Former South African President
and anti-Apartheid icon, Dr.
Nelson Mandela may have
finally passed on, a senior
African National Congress (ANC)
leader confirmed to
FrontiersNews, in South Africa, a
short while ago.
The 95 years old Mandela,
popularly known as Mandiba,
has been in critical condition for
months and had at several times
been on life support.
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela is a
South African anti-apartheid
revolutionary and politician who
served as President of South
Africa from 1994 to 1999.
Brief Biography
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.
He won the following awards
during his life time: Nobel Peace
Prize, Bharat Ratna, Time's
Person of the Year,Sakharov
Prize, Presidential Medal of
Freedom, Congressional Gold
Medal, Arthur Ashe Courage
Award, Queen Elizabeth II
Diamond Jubilee Medal, Gandhi
Peace Prize, Philadelphia Liberty
Medal, Jawaharlal Nehru Award
for International Understanding,
Lenin Peace Prize, Queen
Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee
Medal, Nishan-e-Pakistan, Al-
Gaddafi International Prize for
Human Rights, Ambassador of
Conscience Award,International
Simón Bolívar Prize, United
Nations Prize in the Field of
Human Rights, Order of the Nile,
World Citizenship Award, U
Thant Peace Award, Félix
Houphouët-Boigny Peace Prize,
Isitwalandwe Medal,Indira
Gandhi Award for International
Justice and Harmony, Freedom
of the City of Aberdeen, Bruno
Kreisky Award, UNESCO Peace
Prize,Carter–Menil Human
Rights Prize, Bishop John T.
Walker Distinguished
Humanitarian Service Award,
Giuseppe Motta Medal, Ludovic-
Trarieux International Human
Rights Prize, J. William Fulbright
Prize for International
Understanding, W E B DuBois
International Medal, Prince of
Asturias Award for International
Cooperation, Harvard Business
School Statesman of the Year
Award
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