Nelson Mandela


Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (born July 18, 1918) is a former President of
South Africa and one of its chief anti-apartheid activists. He spent his
childhood in the Tembu chiefdom before embarking on a career in law.

Early life

Rolihlala Mandela was born in Qunu, in the Transkei. At the age of seven, he
became the first member of his family to attend school, where he was given
the English name "Nelson" by the Methodist teacher. His father died shortly
after, and he attended a Wesleyan mission school next door to the palace of
the Regent. He was initiated, as is the Xhosa custom, at age 16, and
attended Clarkebury Boarding Institute, learning about Western culture. He
completed his Junior Certificate in two years, instead of the usual three.

At age 19, in 1934, he moved to the Wesleyan College in Fort Beaufort, which
most Thembu royalty attended, and took an interest in boxing and running.
After matriculating, he began a BA degree at Fort Hare University, where he
met Oliver Tambo, who became a lifelong friend and colleague.

At the end of his first year he became involved in a boycott of the
Students' Representative Council against the university policies, and was
asked to leave Fort Hare. He left to go to Johannesburg, where he completed
his degree with the University of South Africa (UNISA) via correspondence,
and thereafter began a Law degree at Wits University.

Political activity

It was as a young law student that Mandela became involved in political
opposition to the white minority regime's denial of political, social and
economic rights to South Africa's black majority. Joining the African
National Congress in 1942, he founded its more dynamic Youth League two
years later together with Walter Sisulu, Oliver Tambo and others.

After the 1948 election victory of the Afrikaner-dominated National Party
with its apartheid policy of racial segregation, Mandela was prominent in
the ANC's 1952 Defiance Campaign and the 1955 Congress of the People, whose
adoption of the Freedom Charter provided the fundamental programme of the
anti-apartheid cause.

Initially committed to non-violent mass struggle and acquitted in the
marathon Treason Trial of 1956 - 1961, Mandela and his colleagues accepted
the case for armed action after the shooting of unarmed protesters at
Sharpeville in March 1960 and the subsequent banning of the ANC and other
anti-apartheid groups.

In 1961 he became the commander of the ANC's armed wing Umkhonto we Sizwe
("Spear of the Nation", or MK). In August 1962 he was arrested and jailed
for five years for illegal travel abroad and incitement to strike. In June
1964 he was sentenced again, this time to life imprisonment, for his
involvement in planning armed action.

Refusing an offer of conditional release in return for renouncing armed
struggle (February 1985), Mandela remained in prison until February 1990,
when sustained ANC campaigning and international pressure led to his release
on February 11 on the orders of state president F.W. de Klerk and the ending
of the ban on the ANC. He and de Klerk shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993.

As president of the ANC (July 1991 - December 1997) and first black
president of South Africa (May 1994 - June 1999), Mandela presided over the
transition from minority rule and apartheid, winning international respect
for his advocacy of national and international reconciliation, though the
social achievements of his term of office disappointed some radicals, and
there was criticism of the government's alleged ineffectiveness in stemming
the AIDS crisis.

Mandela was also criticized for his close friendship with dictators such as
Fidel Castro and Moammar_Al_Qadhafi, whom he called his "comrades in arms."
His decision to commit South African troops to defeat the 1998 coup of
Lesotho also remains a topic of some controversy.

Mandela has been married three times. His first marriage to Evelyn Ntoko
Mase ended in divorce in 1957 after 13 years, and his 38-year marriage to
Winnie Madikizela in separation (April 1992) and divorce (March 1996)
fuelled by political estrangement. On his 80th birthday he married Graca
Machel, widow of Samora Machel, the former Mozambican president and ANC ally
killed in an air crash 15 years earlier.

After his retirement as President in 1999, Mandela went on to become an
advocate for a variety of social, and human-rights organizations. He
received many foreign honors, including the Order of St. John from Queen
Elizabeth II and the Presidential Medal of Freedom from George W. Bush.

He is the only other person non-Indian origin (Mother Teresa being the
other) to be awarded the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian award, in 1990.

In February 2003, Mandela declared the United States "a threat to world
peace," and that President Bush wished to "plunge the world into holocaust."
Mandela accused Bush of "ignoring the U.N." and speculated that this was
occuring because the current Secretary General (Kofi Annan of Ghana) was "a
black man."