--- description: The beloved leader died on Dec. 5, 2013 title: Nelson Mandela Remembered on the Anniversary of his Death image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt85fefc1994509701/69876b8e8e0601ce36458e31/1101131219_600.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [History](/section/history/) ## History Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [remembrance](/tag/remembrance/) ## remembrance Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Nelson Mandela Remembered, One Year Later  by [Lily Rothman](/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Dec 5, 2014 12:00 PM CUT  The Dec. 19, 2013, cover of TIME The Dec. 19, 2013, cover of TIMECover Credit: PHOTOGRAPH BY HANS GEDDA - SYGMA/CORBIS  by [Lily Rothman](/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Dec 5, 2014 12:00 PM CUT It was one year ago, on Dec. 5, 2013, that Nelson Mandela died at age 95\. To mark the passing of a man who U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called “a giant for justice and a down-to-earth human inspiration,” TIME put out a special issue, with remembrances from luminaries like Bono and Morgan Freeman, as well as a look back by the magazine’s former managing editor, Rick Stengel, who had worked closely with Mandela. Stengel recalled visiting Mandela’s ancestral village with him, and finding that the South African leader seemed uninterested in talking about death: --- > “” --- **_Read the full issue, here in the TIME archives:_** [Nelson Mandela, 1918–2013](http://content.time.com/time/magazine/0,9263,7601131219,00.html "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3611911/nelson-mandela-year-later/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3611911/nelson-mandela-year-later/"},"headline":"Nelson Mandela Remembered, One Year Later","datePublished":"2014-12-05T12:00:17.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T02:28:29.797Z","description":"The South African leader died on Dec. 5, 2013","url":"https://time.com/3611911/nelson-mandela-year-later/","keywords":["remembrance","South Africa","Nelson Mandela","obituary"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt85fefc1994509701/69876b8e8e0601ce36458e31/1101131219_600.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lily Rothman","jobTitle":"Rothman is managing editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt85fefc1994509701/69876b8e8e0601ce36458e31/1101131219_600.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Mandela cover","caption":"Mandela cover","creditText":"Cover Credit: PHOTOGRAPH BY HANS GEDDA - SYGMA/CORBIS","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/remembrance/","name":"remembrance"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3611911/nelson-mandela-year-later/","name":"Nelson Mandela Remembered, One Year Later"}}]}] ```