Nelson Mandela, the first black president of South Africa, died on Dec. 5 at the age of 95. According to BBC news, Mandela died in Johannesburg after battling heath issues for several years, one being a recurring lung infection. Friday, his death was mourned but his life was celebrated by his admirers. Mandela will be laid to rest in his ancestral village Qunu which is located in the Eastern Cape, and the date is set to be Dec. 15.

Before his presidency, Mandela spent 27 years in prison for his political activities, according to CNN. During his imprisonment in a Spartan cell on Robben Island, Mandela wrote in his jailhouse memoirs that he still had faith in humanity even after so many years. Finally, he was released and helped forge a peaceful end to the white minority government by negotiating with his captors.

During his lifetime, Mandela endeavored to end apartheid in South Africa, which is the official policy of ethnic segregation which said that other racial groups did not have the same political and economic rights as white individuals. Later, Mandela went on to lead the country itself and won a Nobel Peace prize.

“I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear,” said Mandela.