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Biography Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela was born in 1918 in South Africa and served as the first democratically elected president from 1994 to 1999. He helped found the ANC Youth League in 1944 and led non-violent protests against apartheid in the 1950s and 1960s. After the Sharpeville massacre in 1960, Mandela went underground and formed the military wing of the ANC, launching sabotage campaigns against the government. He was arrested in 1962, convicted of sabotage and sentenced to life imprisonment. Mandela was released in 1990 and shortly after agreed to suspend armed struggle, going on to lead South Africa's transition to democracy through peaceful means.

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7K views2 pages

Biography Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela was born in 1918 in South Africa and served as the first democratically elected president from 1994 to 1999. He helped found the ANC Youth League in 1944 and led non-violent protests against apartheid in the 1950s and 1960s. After the Sharpeville massacre in 1960, Mandela went underground and formed the military wing of the ANC, launching sabotage campaigns against the government. He was arrested in 1962, convicted of sabotage and sentenced to life imprisonment. Mandela was released in 1990 and shortly after agreed to suspend armed struggle, going on to lead South Africa's transition to democracy through peaceful means.

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Nur Azizah
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NELSON MANDELA’S BIOGRAPHY

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was born


at Qunu, near Umtata on 18 July 1918.He
served as President of South Africa from 1994
to 1999, and was the first South African
president to be elected in a fully representative
democratic election.
His father, Henry Mgadla Mandela, was
chief councillor to Thembuland's acting
paramount chief David Dalindyebo. When his
father died, Mandela became the chief's ward
and was groomed for the chieftainship.
Mandela matriculated at Healdtown Methodist
Boarding School and then started a BA degree
at Fort Hare. As an SRC member he
participated in a student strike and
was expelled, along with the late Oliver
Tambo, in 1940. He completed his degree by correspondence from Johannesburg, did articles of
clerkship and enrolled for an LLB at the University of the Witwatersrand.
In 1944 he helped found the ANC Youth League, whose Programme of Action was adopted
by the ANC in 1949.Mandela was elected national volunteer-in-chief of the 1952 Defiance
Campaign. He travelled the country organising resistance to discriminatory legislation.He was given
a suspended sentence for his part in the campaign. Shortly afterwards a banning order confined him
to Johannesburg for six months. During this period he formulated the "M Plan", in terms of which
ANC branches were broken down into underground cells.
By 1952 Mandela and Tambo had opened the first black legal firm in the country, and
Mandela was both Transvaal president of the ANC and deputy national president.A petition by the
Transvaal Law Society to strike Mandela off the roll of attorneys was refused by the Supreme
Court.In the 'fifties, after being forced through constant bannings to resign officially from the ANC,
Mandela analysed the Bantustan policy as a political swindle. He predicted mass removals, political
persecutions and police terror.
For the second half of the 'fifties, he was one of the accused in the Treason Trial. With Duma
Nokwe, he conducted the defence.When the ANC was banned after the Sharpeville massacre in
1960, he was detained until 1961 when he went underground to lead a campaign for a new
national convention.Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), the military wing of the ANC, was born the same
year. Under his leadership it launched a campaign of sabotage against government and economic
installations.In 1962 Mandela left the country for military training in Algeria and to arrange training
for other MK members.
On his return he was arrested for leaving the country illegally and for incitement to strike. He
conducted his own defence. He was convicted and jailed for five years in November 1962. While
serving his sentence, he was charged, in the Rivonia trial, with sabotage and sentenced to life
imprisonment.
A decade before being imprisoned, Mandela had spoken out against the introduction of Bantu
Education, recommending that community activists "make every home, every shack or rickety
structure a centre of learning".Robben Island, where he was imprisoned, became a centre for
learning, and Mandela was a central figure in the organised political education classes.In prison
Mandela never compromised his political principles and was always a source of strength for the other
prisoners.During the 'seventies he refused the offer of a remission of sentence if he recognised
Transkei and settled there.In the 'eighties he again rejected PW Botha's offer of freedom if he
renounced violence.
It is significant that shortly after his release on Sunday 11 February 1990, Mandela and his
delegation agreed to the suspension of armed struggle.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. In 1999
Mandela retired from active political duty. He still works with health and educational issues through
the Nelson Mandela Foundation and the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund.

Source:
http://southafrica.co.za/about-nelson-mandela.html
https://www.sowetanlive.co.za/news/south-africa/2013-12-06-a-brief-biography-of-nelson-mandela/

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