Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was born in Transkei, South Africa on July 18, 1918. His father was Chief Henry Mandela of the Tembu Tribe. After receiving a primary education at a local mission school, Nelson Mandela was sent to Healdtown, a Wesleyan secondary school of some repute where he matriculated. He then enrolled at the University College of Fort Hare for the Bachelor of Arts Degree. There he was elected onto the Student’s Representative Council. He was suspended from college for joining in a protest boycott. He went to Johannesburg where he completed his BA by correspondence, took articles of clerkship and commenced study for his LLB. He joined the African National Congress in 1944 and was engaged in resistance against the ruling National Party’s apartheid policies after 1948.
At the height of the Second World War a small group of young Africans members of the African National Congress, banded together under the leadership of Anton Lembede. Among them were William Nkomo, Walter Sisulu, Oliver R. Tambo, Ashby P. Mda and Nelson Mandela. against white domination, a nd I h ave fought a gainst b lack domination. I have c herished t he i deal o f a democratic a nd free society in w hich a ll 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 April 20th am prepared to die. Statement from Rivonia Trial
Starting out with 60 members, all of whom were residing around the Witwatersrand, these young people set themselves the formidable task of transforming the ANC into a mass movement, deriving its strength and motivation from the unlettered millions of working people in the towns and countryside, the peasants in the rural areas and the professionals. In September 1944 they came together to found the African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL).
Press Statement Issued on 26 June 1961
Mandela soon impressed his peers by his disciplined work and consistent effort and was elected to the Secretaryship of the Youth League in 1947. By painstaking work, campaigning at the grassroots and through its mouthpiece Inyaniso’ (Truth) the ANCYL was able to canvass support for its policies amongst the ANC membership. Two years later another Youth League leader, Oliver R Tambo became a member of the NEC. T H R E E
During the whole of the fifties, Mandela was the victim of various forms of repression. He was banned, arrested and imprisoned. For much of the latter half of the decade, he was one of the accused in the mammoth Treason Trial, at great cost to his legal practice and his political work. After the Sharpeville Massacre in 1960, the ANC was outlawed, and Mandela, still on trial, was detained. Forced to live apart from his family, moving from place to place to evade detection by the governments ubiquitous informers and police spies, Mandela had to adopt number of disguises. Sometimes dressed as a common laborer, at other times as a chauffeur, his successful evasion of the police earned him the title of the Black Pimpernel.
2 May 1994, ANC Election Victory, Carlton Hotel, Johannesburg,
It was during this time that he, together with other leaders of the ANC constituted a new specialized section of the liberation movement, Umkhonto weSizwe, as an armed nucleus with a view to preparing for armed struggle. At the Rivonia trial, Mandela explained: “It was only when all else had failed, when all channels of peaceful protest had been barred to us, that the decision was made to embark on violent forms of political struggle, and to form Umkhonto we Sizwe...the Government had left us no other choice.”
In 1961 Umkhonto we Sizwe was formed, with Mandela as its commander-in-chief. In 1962 Mandela left the country unlawfully and travelled abroad for several months. In Ethiopia he addressed the Conference of the Pan African Freedom Movement of East and Central Africa, and was warmly received by senior political leaders in several countries. During this trip Mandela, anticipating an intensification of the armed struggle, began to arrange guerrilla training for members of Umkhonto we Sizwe. Mandela prefaced this challenge with affirmation: “I detest racialism, because I regard it as a barbaric thing, whether it comes from a black man or a white man.”
Mandela was sentenced in 1962 to five years imprisonment with hard labor. In 1963, when many fellow leaders of the ANC and the Umkhonto we Sizwe were arrested, Mandela was brought to stand trial with them for plotting to overthrow the government by violence. His statement from the dock received considerable international publicity. F I V E
On June 12, 1964, eight of the accused, including Mandela, were sentenced to life imprisonment. From 1964 to 1982, he was incarcerated at Robben Island Prison, off Cape Town; thereafter, he was at Pollsmoor Prison, nearby on the mainland. During his years in prison, Nelson Mandela’s reputation grew steadily. He was widely accepted as the most significant black leader in South Africa and became a potent symbol of resistance as the anti-apartheid movement gathered strength. He consistently refused to compromise his political position to obtain his freedom. Nelson Mandela was released on February 18, 1990. After his release, he plunged himself wholeheartedly into his life’s work, striving to attain the goals he and others had set out almost four decades earlier. In 1991, at the first national conference of the ANC held inside South Africa after the organization had been banned in 1960, Mandela was elected President of the ANC while his lifelong friend and colleague, Oliver Tambo, became the organization’s National Chairperson.
In a life that symbolizes the triumph of the human spirit over man’s inhumanity to man, Nelson Mandela accepted the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of all South Africans who suffered and sacrificed so much to bring peace to our land.
December 10, 1993, Acceptance Speech, Nobel Prize Award Ceremony, Oslo, Norway.
Mandela has honorary degrees from more than 50 international universities and is chancellor of the University of the North. He was inaugurated as the first democratically elected State President of South Africa on 10 May 1994 - June 1999.
and adolescents in every part of t he world can name their favorite soft drink running s hoe o r sports we are able t o ensure that they will have access to the information they need to stay healthy. In a w orld t hat s o often decries the apathy o f its youth we c an open our arms f or t he m illions o f adolescents eager to contribute their new ideas and bounding enthusiasm. And s urely we can stand b y the commitments that nearly every government i n the world has made t o children in signing t he Convention on the Rights of the Child. Johannesburg, 6 May 2000,Statement on Building a Global Partnership for Children.
Nelson Mandela retired from Public life in June 1999. He currently resides in his birth place, Qunu, Transkei. S E V E N
Long walk, long walk to freedom It’s a long walk, long walk to freedom
It’s a long walk, long walk to freedom It’s a long walk, long walk to freedom Freedom rises from the killing floor No lock of iron or rivet can restrain the door And no kind of army can hope to win a war It’s like trying to stop the rain or still the lion’s roar Long walk, long walk to freedom It’s a long walk, long walk to freedom It’s like trying to stop the whirlwind scattering seeds and spores Like trying to stop the tin cans rapping out jailhouse semaphore They know when your hands are manacled its your spirit that gets raw It’s not the small little patch of sky you see, as if your visions soar
When freedom arise from the killing floor No lock of iron can restrain the door Can’t stop the rain or lions that roar Scatter seeds and some spore Smart talkers can visions of poor Til we see we’ve come to some great red door Looking at the future, what is in store What’s in store is what we got What’s in store is what we got If the cameras of kind won’t skip the human core In townships of humanity there would be no poor From where the rock is heavy comes the purest ore At first six waves might break the bay, the seventh breaks the shore It’s a long road to freedom It’s a long road to freedom It’s a long road to freedom N I N E
Durban 14 July 2000 Closing Address at the 13th International AIDS Conference
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