Nelson Mandela Biography

Nelson Mandela Biography

Name : Nelson Mandela

Full name : Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela

Date of Birth : July 18, 1918

Place of Birth : Umtata, South Africa

Age : 90

Profession : 11th President of South Africa

Political party : African National Congress

Height : 6' 4''

Nickname : Madiba


Nelson Mandela Trivia

Nelson was born at Qunu, near Umtata on 18 July 1918.
He has held several positions in the ANC viz. ANCYL secretary (1948); ANCYL president (1950), ANC Transvaal president (1952), deputy national president (1952) and ANC president (1991).
His father,namely Henry Mgadla Mandela, was chief councilor of Thembuland's acting predominant chief called David Dalindyebo. When his father has expired Mandela became the ward of the chief .
Mandela passed out his Matriculation examination from Healdtown Methodist Boarding School and then got hold of BA degree at Fort Hare.
In the year 1944 he has laid the foundation of ANC Youth League, whose Programme of Action was adopted by the ANC in 1949.
Mandela was elected as national volunteer-in-chief of the year 1952 Defiance Campaign.
Nelson was given a suspended sentence for his part in the campaign. Shortly afterwards a banning order confined him to Johannesburg for 6 months. During this period he formulated the "M Plan", in terms of which ANC branches were broken down into underground cells.
By the year 1952 Mandela and Tambo had opened the first black legal firm in the country, and Mandela became Transvaal president of the ANC as well as deputy national president.
During the second half of the '50s Nelson was one of the accused in the Treason Trial. With Duma Nokwe, he conducted the defense.
When the ANC was banned after the Sharpeville massacre in 1960, Nelson was detained until 1961 . At that time he went underground for leading a campaign for a new national convention.
In the year 1962 Mandela left the country for military training in Algeria to arrange training for other MK members.
On his return Nelson was arrested for leaving the country illegally and for inciting strike. He conducted his own defence. He was convicted and imprisoned for 5 years in the month of November 1962. While serving his sentence, he was charged, in the Rivonia trial, with sabotage and sentenced to life imprisonment.
During the 'seventies Mandela refused the offer of a remission of sentence if he recognized Transkei and settled there.
During 80s, Mandela again refused PW Botha's offer of freedom if he renounced violence.
Mandela has honorary degrees from over fifty international universities and is chancellor of the University of the North.
Nelson Mandela was inaugurated as the 1st democratically elected State President of South Africa on 10 May 1994 - June 1999
Mandela retired from Public life in June 1999. He currently resides in his birth place - Qunu, Transkei.
Nelson Mandela accepted Nobel Peace Prize in the year 1993 on behalf of all South Africans who suffered and sacrificed for bringing peace in the land.
Mandela has been married thrice. He has 6 children, 20 grandchildren, and a growing number of great-grandchildren. His grandson is Chief Mandla Mandela.


Nelson Mandela Detailed Biography

Nelson Mandela is a former President of South Africa, the first to be elected in fully representative democratic elections. Before his presidency, Mandela was an anti-apartheid activist and also a leader of the African National Congress and its armed wing is called Umkhonto we Sizwe. Nelson spent nearly 27 years in prison, much of it on Robben Island, on convictions for crimes that included sabotage committed while spearheading the struggle against apartheid.

Amongst the opponents of apartheid in South Africa and also worldwide Mandela became a symbol of freedom and equality, while the apartheid government and nations sympathetic to it hated him and his ANC as communists and terrorists.

After his release from prison in February 11, 1990, his switch to a policy of reconciliation and negotiation helped brought about a transition in the multi-racial democracy system of South Africa. Since the end of apartheid, he has been widely praised, even by former opponents.

Nelson Mandela has got over 100 awards in the time span of four decades, most important being the Nobel Peace Prize of the year 1993. He is currently a celebrated elder statesman who continues to voice his opinion on topical issues. In South Africa he is often known as Madiba, an honorary title adopted by elders of Mandela's clan. The title has come to be synonymous with Nelson Mandela.

For Mandela Mahatma Gandhi became a major source of inspiration in his life, both for the philosophy of non-violence and for facing hardship with self-respect.

Early life of Mandela is quite significant. Belonging to a cadet branch of the Thembu dynasty that ,nominally, rules over in the Transkeian Territories of the Union of South Africa's Cape Province. Mandela was born in the small village of Mvezo in the district of Umtata, the Transkei capital.

Etymologically his name Rolihlahla means "to pull a branch of a tree", that in colloquial language signifies "troublemaker".

So far as the education of Mandela is concerned, at seven years of age, Rolihlahla Mandela became the first member of his family to have attended a school, where he was given the name "Nelson. " After the death of his father Mandela attended a Wesleyan mission school . Following the Thembu custom, Mandela was initiated at an age of 16 and took admission at Clarkebury Boarding Institute. Interestingly he completed his Junior Certificate in two years, instead of the normal course of three years. Destined to inherit his father's position as a privy councillor, in the year 1937 Mandela got shifted to Healdtown, the Wesleyan college in Fort Beaufort which most of Thembu royalty used to attend.

After passing matriculating, he studied B.A. at the Fort Hare University. There he met Oliver Tambo, and the two became lifelong friends and colleagues. He also became close with his kinsman, Kaiser ("K.D.") Matanzima . At the end of first year, Nelson took part in a boycott movement led by the Students' Representative Council against the university policies. Even he was being asked to leave Fort Hare. Later during imprisonment Mandela studied Bachelor of Laws from the University of London External Program.

Shortly after leaving Fort Hare, when Jongintaba fixed marriages for both of them, being utterly displeased, decided to flee the comforts of the Regent's estate and went to Johannesburg.

Political career of Mandela has seen lots of ups and downs. After 1948 election victory of the Afrikaner-dominated National Party with its apartheid policy of racial segregation, Nelson became a leading figure in the ANC's 1952 Defiance Campaign . He also became an intergral part of 1955 Congress of the People, whose espousal of the Freedom Charter initiated the fundamental program of the cause of anti-apartheids. Meanwhile Nelson Mandela and his fellow lawyer Oliver Tambo operated the law firm of Mandela and Tambo,with the purpose of providing free or low-cost legal counsel to many blacks who would otherwise would be deprived of being given representation.

Initially committed to non-violent mass struggle, along with one hundred and fifty people Mandela was arrested on 5 December 1956 on charge of treason. The marathon Treason Trial of 1956�61 followed, and all were acquitted. From years 1952�59 the ANC witnessed a break as a new class of Black activists (Africanists) who have thronged the towns with the demand of initiating more drastic steps against the National Party regime. The ANC leadership of Albert Luthuli, Oliver Tambo and Walter Sisulu not only realized that events were moving too fast, but also that their leadership was being challenged. They consequently strengthened their position by establishing alliances with small White, Coloured and Indian political parties in an attempt to appear to have a wider appeal than the Africanists. 1955's Freedom Charter Kliptown Conference was ridiculed by the Africanists for allowing the 100,000 strong ANC to be relegated to a single vote in a Congress alliance, in which four secretaries-general of the five participating parties were members of the secretly reconstituted South African Communist Party (SACP), strongly adhering to the Moscow line.

In the year 1959 the ANC lost its most militant support when most of the Africanists, with the monetary support from Ghana and important political support from the Transvaal-based Basotho, broke away to form the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) under Robert Sobukwe and Potlako Leballo.

In the year 1961, Mandela became the leader of the ANC's armed wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe .He was also its co-founder. He coordinated a sabotage campaign against military and government targets, and made plans for a possible guerrilla war in case sabotage failed to end apartheid. A few decades later, MK launched a guerrilla war against the regime, especially during the 1980s, in which many civilians were killed. Mandela also raised funds for MK abroad, and arranged for paramilitary training, and also visited several African governments.

On 5 August 1962 Nelson Mandela was arrested and put to jail in the Johannesburg Fort. The arrest was made possible because the CIA tipped off the security police as to Mandela's whereabouts and disguise. After three days of his imprisonment , Mandela came to know about the charges that were brought against him viz the charges of leading workers to strike in the year 1961 and leaving the country illegally were read to him during a court appearance. On 25 October 1962, Nelson Mandela was sentenced to 5 years in prison. Two years later on 11 June 1964, a verdict was brought out concerning his previous engagement in the African National Congress (ANC).

Being imprisoned on Robben Island for the next eighteen of his twenty-seven years in prison, he and others performed hard labour in a lime quarry.

On 2 February 1990, State President F.W. de Klerk reversed the ban on the ANC and other anti-apartheid organisations, and announced that Mandela would shortly be released from prison. At last the long awaited release came .On 11 February 1990 Mandela was freed from Victor Verster Prison in Paarl . Following his release from prison, Mandela returned to the leadership of the ANC and, between 1990 and 1994, led the party in the multi-party negotiations that led to the country's first multi-racial elections.

Mandela's zeal to fight for peace and democracy continued after his release.In the year 1991, the ANC held its first national conference in South Africa after its unbanning, and also elected Mandela as President of the organisation. Oliver Tambo, who had led the organisation in exile during Mandela's imprisonment, became National Chairperson.

April 1994 was the lamdmark in the annuls of African history. South Africa's first democratic elections with grant of full enfranchisement was held on 27 April 1994. The ANC won sixty two percent of votes and Mandela was being the leader of the ANC, was inaugurated as the country's first black President on 10 May 1994 .

Since his president ship from May 1994 until June 1999, Mandela presided over the transition from minority rule and apartheid, winning international respect for his promoting national and international reconciliation.

Nelson Mandela was the oldest elected President of South Africa after taking office at the age of 77 in the year 1994. However he has taken the decision not to stand for a second term as President, and took retirement in the year 1999.


Source: netglimse.com