Growing up in an era of oppression and apartheid in South Africa, he dedicated his life to the struggle to establish a democratic society and was a leader in establishing and ensuring social justice.
After nearly 27 years in prison, he became the most famous political figure in the world. After his release he helped prevent civil war and became South Africa’s first black president.
Mandela was born on July 18, 1918, into a royal family of the Thembu tribe in the small village of Mweso, Transkei, South Africa.
He received the first formal education in his family when he was sent to the local missionary primary school at the age of about seven. It was there that a teacher named him ‘Nelson’, in keeping with the school’s custom of naming all students ‘Christian’.
Mandela was entrusted to the Thembu regent at the age of 12 when his father died and prepared for a role in tribal leadership. His personality, values and political views were formed in the royal residence of Thembu.
Hearing the stories of his ancestors’ struggles during the war of resistance against colonialism, he could not accept the discrimination of South Africans and he dreamed of contributing to his people’s struggle for freedom and made desperate efforts to realize it.
He went on to attend Clarkbury Boarding Institute and Healdtown College, a Methodist secondary school. While in Healdtown, the 19-year-old learned of the existence of the African National Congress (ANC), which sought to protect voting and land rights for black Africans.
In 1939, Mandela entered the elite University of Fort Hare, South Africa’s only Western-style institution of higher learning for blacks, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree.
However, the following year he and several other students, including his friend and future business partner Oliver Tambo, were expelled for boycotting against university policy, and he returned to his village in disgrace.
He went on to study law at the University of the Witwatersrand, the only native African student, and although he never graduated, he entered politics while studying. He began attending ANC meetings in 1941, joined the party in 1944 and worked with fellow members to establish the more radical ANC Youth League.
In 1948, the extremist National Party was elected to government and quickly began implementing apartheid policies. Racial segregation widened and the rights of black South Africans came under constant attack. Mandela’s commitment to politics and the ANC strengthened after the election.
In 1950 he became a member of the national committee, as well as president of the Youth League, and two years later he became deputy president of the ANC. Gaining increasing influence, Mandela and his activists advocated direct nonviolent action against apartheid, such as boycotts, mass civil disobedience, and strikes.
In 1952, Mandela and Tambo opened South Africa’s first black law firm, which offered free or low-cost legal advice to people affected by apartheid laws. The same year he was elected National Volunteers-in-Chief of the ‘Defence Campaign’.
Mandela travelled the country, protesting against discriminatory laws. As a result, he was arrested, convicted and declared a ‘prohibited’ person. He was banned from attending rallies and confined to Johannesburg for six months.
In December 1956, Mandela and 155 other activists were arrested and tried for treason. The trial lasted nearly five years.
After the first divorce, in 1958 he married social activist Winnie Madikizela, who became an active member of the ANC.
Although all the accused were acquitted in 1961, tensions within the ANC rose in the meantime. A militant group split in 1959 to form the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC), and the following year, police opened fire on peaceful black protesters in the town of Sharpeville, killing 69. After the horror of the massacre, anger and riots spread across the country and the apartheid government banned both the ANC and PAC.
He was convinced that armed struggle was inevitable rather than passive resistance. Dubbed the ‘Black Pimpernel’ because of his daring public presence and successful evasion of the police, he helped establish the military wing ‘Spear of the Nation’ (MK).
Spear of the Nation launched its first offensive in 1961. Although no casualties were accidental or incidental, as there was no deliberate killing policy, 200 ‘symbolic’ acts of sabotage between 1961 and 1964 were intended to ‘stun’ the government. Power lines, railways and government buildings were blown up.
In 1962, Mandela secretly went abroad for military training and was arrested after returning to South Africa for illegally leaving the country. Imprisonment for five years.
On October 9, 1963, Mandela and ten others were arrested and charged with sabotage, treason, and conspiracy in a trial known as the Rivonia Trial. Mandela and the other defendants were defended from the gallows and received life sentences instead. The trial lasted for eight months and garnered significant international attention.
Mandela spent the first eighteen years of his sentence in the brutal and notorious Robben Island prison, a former leper colony off the coast of Cape Town. Often in solitary confinement, his tiny cell had no proper bed and he often had to work hard in a nearby quarry.
Prisoners were subjected to inhumane punishments regularly. Despite such odds, Mandela earned a law degree from the University of London, acted as a mentor to his fellow prisoners, and secretly began writing his autobiography while in prison. He refused three parole offers throughout his imprisonment.
In 1982, Mandela was transferred to Pollsmoor Prison on the mainland, where he engaged in dialogue with the government, and in 1988 he was placed under house arrest at Victor Verster Prison. The following year, newly elected FW de Klerk broke with his party’s conservatives, calling for a non-apartheid South Africa and lifted the ban on the ANC. On February 11, 1990, Clark ordered Mandela’s release.
Mandela was released after 27 years in prison. After violence and fighting between rivals in the 1990s, Mandela called for calm and reconciliation rather than vengeance. President Clark repealed apartheid laws in 1991, and although political instability prevailed, ongoing negotiations resulted in Mandela and Clark receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993. The following year, South Africa held its first non-apartheid, democratic assembly.
In the election, where Mandela voted for the first time in his life, Mandela was sworn in as the first black president.
He retired in 2004, although his charity work continued tirelessly, including for peace, children and the fight against HIV and AIDS. He died on 5 December 2013 at the age of 95 at his home in Johannesburg. He was loved and admired all over the world for all his extraordinary works.
To read more blogs, click here.
Writer
Tarin Alam Sorna
Intern, Content writing department
YSSE