Influence and legacy

By the time of his death, Mandela had come to be widely considered the father of the nation within South Africa, and the founding father of democracy, being seen as the national liberator, the saviour, its Washington and Lincoln rolled into one. Mandelas biographer Anthony Sampson commented that even during his life, a myth had developed around him that turned him into a secular saint and which was so powerful that it blurs the realities. Within a decade after the end of his Presidency, Mandelas era was being widely thought of as a golden age of hope and harmony. Across the world, Mandela earned international acclaim for his activism in overcoming apartheid and fostering racial reconciliation, coming to be viewed as a moral authority with a great concern for truth.

Throughout his life, Mandela had also faced criticism. Margaret Thatcher attracted international attention for describing the ANC as a typical terrorist organisation in 1987, although she later called on Botha to release Mandela. On his death, various Twitter users repeated the denunciations that he was a communist and a terrorist, while various antiabortion activists across the world took the opportunity to condemn him for supporting the 1996 Choice of Termination of Pregnancy Act.Mandela has also been criticised for his friendship with political leaders such as Fidel Castro, Muammar Gaddafi, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, and Suharto deemed dictators by critics as well as his refusal to condemn their human rights violations.