Who is Nelson Madela?

On December 5, 1956 156 activists were arrested and were on trial for treason including Nelson Mandela. “In 1960, the ANC was outlawed. They had to conduct their meetings in secret from then on. Despite that, he would go to other public meetings and speak out against the repressive regime and secretly organise civil action like strikes and sit ins. However, he had to move around a lot because the authorities were looking for him and he kept evading them.”(History’s Heroes). Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress had to hold meetings in secret because they were afraid that they would be caught.

In the 1930’s it was rare for a black South African to attend college. But Mandela not only attended, he graduated, got a degree from law school, and set up a practice in Johannesburg which he hoped could support his small family. Yet apartheid was always a humiliation to him. When the Afrikaner, or Dutch South African, Nationalists came to power in the 1948 election, the segregation habits of the past three hundred years became law. Hoping for a brighter future, Mandela joined the African National Congress (ANC) and became its first Youth Leader.

Nelson grew up farming, herding cattle, and attending a christian elementary school while being apart of an african tribe (Nelson Mandela 1). Mandela grew up around tribal chiefs and elders, that helped him understand african self government and heritage better (Tyle 1). Nelsons tribe name was Rolihlahla but was changed to Nelson by a teacher at the school he attended (Nelson Mandela 1). Rolihlahla translates to one who brings trouble upon himself, which describes the journey through fighting for his rights his whole life (Nelson Mandela 1). When Nelson grew older he renounced his hereditary right to the tribal chiefdom and he entered college hoping to graduate with a law degree. He attended the University college of Fort Hare which he was expelled from in 1940 for leading a student strike and Witwatersrand University. He graduated and received his law degree in 1942 from the University of South Africa (Nelson Mandela 1). Nelson married Evelyn Ntoko Mase in 1944 and had four children which were Thembekile, Makaziwe, Makgatho and another Makaziwe Mandela (Nelson Mandela 1). There is only one of them alive today and there is two of the children with the same name because the first one died at the age of nine months. So they decided to name the younger sister after her. Thembekile died in a car accident at a relatively young age and Makgatho died at the age of 54 from AIDS (Nelson Mandela 1). Nelson Mandela ended up getting divorced from evelyn in 1956 (Nelson Mandela 1). On June fourteenth, 1958 he married Nomzamo Winnie Madikileza, who was a political activist (Nelson Mandela 1). He had two children with his second wife which were Zenani and Zindziswa Mandela (Nelson Mandela 1). He divorced Nomzamo in 1996 and he married his third and final wife in 1998 (Nelson Mandela 1). Her name was Graca Machel and she was a human rights activist along with Nelson Mandela (Nelson Mandela 1). He died at the age of 95 on

6) however, like Gandhi, he encouraged the volunteers not to retaliate. Mandela spent 26 years and 8 months in jail as punishment for his protesting however, he felt that “no sacrifice was too great in the struggle for freedom” (Doc. 9). He spent time in jail with other protesters that all felt that “whatever sentences [they] received, even the death sentence… [their] deaths would not be in vain” (Doc. 9). Freedom for the South African people from apartheid finally came in 1993. To Mandela this was not just the freedom of his people but “the freedom of all people, black and white” (Doc. 12). “South Africa’s New Democracy” rose after years of continuous nonviolence from the populace.

     1942 started Nelson Mandela’s participation in the racial oppression in South Africa. He joined the African National Congress (ANC), led by Anton Lembede. In 1944, Mandela joined up with Walter Sisulu, William Nkomo, Oliver R. Tambo, and Ashby P.

Mandela was arrested in a countrywide police swoop on 5 December 1955, which led to the 1956 Treason Trial (https://www.nelsonmandela.org/content/page/biography, website, Accessed 27/6/16). The trial went on for nearly five years and during this time period led to the militant faction of the ANC to split with the ANC in 1959 to form the Pan Africanist Congress. However on 21 March 1960, police killed 69 unarmed people due to a protest in Sharpeville against the racist laws directed to the black Africans. This protest led to the banning of both the ANC and the PAC which led to the movement losing much of it militant support. Mandela and 155 other activists were acquitted in 1961 and led to Mandela believing that armed struggle was the only way

Mandela was imprisoned in South Africa from 1964-82. During the period of his imprisonment his public reputation grew. Upon his release from prison, he was considered the most prominent leader in black South Africa and he was a strong symbol of resistance in the anti-apartheid movement. Nelson Mandela became South Africa’s president in 1994. His main leadership qualities characteristics were his determination, persistence, focus and will.

Feb. 11, 1990 - South African anti-apartheid activist, Nelson Mandela, is freed after 27 years as a political prisoner in Cape Town, South Africa.

On April 20, 1964, Nelson Mandela delivered a speech to the Supreme Court of South Africa. Mandela was being tried for sabotage, high treason, and a conspiracy to take over the established government; these charges were brought forth during a time a great discrimination against Africans, by whites. Mandela was a strong leader in the drive towards unification and equality, and to this very day is still acknowledged as a driving force to the end of the apartheid in South Africa. Like many great leaders before him Mandela relied greatly on political movement rather than rebellions or any other means of violence, as he described in more detail in this speech. The purpose of this

During the reign of the Apartheid regime Nelson Mandela was born and raised. Nelson Mandela was a South African lawyer and prominent activist. He was also the leader of the African National Congress party and the first black President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. He is known for his devotion and struggle against the Apartheid regime.

He strived to create a free, democratic country for all people. The 1950’s was a dangerous era for black people in South Africa. Mandela, being black, was an activist against the Apartheid state. In 1944, Mandela formed the African National Congress Youth League, an organization that encouraged leadership against the segregation in South Africa. Mandela was charged for treason in 1956, and sent to jail for causing uprisings towards unfair employers. After his trial, there was a protest against inequality towards black people in Sharpeville. Sixty nine black protesters were shot and killed by police. In response to the massacre, Mandela quickly formed a Guerrilla fighting group, called the uMkhonto we Sizwe, or “the spear of the nation.” In 1961, the ANC resorted to violence. The ANC used bombs to destroy government buildings and they killed innocent people. Unfortunately, on June 12, 1964, Nelson Mandela was convicted to a life’s time in jail. Many years later, F.W. de Klerk was elected president of South Africa. He wanted to dismantle the Apartheid, and in 1989 he repealed the ban on the ANC and released Mandela in 1990. Nelson Mandela became the face of social and political activism and advocacy, and was greeted by thousands of supporters who filled the

In 1964, he was found guilty of sabotage and treason and spent three decades in the Robben Island Prison. Mandela turned the prison experience into an ANC school, teaching other blacks about politics and other freedom fighters like Gandhi (Lockard 959). Nelson Mandela fought against apartheid for years with protests/strikes and by leading the ANC.

Why does it matter he was president? Well, during that time, there was a lot of segregation in South Africa, all of the presidents were white before Mandela. There was a huge split between whites and blacks. "White South Africans ruled the country, and black South Africans suffered discrimination in all aspects of their lives.... South Africa adopted an official policy of racial separation called apartheid". Mandela didn't stand for any of this, and decided to do something about it. So whenever he got the chance he would make speeches and speak out for the way they were getting treated. This led to Mandela's arrest, and he still kept aiming for his goal to end the injustice even if he was in harsh conditions or not. In the end he managed to end the policy of apartheid and segregation. He was a great leader because he stayed determined to do what was right in order to help his

Nelson Mandela was a man who learned from his previously violent ways and thoroughly used peace to his advantage in his fight against apartheid, and in the leading of South Africa. Nelson Mandela grew up as a peaceful person and in 1943 went to law school for his degree. While in law school, he got very interested in politics and joined a radical protest group, the African National Congress (The ANC). The ANC got into a lot of trouble with the government for their ideas about a place without apartheid. Mandela was arrested in 1963 and sentenced to life in prison. The government let him out of

From 1964 to 1982, Mandela was kept in a maximum-security prison. In 1988, he was hospitalized for tuberculosis. Amidst increasing global pressures, the South African government under President F.W. de Klerk released Mandela from prison on February 11, 1990. On March 2, Mandela was chosen deputy president of the ANC, and he replaced the president in July 1991. Mandela and de Klerk worked to end apartheid and bring about a peaceful transition to nonracial democracy in South Africa.