Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Third marriage
Mandela remarried in 1998 on his 80th birthday, to Graça Machel, widow of Samora Machel, the former Mozambican president and ANC ally who was killed in an air crash 12 years earlier. The wedding followed months of international negotiations to set the unprecedented bride-price to be remitted to Machel's clan. Said negotiations were conducted on Mandela's behalf by his traditional sovereign, King Buyelekhaya Zwelibanzi Dalindyebo, born 1964. The paramount chief's grandfather was the regent Jongintaba Dalindyebo. Chief Jongintaba had arranged a marriage for Mandela, from which he fled to Johannesburg in 1940.[6]