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Nelson Mandela
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Famous As |
Anti
Apartheid Activist, President of ANC and Former
President of South Africa |
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Born On |
18 July 1918 |
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Born In |
Transkei,
South Africa |
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Nationality |
South Africa |
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Achievements |
Noble Peace
Prize (1993), Struggle Against the Apartheid Regime,
Leadership of Civil Rights Movement in South Africa |
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Nelson Mandela was the most significant black leader who stood
against racism and apartheid in South Africa, while many in the
world were silent. He dreamt of a democratic and free society in
which people live together in harmony with equal opportunities. His
words, ''the struggle is my life'', give a glimpse of the
determination he fought with against apartheid and racism in South
Africa, the goal he had set almost four decades back. Mandela has
held numerous positions in the ANC: ANCYL secretary (1948); ANCYL
president (1950); |
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ANC
Transvaal president (1952); Deputy national
president (1952) and ANC president (1991).
Despites several roadblock and barriers in his
path, Mandela succeeded in bringing quality and
justice to his people for which he was awarded
the honorary Nobel Peace Prize in 1993. |
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Childhood &
Education:
Nelson Mandela was born in the Transkei on the 18 July 1918. He lost
his father, who was a councilor- at the age of nine when he died of
tuberculosis. Hearing the elder’s stories of his ancestors’ bravery
during the wars in defense of their fatherland, he dreamed of making
his own contribution to the freedom struggle of his people. He was
the first member of his family to attend a school and was given the
English name ‘Nelson’ by his teacher. After receiving
primary education at a local mission school, he enrolled at the
University College of Forte Hare for the Bachelor of Arts Degree
where he met Oliver Tambo and the two became lifelong friends.
At the end of the first
year of the college Nelson became involved in a boycott by the
Students’ Representative Council against the university policies,
and was told to leave the college. Then he went to Johannesburg to
complete his BA via correspondence and
entered politics while studying there by joining African National
Congress in 1942. After completing his B.A. he started with his law
studies at the University of Witwatersrand. During this period
Mandela lived in Alexandra Township, north of Johannesburg. Later,
when he was in prison, Mandela studies for a Bachelor of Laws from
the university of London external program. Mandela has honorary
degrees from more than 50 international universities and is
chancellor of the University of the North. |
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Political Activities:
Mandela’s approach
was influenced by Mahatma Gandhi. Nelson Mandela was elected as the
secretary to the youth leadership in 1947. The ANCYL aimed at the
attainment of full citizenship, direct parliamentary representation
for all South Africans. The policy making process paid special attention to the
redistribution of the land, trade union rights, education and
culture. Mandela as an important co – author of the policy document
aspired to free and compulsory education for all children, as well
as mass education for adults. When the ANC launched its Campaign for
the Defiance of Unjust Laws in 1952, Mandela traveled to places to
discriminatory legislation as Volunteer-in-Chief. Though Mandela had
constantly advised their followers to avoid violence, he was charged
and brought to trial for his role in the campaign. Following which
he was convicted of contravening the suppression of communism act
and given a suspended prison sentence. He was also prohibited from
attending gatherings and confined to Johannesburg for six months. In
1952 Mandela and his followers prepared an organizational plan that
would enable the leadership of the movement to maintain dynamic
contact with its members without recourse to public meetings. The
plan was called M-Plan, which was named after him. Apart from it,
during early fifties Mandela played vital role in leading the
resistance to the Western Areas removal and to the introduction of
Bantu Education. In the late fifties he made efforts to curb the
exploitation of labour, the pass laws, the nascent Bantustan policy
and the segregation of the open universities. |
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In1961 Umkhonto we
Sizwe(translated as Spear of the Nation, also shortened as MK), was
formed with Mandela as its commander in chief. He coordinated a
sabotage campaign against military and government targets, and made
plans for a possible guerilla war if sabotage failed to end
apartheid. He left the country unlawfully and traveled abroad
addressing the conferences and was warmly received by top leaders of
many countries. During this trip Mandela, anticipating an inevitable
armed struggle, began to arrange guerrilla training for members of
Umkhonto we Sizwe. Mandela also raised funds for MK abroad, and
arranged for paramilitary training, visiting various African
governments. Initially committed to a non-violent mass struggle,
Mandela explains the move to embark on armed struggle as a last
resort, when government left him no choice. Increasing repression
and violence from the state convinced him that many years of non
violent protest against apartheid had achieved nothing. Soon after
his return to South Africa he was arrested for illegal exit from the
country. Mandela decided to conduct his own defense. He was
convicted and sentenced to five years imprisonment. |
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Life
Imprisonment:
He was convicted for
crimes that occurred while he was spearheading the struggle against
apartheid. Mandela was sentenced to life imprisonment and sent to
the notorious Robben Island Prison, a maximum security prison on a
small island near Cape Town, where he spent nearly 18 years of his
27 years sentence. In April 1984 he was transferred to Pollsmoor
Prison in Cape Town and later to the Victor Verster Prison near
Paarl from where he was eventually released. While in prison,
throughout his life sentence Mandela turned down offers for
remission of sentence in exchange for accepting the bantustan policy
and renouncing violence. |
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Mandela refused the
offer releasing a statement that he can not accept personal freedom
when the organization of the people remains banned. He stood by his
statement that Prisoners cannot enter into contracts-Only free men
can negotiate. During his years in prison he gained acceptance as
the most significant black leader in South Africa and became a
potent symbol of equality and freedom for his opposition to
apartheid, while the apartheid government and countries sympathetic
to it condemned him and ANC as terrorists and communists. He spent
almost 27 years in jail for this with many of those years on Robben
Island. He flatly refused to compromise on his political position to
obtain his freedom. |
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Release and
Presidency of South Africa:
On 2 February 1990,
State president F.W. de Klerk lifted the ban on the ANC announcing
his release from prison.He was released on Feb 11, 1990, and the
event was broadcast live all over the world. On the day of his
release Mandela made a speech to the nation in which he declared his
commitment to bring peace to the black majority and give them right
to vote in elections. He made clear that the armed struggle was yet
not over. Following his release, Mandela returned to the leadership
of the ANCF and between 1990 and 1994 his party multi-party
negotiation led to the first multi-racial elections. In 1991, the
ANC held its first national conference in South Africa after its
unbanning, in which Mandela was elected as the President of the ANC.
while his lifelong friend and colleague, Oliver Tambo, became the
organisation's National Chairperson. In 1994 he became the first
democratically elected state president of South Africa with the
National Party's de Klerk as his first Deputy and Thabo Mbeki as the
second in the Government of National Unity. |
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Family and
Retirement:
Mandela has been
married three times, has fathered six children, and has twenty
grandchildren and a growing number of great-grandchildren. His
grandson is Chief Mandla Mandela. Mandela became the oldest elected
President of South Africa when he took charge in 1994. He was 77
years old that time and decided not to contest for the second time.
Nelson Mandela took retirement from Public life in June 1999. He
currently resides in his birth place - Qunu, Transkei. |
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A life
devoted to justice:
Nelson Mandela has
received more than hundred awards over the past four decades for his
struggle for democracy, equality and learning. He never answered
racism with racism. He won international respect for his advocacy
for reconciliation of white and black. Leading a life that
symbolizes the triumph of the human spirit over man’s inhumanity to
man, Nelson Mandela accepted the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993 on behalf
of South Africans who suffered and sacrificed so much to bring peace
to the world. His life is an inspiration to all oppressed and
deprived and to all who are opposed to oppression and deprivation. |
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Time Line
1918-
He was born at Qunu, near Umtata.
1944-
He helped found the ANC Youth League.
1952-
Mandela was elected national volunteer-in-chief of the 1952
Defiance Campaign.
1960-
The ANC was banned after the Sharpeville massacre in 1960,
and he was detained until
1961- when he went underground to
lead a campaign for a new national convention.
1960-
Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), the military wing of the ANC, came into
existence.
1962-
Mandela left the country for military training in Algeria and to
arrange training for other members.
1962-
On his return he was arrested for leaving the country illegally
and was convicted and jailed for five years.
1990-
He was released from the Robben Island prison.
1994-
He became the first democratically elected State President of
South Africa on 10 May 1994
1999-
Nelson Mandela retired from Public life in June 1999. He currently
resides in his birth place - Qunu, Transkei
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