Mozambique:Joaquim Chissano is unusual for an African president. After 18 years as leader of Mozambique, and with a further five-year term beckoning, he stood down. He left behind a nation that was starting to heal after years of civil war.
Yesterday he became the first winner of the Mo Ibrahim Prize for African Leadership and the recipient of $5 million (€3.5 million) - the biggest cash reward of its kind in the world. The prize was presented in London by Kofi Annan, former UN secretary general.
"President Chissano's achievements in bringing peace, reconciliation, stable democracy and economic progress to his country greatly impressed the committee," Mr Annan said on behalf of the judges, who included Mary Robinson. "So, too, did his decision to step down without seeking the third term the constitution allowed."
The prize is the brainchild of a Sudanese-born telecoms entrepreneur, Mo Ibrahim, and is designed to reward African leaders who put the interests of their people before themselves.
He believes Africa's development has been blighted by presidents who have looted their countries' coffers and hung on to power for too long.
Mr Ibrahim said the former Mozambiquan freedom fighter was a worthy winner.
"As a man who has reconciled a divided nation and built the foundations for a stable, democratic and prosperous future for the country, he is a role model not just for Africa, but for the rest of the world," he said.
Mr Chissano, celebrating his 58th birthday yesterday, was not in London to receive the award. He was in the south Sudanese capital, Juba, on a mission as UN special envoy to peace talks between the Ugandan government and Lord's Resistance Army rebels.
He came to prominence as a leader in the Frelimo guerilla movement which fought Portuguese rule in Mozambique until independence in 1975, becoming the country's second president when Samora Machel died in a plane crash in 1986.
His quiet negotiating skills helped complete a peace deal in 1992 with Renamo rebels. Two years later he became the country's first democratically elected president. That could have been the ticket to a lifetime of luxury spent in presidential palaces, but instead, he stood down in 2005 without seeking the third term allowed under Mozambique's constitution.