South Africa

About the history and politics of South Africa.



NELSON MANDELA

Date of Birth: 18 July 1918
Place of birth: Transkei, South Africa

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela is the son of one of South Africa's leading dignitaries, the clan chief Henry Mandela of the Tembu tribe. From a young age, as a law student, he was a part of the opposition to the white minority government.

He joined in 1942 the African National Congress (ANC) and two years later together with Walter Sisulu, Oliver Tambo and the founder of associated youth organization.

After the election of 1948 and the victory of the Anglo-Boer-dominated National Party, which advocated a policy of racial segregation, Mandela was a leading role in the 1952 Defiance Campaign of the ANC. In 1955 he took part in the People's Congress, promoted the adoption of the Freedom Charter to the basic program of the anti-apartheid movement.

He participated in non-violent mass protests, and was eventually acquitted all defendants in the mammoth Treason Trial of 1956-1961. After the shooting of unarmed demonstrators in Sharpeville and the banning of anti-apartheid groups in March 1960 he and his colleagues accepted the armed struggle.

In 1961, he became the commander of the armed wing of the ANC, the Umkhonto we Sizwe. In August of the following year he was arrested and he was imprisoned for five years. In June 1964, a sentence of life imprisonment for planning armed action.

The first years of his imprisonment he spent in the notorious Robben Iceland prison, a high security prison on a small, coastal barrier island of Cape Town. In April 1964, he was finally transferred to Pollsmoor Prison in Cape Town and in December 1966 the Victor Verster prison near Paarl, from where he eventually obtained the release.

During his time in prison he struck out repeatedly offers his sentence in return for the acceptance of Bantustan (homeland) policy to settle by recognizing the independence of the Transkei region and the commitment there to stay. Among the enemies of apartheid in South Africa and around the world, he became a cultural icon for freedom and equality.

Mandela remained in prison until February 1990, he could finally leave through an ongoing ANC campaign and international pressure. On 2 February 1990 South African President FW de Klerk lifted the ban on the ANC and other anti-apartheid organizations. Mandela was born on 11 February 1990 from the Victor Verster jail.

He and President de Klerk, who did much to disarm the apartheid organizations in 1993 shared the Nobel Peace Prize. In his autobiography, published in 1994, "The Long Walk to Freedom", Mandela revealed nothing about the alleged involvement de Klerk in the violence of the period 1960 until 1990. Also, the role of his ex-wife Winnie Mandela in that bloodshed years went unmentioned. However, he discussed these issues later in "Mandela: The Authorised Biography" (2008).

After his release, Mandela once again took over the managing committee of the ANC and led them well, while the multi-party talks to. These discussions eventually led to South Africa's first multi-ethnic and democratic elections, won by the ANC. From 1994 to 1999 he was the first black president of South Africa and headed in this function and the abolition of apartheid minority regime. His leadership in this time has been widely recognized, even by his former white counterparts in South Africa.

Mandela was married three times, including 38 years with the politician Winnie Madikizela. At its 60th He eventually married Graca Machel birthday.

After his resignation as president in 1999 Mandela was an advocate of a number of social and human rights organizations. In early 2003, he declared the United States to "a threat to world peace" and criticized the U.S. and the UK because of its Iraq policy.

Continue he is busy traveling the world to give lectures and conduct conferences. He was also honored with a variety of prices, including the 2006 Amnesty International awarded him price "Ambassador of Conscience" is one next to the Nobel Prize. Moreover, he argued forcefully to ensure that the FIFA World Cup 2010 made its way to South Africa.