global capitalism rather than the ruling
ANC.
Bongani Masuku, Cosatu's international relations secretary,
said: "Obama is perpetuating American foreign policy. The US is an
empire run on behalf of multinational companies and the ruling class of
America. US foreign policy is militarising international relations to sponsor and make their own weapons."
Many
in Africa had impossibly high hopes for Obama, the son of a Kenyan. But
Masuku added: "I'm not disappointed because I didn't expect anything.
It's not about the individual; it's not about the race he came from.
It's about the class he represents. It's like he's the gatekeeper for
white monopoly capital. He promised things we knew he wouldn't be able
to do."
Guantánamo
That view is not confined to militant union organisers but extends to some members of the revered struggle generation. Denis Goldberg, who
stood trial with Mandela in 1963-64 and was sentenced to life in prison
by the apartheid regime, said: "I don't like the idea of Guantánamo
Bay; I think this is reprehensible.
"The unending assumption of
depending on Chinese credits to finance your wars elsewhere – I think
it's outrageous what's going on. I don't have final answers but we need
to ask questions of the big powers – all of them."
Such is
Cosatu's influence on the ANC that its attacks on the US – from
Palestine and Guantánamo Bay to the "ruthless and savage looting of our
natural resources" – have sparked warnings of a diplomatic rift.
Ian Davidson, shadow international relations minister for the opposition Democratic Alliance, said:
"This is President Obama's first state visit to South Africa and is a
significant event for the country to further our relations with the United States. It should not be blighted by Cosatu's cheap political-point scoring. This move by Cosatu is an embarrassment to South Africa."
On
the surface, US-South African relations are cordial and have improved
since the presidencies of George Bush and Thabo Mbeki, though
Washington's intervention in Libya alienated many here. But while many
young South Africans were caught up in "Obama-mania" five years ago, those with longer memories bitterly recall Ronald Reagan's failure to oppose apartheid. Tom Wheeler,
a former South African diplomat who began work in Washington just
before the Kennedy assassination 50 years ago, said: "There's a gut
anti-Americanism and anti-westernism that lurks in some of the
communities. It may be a hangover from the days when a lot of ANC people
travelled to the Soviet Union, and America was regarded as the great
colonialist."
A demonstration is planned for the University of
Johannesburg's Soweto campus on Saturday, where the president will meet
young African leaders in a "town hall" event.
With first lady
Michelle and their daughters, he will then travel to Cape Town to visit
Robben Island and meet retired archbishop Desmond Tutu, never shy of speaking his mind on western warmongering.
Mandela
Perhaps the only living South African more famous than Tutu is Mandela. Obama has met him once, in a Washington hotel in 2005.
The prospect of the first black US and South African presidents coming
face to face is a spin doctor's dream, but could backfire if the ailing
Mandela is seen to be exploited.
Goldberg, 80, said: "I think it
would be such an intrusion on an old man who's ill. We exploit Nelson
Mandela and I object to that. We need to respect this great man's
privacy because people go to see Nelson Mandela not to support Nelson but to gain support for themselves, and this is exploitation."
Speaking from Washington, Ben Rhodes, the White House deputy national security adviser
for strategic communications, said: "While we're in South Africa, we
are going to be very deferential to the Mandela family in terms of any
interaction that the president may have with the Mandela family or with
Nelson Mandela.
"Ultimately, we want whatever is in the best
interest of his health and the peace of mind of the Mandela family. And
so we'll be driven by their own determinations in that regard.
Anti-Obama protests dispersed by South Africa police
Anti-American demonstrators march through the streets while
protesting against the official visit of U.S. President Barack Obama
June 28, 2013 in Pretoria, South Africa. Organized by the Congress of
South African Trade Unions, about 800 people marched through Pretoria to
voice their opposition to Obama and U.S. policy in South Africa and
around the world. / Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Anti-American demonstrators march through the streets while
protesting against the official visit of President Barack Obama June 28,
2013 in Pretoria, South Africa. / Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
JOHANNESBURG — Police fired rubber bullets and a
stun grenade into a crowd of hundreds of protesters waiting for
President Obama to arrive at the University of Johannesburg on Saturday.
The crowd quickly scattered as police officers walked up the street pushing protesters away with shot guns.
“I
feel my rights are being infringed,” said 24-year-old Bilaal Qibr, who
was at the protest. “We can’t protest anymore. Personally, I feel like
this is an extension of the U.S.”
Protests have been planned at
the university over Obama’s visit and the news that he is expected to
receive an honorary doctorate when he speaks later Saturday.
“They
don’t believe Obama deserves that award. The U.S. position and its
relationship with Israel has created a problem,” said Levy Masete,
president of the Student Representative Council. “The students say,
‘Stop the oppression in Palestine,’ and you want to honor this man who
is making this oppression possible.”
“He’s here for our African
resources,” said Nomagugu Hloma, 19, a student at what she called the
“sell out” university. “Hands off our gold, oil, diamonds and land,” she
said.
South Africa’s biggest trade union, the Congress of South
African Trade Unions (COSATU) also said they would be protesting, while
the Muslim Lawyers Association called for the president’s arrest for war
crimes.
“I’m disappointed with President Obama,” said Putase
Tseki, the COSATU chairman of Gauteng province in Johannesburg. “He
promised he would (change) his foreign policy, he was going to resolve
Palestine and close Guantanamo. I would say I was positive four years
ago, but now I don’t know.”
The “feeling of being let down” helped
stem the protests, says William Beinart, an African studies professor
at Britain’s University of Oxford.
Anti-American demonstrators dance and sing before marching through
the streets to protest against the official visit of U.S. President
Barack Obama June 28, 2013 in Pretoria, South Africa. Organized by the
Congress of South African Trade Unions, about 800 people marched through
Pretoria to voice their opposition to Obama and U.S. policy in South
Africa and around the world. / Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Nelson Mandela’s health
has improved overnight though the anti-apartheid hero remains in a
critical condition, the office of South African President Jacob Zuma
said Thursday.
"He is much better today than he was when I saw him last night. The
medical team continues to do a sterling job," Zuma said in a statement.
He added that although Mandela’s condition remains critical, it is now “stable”,
The President’s comments come after Mandela’s granddaughter Ndileka
Mandela told reporters earlier on Thursday that the former South African
president is in a “very critical but stable” condition. "Anything is imminent," she added. Mandela was put on life support on Wednesday.
ANC SUPPORTERS GATHER TO SING
Click to enlarge.
Ndileka
emerged from the hospital with other family members to accept bouquets
of flowers from members of the public, FRANCE 24’s Charlotte Boitiaux
reported. She returned to Mandela’s bedside in tears, she said.
Mandela’s eldest daughter Makaziwe said Mandela was still responding
to touch. “I won’t lie, it doesn’t look good. But as I say, if we speak
to him, he responds and tries to open his eyes. He’s still there. He
might be waning off, but he’s still there,” she told SABC radio after
visiting him in hospital on Thursday.
Family elder Napilisi Mandela, who had been at Mandela’s bedside on
Wednesday evening, told AFP that he was using machines to breathe. “It
is bad, but what can we do,” he said.
Zuma cancels plans
President Zuma late Wednesday abruptly cancelled a trip to
neighbouring Mozambique after he visited Mandela, who has been in
critical condition for several days.
It is the first time Zuma has scrapped a public engagement since
Mandela was hospitalised on June 8 with a recurring lung infection.
"President Zuma was briefed by the doctors who are still doing
everything they can to ensure his well-being," a statement from the
presidency said.
Prayer vigil for Nelson Mandela after condition improves
Karen Allen said people had been singing and lighting candles outside the hospital in Pretoria
South
Africans have been holding an all-night prayer vigil for former
President Nelson Mandela, outside his former home in Soweto.
The crowd have been singing and saying prayers for Mr Mandela's health, on what is now his 20th night in hospital.
South Africa's first black president - an icon of the anti-apartheid struggle - is suffering from a lung infection.
President Jacob Zuma said on Thursday that the 94-year-old's condition had improved, but still remained critical.
"He is much better today than he was when I saw him last night," Mr Zuma said after speaking to Mr Mandela's medical team.
Mr Zuma cancelled a visit to Mozambique to visit Mr Mandela in hospital.
Meanwhile Mr Mandela's daughter Makaziwe said he was "still there" and responding to touch.
Nelson
Mandela's eldest daughter Makiziwe's criticism has echoed the
sentiments of many South Africans who have baulked at the "intrusive"
nature of some of the media coverage around the former president's state
of health.
One such report suggested that Mr Mandela had suffered
cardiac arrest on 8 June when he was rushed to hospital, and more
recently some unconfirmed media reports said the national icon was now
on life support. Some have described such details as "too much
information", others as "insensitive".
Meanwhile the media
continues to camp outside the heart hospital in Pretoria where he is
being treated, as well as outside his home in Johannesburg, waiting for
any news.
This is particularly uncomfortable for traditional South
Africans, who see all the media attention as not only distasteful but
also going against African culture.
There is a huge respect for death here and it is never mentioned before the event.
Even
in this dark hour, very few speak frankly about the 94-year-old's
passing - instead many are still praying for his recovery.
But she accused some journalists of being like vultures, waiting for her father to die.
Emotional crowds gathered outside the hospital, adding messages of support for Mr Mandela, known by his clan name Madiba.
Children released 94 balloons - one for every year of the ex-president's life - into the air in his honour.
Correspondents say South Africans now seem resigned to the prospect of his death.
"We
don't like seeing Mandela going through so much pain, he has had a
tough time in his life and he's gone through a lot of struggle. I think
this struggle should get over sooner," Khulile Mlondleni told Reuters
news agency.
"We are all going to feel bad when he passes [away],
but at the same time we will be celebrating his life. He has done so
many great things for this country," said 25-year-old John Ndlovu,
quoted by the agency.
As crowds prayed in Soweto on Thursday
evening, South Africa's ruling African National Congress (ANC) said it
would hold vigils each day that the former leader remained in hospital.
