Rolihlahla Mandela was born into the
Madiba clan in Mvezo, Transkei, on July
18, 1918, to Nonqaphi Nosekeni and
Nkosi Mphakanyiswa Gadla Mandela,
principal counsellor to the Acting King of
the Thembu people, Jongintaba Dalindyebo. His father died when he was a child and
the young Rolihlahla became a ward of
Jongintaba at the Great Place in
Mqhekezweni. Hearing the elder’s
stories of his ancestor’s valour during
the wars of resistance, he dreamed also of making his own contribution to the
freedom struggle of his people. He attended primary school in Qunu
where his teacher Miss Mdingane gave
him the name Nelson, in accordance
with the custom to give all school
children “Christian” names. He completed his Junior Certificate at
Clarkebury Boarding Institute and went
on to Healdtown, a Wesleyan secondary
school of some repute, where he
matriculated. Nelson Mandela began his studies for a
Bachelor of Arts Degree at the University
College of Fort Hare but did not complete
the degree there as he was expelled for
joining in a student protest. He
completed his BA through the University of South Africa and went back to Fort
Hare for his graduation in 1943. On his return to the Great Place at
Mkhekezweni the King was furious and
said if he didn’t return to Fort Hare he
would arrange wives for him and his
cousin Justice. They ran away to
Johannesburg instead arriving there in 1941. There he worked as a mine
security officer and after meeting Walter
Sisulu, an estate agent, who introduced
him to Lazar Sidelsky. He then did his
articles through the firm of attorneys
Witkin Eidelman and Sidelsky. Meanwhile he began studying for an LLB
at the University of the Witwatersrand.
By his own admission he was a poor
student and left the university in 1948
without graduating. He only started
studying again through the University of London and also did not complete that
degree. In 1989, while in the last months of his
imprisonment, he obtained an LLB
through the University of South Africa.
He graduated in absentia at a ceremony
in Cape Town. Nelson Mandela, while increasingly
politically involved from 1942, only
joined the African National Congress in
1944 when he helped formed the ANC
Youth League. In 1944 he married Walter Sisulu’s
cousin Evelyn Mase, a nurse. They had
two sons Madiba Thembekile
‘Thembi’ and Makgatho and two
daughters both called Makaziwe, the
first of whom died in infancy. They effectively separated in 1955 and
divorced in 1958. Nelson Mandela rose through the ranks
of the ANCYL and through its work the
ANC adopted in 1949 a more radical
mass-based policy, the Programme of
Action. In 1952 he was chosen at the National
Volunteer-in-Chief of the Defiance
Campaign with Maulvi Cachalia as his
Deputy. This campaign of civil
disobedience against six unjust laws
was a joint programme between the ANC and the South African Indian
Congress. He and 19 others were
charged under the Suppression of
Communism Act for their part in the
campaign and sentenced to nine months
hard labour suspended for two years. A two-year diploma in law on top of his
BA allowed Nelson Mandela to practice
law and in August 1952 he and Oliver
Tambo established South Africa’s first
black law firm, Mandela and Tambo. At the end of 1952 he was banned for
the first time. As a restricted person he
was only able to secretly watch as the
Freedom Charter was adopted at
Kliptown on 26 June 1955. Nelson Mandela was arrested in a
countrywide police swoop of 156
activists on 5 December 1955, which led
to the 1956 Treason Trial. Men and
women of all races found themselves in
the dock in the marathon trial that only ended when the last 28 accused,
including Mr. Mandela were acquitted on
29 March 1961. On 21 March 1960 police killed 69
unarmed people in a protest at
Sharpeville against the pass laws. This
led to the country’s first state of
emergency on 31 March and the banning
of the ANC and the Pan Africanist Congress on 8 April. Nelson Mandela and
his colleagues in the Treason Trial were
among the thousands detained during
the state of emergency. During the trial on 14 June 1958 Nelson
Mandela married a social worker Winnie
Madikizela. They had two daughters
Zenani and Zindziswa. The couple
divorced in 1996. Days before the end of the Treason Trial
Nelson Mandela travelled to
Pietermaritzburg to speak at the All-in
Africa Conference, which resolved he
should write to Prime Minister Verwoerd
requesting a non-racial national convention, and to warn that should he
not agree there would be a national
strike against South Africa becoming a
republic. As soon as he and his
colleagues were acquitted in the
Treason Trial Nelson Mandela went underground and began planning a
national strike for 29, 30 and 31 March.
In the face of a massive mobilization of
state security the strike was called off
early. In June 1961 he was asked to lead
the armed struggle and helped to establish Umkhonto weSizwe (Spear of
the Nation). On 11 January 1962 using the adopted
name David Motsamayi, Nelson Mandela
left South Africa secretly. He travelled
around Africa and visited England to
gain support for the armed struggle. He
received military training in Morocco and Ethiopia and returned to South Africa in
July 1962. He was arrested in a police
roadblock outside Howick on 5 August
while returning from KwaZulu-Natal
where he briefed ANC President Chief
Albert Luthuli about his trip. He was charged with leaving the
country illegally and inciting workers to
strike. He was convicted and sentenced
to five years imprisonment which he
began serving in Pretoria Local Prison.
On 27 May 1963 he was transferred to Robben Island and returned to Pretoria
on 12 June. Within a month police raided
a secret hide-out in Rivonia used by ANC
and Communist Party activists and
several of his comrades were arrested. In October 1963 Nelson Mandela joined
nine others on trial for sabotage in what
became known as the Rivonia Trial.
Facing the death penalty his words to
the court at the end of his famous
‘Speech from the Dock’ on 20 April 1964 became immortalized: “I have fought against white
domination, and I have fought against
black domination. I have cherished the
ideal of a democratic and free society in
which all persons live together in
harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to
achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for
which I am prepared to die.” On 11 June 1964 Nelson Mandela and
seven other accused Walter Sisulu,
Ahmed Kathrada, Govan Mbeki,
Raymond Mhlaba, Denis Goldberg, Elias
Motsoaledi and Andrew Mlangeni were
convicted and the next day were sentenced to life imprisonment. Denis
Goldberg was sent to Pretoria Prison
because he was white while the others
went to Robben Island. Nelson Mandela’s mother died in 1968
and his eldest son Thembi in 1969. He
was not allowed to attend their funerals. On 31 March 1982 Nelson Mandela was
transferred to Pollsmoor Prison in Cape
Town with Sisulu, Mhlaba and Mlangeni.
Kathrada joined them in October. When
he returned to the prison in November
1985 after prostate surgery Nelson Mandela was held alone. Justice Minister
Kobie Coetsee had visited him in
hospital. Later Nelson Mandela initiated
talks about an ultimate meeting
between the apartheid government and
the ANC. In 1988 he was treated for Tuberculosis
and was transferred on 7 December
1988 to a house at Victor Verster Prison
near Paarl. He was released from its
gates on Sunday 11 February 1990, nine
days after the unbanning of the ANC and the PAC and nearly four months after the
release of the remaining Rivonia
comrades. Throughout his imprisonment
he had rejected at least three conditional
offers of release. Nelson Mandela immersed himself into
official talks to end white minority rule
and in 1991 was elected ANC President
to replace his ailing friend Oliver Tambo.
In 1993 he and President FW de Klerk
jointly won the Nobel Peace Prize and on 27 April 1994 he voted for the first time
in his life. On 10 May 1994 he was inaugurated
South Africa’s first democratically
elected President. On his 80th birthday in
1998 he married Graça Machel, his third
wife. True to his promise Nelson Mandela
stepped down in 1999 after one term as
President. He continued to work with the
Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund he set
up in 1995 and established the Nelson
Mandela Foundation and The Mandela- Rhodes Foundation. In April 2007 his grandson Mandla
Mandela became head of the Mvezo
Traditional Council at a ceremony at the
Mvezo Great Place. Nelson Mandela never wavered in his
devotion to democracy, equality and
learning. Despite terrible provocation, he
never answered racism with racism. His
life has been an inspiration to all who
are oppressed and deprived, to all who are opposed to oppression and
deprivation.
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