Mandela died of same disease as dad

Nelson Mandela, the iconic African leader, was not only a dogged freedom fighter, but also his tenacity spilled over to his health life where he struggled with lung infection for over two decades. Though he suffered prostate cancer, a long-standing abdominal complaint, gallstones and problems with his eyes, his most persistent medical problem was respiratory.
Interestingly, Mandela’s father, Galda Henry Mphakanyiswa, died from lung disease (tuberculosis) when he (Nelson) was just nine years old.

In his autobiography, “Long Walk to Freedom”, Mandela spoke of his father’s illness and the manner of his death. “One night, when I was nine years old, I was aware of a commotion in the household. My father, who took turns visiting his wives and usually came to us for perhaps one week a month, had arrived. But it was not at his accustomed time, for he was not scheduled to be with us for another few days. I found him in my mother’s hut, lying on his back on the floor, in the midst of what seemed like an endless fit of coughing. Even to my young eyes, it was clear that my father was not long for the world. He was ill with some type of lung disease, but it was not diagnosed, as my father had never visited a doctor. He remained in the hut for several days without moving or speaking, and then one night, he took a turn for the worse. My mother and my father’s youngest wife, Nodayimani, who had come to stay with us, were looking after him, and late that night, he called for Nodayimani.

“Bring me my tobacco,” he told her. My mother and Nodayimani conferred, and decided that it was unwise that he have tobacco in his current state. But he persisted in calling for it, and eventually Nodayimani filled his pipe, lit it, and handed it to him. My father smoked and became calm. He continued smoking for perhaps an hour, and then, his pipe still lit, he died.”

The former President of South Africa’s history of lung problems began in 1988 towards the end of his 27-year incarceration after he was moved from Robben Island to another jail to ease the apartheid government’s efforts to negotiate with him about a possible release. At first, doctors were uncertain why Mandela had a persistent cough that ultimately caused him to collapse during a meeting with his lawyer. After being taken to a Cape Town hospital, a doctor told him he had water in his lungs.

In his autobiography, he said he refused to believe the doctors but “with a hint of annoyance, (the doctor) said, ‘Mandela, take a look at your chest,’ and he pointed out that one side of my chest was actually larger than the other.”

Surgeons had cut into Mandela’s chest and removed two litres of liquid from his lungs, which tested positive for tuberculosis. Doctors at the time suggested Mandela contracted the disease from his damp prison cell. Read more