Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela (born 18 July 1918) was the first President of South Africa to be elected in fully-representative democratic elections. Before his pres idency he was a prominent anti-apartheid activist and leader of the African National Congress. He was tried and imprisoned for his involvement in unde rground armed resistance activities. The armed struggle was, for Mandela, a necessary last resort; he had remained steadfastly committed to non-violen ce.[1] Through his 27-year imprisonment, much of it spent in a cell on Robb en Island, Mandela became the most widely-known figure in the struggle agai nst South African apartheid. Although the apartheid regime and nations symp athetic to it considered him and the ANC to be communists and terrorists, t he armed struggle was an integral part of the overall campaign against apar theid. The switch in policy to that of reconciliation, which Mandela pursue d upon his release in 1990, facilitated a peaceful transition to fully-repr esentative democracy in South Africa. Having received over a hundred awards over four decades, Mandela is curren tly a celebrated elder statesman who continues to voice his opinion on top ical issues. In South Africa he is often known as Madiba, an honorary titl e adopted by elders of Mandela's clan. The title has come to be synonymous with Nelson Mandela. Many South Africans also refer to him reverently as 'mkhulu' (grandfather).

Early life The young Mandela was born to a Thembu family in the small village of Mve zo in the Mthatha district, capital of the Transkeian Territories of the Cape Province of the Union kof South Africa. Mandela's father, Gadla Henr y Mphakanyiswa, was a member for the royal council of the Thembu people, a position for which he was groomed from birth and which Mandela was also destined to inherit. Mandela's father was instrumental in the ascension to the Thembu throne of Jongintaba Dalindyebo, who would later return thi s favour by informally adopting Mandela upon Gadla's death. In total, Man dela's father had four wives, with whom he fathered a total of thirteen c

hildren (four boys and nine girls). Mandela was born to Gadla's third wif e ('third' by a complex royal ranking system), Nosekeni Fanny in whose um zi or homestead Mandela spent much of his childhood. His name Rolihlahla means one who brings trouble to himself At seven years of age, Rolihlahla Mandela became the first member of his fa mily to attend a school, where he was given the name "Nelson", after the Br itish admiral Horatio Nelson, a Methodist teacher. His father died of tuber culosis when Rolihlahla was nine, and the Regent, Jongintaba, became his gu ardian. Mandela attended a Wesleyan mission school next door to the palace of the regent. Following Thembu custom, he was initiated at age sixteen, an d attended Clarkebury Boarding Institute, learning about Western culture. H e completed his Junior Certificate in two years, instead of the usual three . At age nineteen, in 1937, Mandela moved to Healdtown, the Wesleyan college in Fort Beaufort, which most Thembu royalty attended, and took an interes t in boxing and running. After matriculating, he started to study for a B. A. at the Fort Hare University, where he met Oliver Tambo, and the two bec ame lifelong friends and colleagues. At the end of his first year, he became involved in a boycott of the Studen ts' Representative Council against the university policies, and was asked t o leave Fort Hare. Shortly after this, Jongintaba announced to Mandela and Justice (the Regent's own son and heir to the throne) that he had arranged marriages for both of them. Both young men were displeased by this and rath er than marry, they elected to flee the comforts of the Regent's estate to the only place they could: Johannesburg. Upon his arrival in Johannesburg, Mandela initially found employment as a guard at a mine. However, this was quickly terminated after the employer learned that Mandela was the Regent's runaway adopted son. He then managed to find work as an articled clerk at a law firm thanks to connections with his friend and fellow lawyer Walter S isulu. While working, he completed his degree at the University of South Af rica (UNISA) via correspondence, after which he started with his law studie s at the University of Witwatersrand. During this time Mandela lived in a t ownship called Alexandra.

Political activity At a South African Communist Party rally with Joe Slovo dancing to the Be e Gees.After the 1948 election victory of the Afrikaner-dominated Nationa l Party with its apartheid policy of racial segregation, Mandela was prom inent in the ANC's 1952 Defiance Campaign and the 1955 Congress of the Pe ople, whose adoption of the Freedom Charter provided the fundamental prog ram of the anti-apartheid cause. During this time, Mandela and fellow law yer Oliver Tambo operated the law firm of Mandela and Tambo, providing fr ee or low-cost legal counsel to many blacks who would otherwise have been without legal representation.

Initially committed to non-violent mass struggle, Mandela was arrested wit h 150 others on 5 December 1956, and charged with treason. The marathon Tr eason Trial of 195661 followed, and all were acquitted. From 195259 the ANC experienced disruption as a new class of Black activists (Africanists) emerged in the townships demanding more drastic steps against the Nationa l Party regime. The ANC leadership of Albert Luthuli, Oliver Tambo and Wal ter Sisulu felt not only that events were moving too fast, but also that t heir leadership was challenged. They consequently bolstered their position by alliances with small White, Coloured and Indian political parties in a n attempt to appear to have a wider appeal than the Africanists. The 1955 Freedom Charter Kliptown Conference was ridiculed by the Africanists for a llowing the 100,000-strong ANC to be relegated to a single vote in a Congr ess alliance, in which four secretary-generals of the five participating p arties were members of the secretly reconstituted South African Communist Party (SACP), strongly adhering to the Moscow line.

In 1959, the ANC lost its most militant support when most of the African ists, with financial support from Ghana and significant political suppor t from the Transvaal-based Basotho, broke away to form the Pan Africanis t Congress (PAC) under Robert Sobukwe and Potlako Leballo. Following the massacre of PAC supporters at Sharpeville, in March 1960, and the subse quent banning of PAC and ANC, the ANC/SACP followed the African Resistan ce Movement (renegade liberals) and PAC into armed resistance. Luthuli, criticised for inertia, was peripheralised, and the ANC/SACP used the Al l-In African Conference of 1961, where all parties met to decide a joint strategy, for Mandela to issue a dramatic call to arms, announcing the

formation of Umkhonto we Sizwe, modeled on the Jewish guerrilla movement , Irgun, and commanded by Mandela with SACP Jewish activists Denis Goldb erg, Lionel "Rusty" Bernstein, and Harold Wolpe.

Mandela then left the country secretly and met African leaders in Algeria a nd elsewhere. Startled to discover the depth of support for the PAC and the widespread belief that the ANC was a small Xhosa tribal association manipu lated by White communists, Mandela returned to South Africa determined to r eassert the African nationalist element in the Congress Alliance. It is wid ely suspected that a heated discussion with the communist leaders over this issue led to his subsequent betrayal and arrest near Howick.[weasel words] Mandela glossed over these events in his autobiography but at least one pr ominent SACP activist associated with him at that time was cold-shouldered on his return to South Africa.[verification needed]

Arrest and imprisonment In 1961, Mandela became the leader of the ANC's armed wing, Umkhonto we Si zwe (translated as Spear of the Nation, also abbreviated MK), which he cofounded. He co-ordinated a terrorist campaign against military, government and civilian targets, and made plans for a possible guerrilla war if terr orism failed to end apartheid. A few decades later, MK did indeed wage a g uerrilla war against the regime, especially during the 1980s. Mandela also raised funds for MK abroad, and arranged for paramilitary training, visit ing various African governments. On 5 August 1962, he was arrested after living on the run for seventeen mo nths and was imprisoned in the Johannesburg Fort. According to William Blu m, a former U.S. State Department employee, the CIA tipped off the police as to Mandela's whereabouts. Three days later, the charges of leading work ers to strike in 1961 and leaving the country illegally were read to him d uring a court appearance. On 25 October 1962, Mandela was sentenced to fiv e years in prison. Two years later on 11 June 1964, a verdict had been rea ched concerning his previous engagement in the African National Congress ( ANC). While Mandela was in prison, police arrested prominent ANC leaders on 11

July 1963, at Liliesleaf Farm, Rivonia, north of Johannesburg. Mandela was brought in, and at the Rivonia Trial, Mandela, Ahmed Kathrada, Walte r Sisulu, Govan Mbeki, Andrew Mlangeni, Raymond Mhlaba, Elias Motsoaledi , Walter Mkwayi (who escaped during trial), Arthur Goldreich (who escape d from prison before trial), Denis Goldberg and Lionel "Rusty" Bernstein were charged by Percy Yutar with the capital crimes of sabotage and cri mes which were equivalent to treason, but easier for the government to prove. In his statement from the dock at the opening of the defence case in the tr ial on 20 April 1964 at Pretoria Supreme Court, Mandela laid out the clarit y of reasoning in the ANC's choice to use violence as a tactic. His stateme nt revealed how the ANC had used peaceful means to resist apartheid for yea rs until the Sharpeville Massacre. That event coupled with the referendum e stablishing the Republic of South Africa and the declaration of a state of emergency along with the banning of the ANC made it clear that their only c hoice was to resist through acts of sabotage. Doing otherwise would have be en tantamount to unconditional surrender. Mandela went on to explain how th ey developed the Manifesto of Umkhonto on 16 December 1961 intent on exposi ng the failure of the National Party's policies after the economy would be threatened by foreigners' unwillingness to risk investing in the country. H e closed his statement with these words: During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to the struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against bl ack domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society i n which all 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 am prepared to die.[1] Bram Fischer, Vernon Berrange, Joel Joffe, Arthur Chaskalson and George Bi zos were part of the defence team that represented the accused. Harold Han son was brought in at the end of the case to plead mitigation. All except Rusty Bernstein were found guilty, but they escaped the gallows and were s entenced to life imprisonment on 12 June 1964. Charges included involvemen t in planning armed action, in particular four charges of sabotage, which Mandela admitted to, and a conspiracy to help other countries invade South Africa, which Mandela denied.

Nelson Mandela was imprisoned on Robben Island where he was destined to r emain for the next eighteen of his twenty-seven years in prison. It was t here he wrote the bulk of his autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom. Howeve r, Mandela did not reveal anything about the alleged complicity of Freder ik de Klerk in the violence of the eighties and nineties, or the role of his ex-wife Winnie Mandela in that bloodshed. However, he later co-operat ed with his friend the journalist Anthony Sampson who discussed those iss ues in Mandela: The Authorised Biography. While in prison, Mandela was ab le to maintain contact with the ANC, which published a statement from him on 10 June 1980, reading in part:

Unite! Mobilize! Fight on! Between the anvil of united mass action and t he hammer of the armed struggle we shall crush apartheid![ Refusing an offer of conditional release in return for renouncing armed st ruggle in February 1985, Mandela remained in prison until sustained ANC an d international campaigning with the resounding slogan Free Nelson Mandela ! culminated in his release in February 1990. State President Frederik de Klerk simultaneously ordered Mandela's release, and the ending of the ban on the ANC. On the day of his release, 11 February 1990, Mandela made a speech to the nation. While declaring his commitment to peace and reconciliation with th e country's white minority, he made it clear that the ANC's armed struggle was not yet over: Our resort to the armed struggle in 1960 with the formation of the mili tary wing of the ANC (Umkhonto we Sizwe) was a purely defensive action agai nst the violence of apartheid. The factors which necessitated the armed str uggle still exist today. We have no option but to continue. We express the hope that a climate conducive to a negotiated settlement would be created s oon, so that there may no longer be the need for the armed struggle. But he also said his main focus was to bring peace to the black majority and give them the right to vote in both national and local elections.

ANC presidency and presidency of South Africa South Africa's first democratic elections in which full enfranchisement was granted were held on 27 April 1994. The ANC won the majority in the electi on, and Mandela, as leader of the ANC, was inaugurated as the country's fir st black State President, with the National party's de Klerk as his deputy president in the Government of National Unity. As President from May 1994 until June 1999, Mandela presided over the trans ition from minority rule and apartheid, winning international respect for h is advocacy of national and international reconciliation. However, his administration attracted some criticism, particularly when So uth Africa invaded Lesotho in September 1998 while he was still President. Nelson Mandela encouraged non-white South Africans to get behind the prev iously hated South African national rugby union team as South Africa host ed the 1995 Rugby World Cup. After the Springboks won an epic final over New Zealand, Nelson Mandela wearing a Springbok shirt presented the troph y to captain Francois Pienaar, an Afrikaner. This was widely seen as a ma jor step in the reconciliation of white and black South Africans. Certain interest groups were also disappointed with the social achievements of his term of office, particularly the government's ineffectiveness in stem ming the AIDS crisis. After his retirement, Mandela admitted that he may have failed his country by not paying more attention to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. He has taken many opportunities since to highlight this South African tragedy.

International diplomacy Nelson Mandela negotiated with Colonel Muammar Gaddafi to help bring abou t the Lockerbie trial.President Mandela took a particular interest in hel ping to resolve the long-running dispute between Libya on the one hand, a nd the United States and Britain on the other, over bringing to trial the two Libyans who were accused of sabotaging Pan Am Flight 103 on 21 Decem ber 1988 with the loss of 270 lives. In November 1994, Mandela offered So

uth Africa as a neutral venue for the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing trial but the offer was rejected by British Prime Minister John Major. A further t hree years elapsed until Mandela's offer was repeated to Major's successo r, Tony Blair, when the president visited London in July 1997. Later the same year, at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) at Edi nburgh in October 1997, Mandela warned: "No one nation should be complain ant, prosecutor and judge." A compromise solution was then agreed for a t rial to be held at Camp Zeist in the Netherlands, governed by Scots law, and President Mandela began negotiations with Colonel Gaddafi for the han dover of the two accused (Megrahi and Fhimah) in April 1999. At the end of their nine-month trial, the verdict was announced on 31 Janua ry 2001. Fhimah was acquitted but Megrahi was convicted and sentenced to 27 years in a Scottish jail. Megrahi's appeal was turned down in March 2002, and former president Mandela went to visit him in Barlinnie prison on 10 Ju ne 2002. "Megrahi is all alone," Mandela told a packed press conference in the prison's visitors room. "He has nobody he can talk to. It is psychologi cal persecution that a man must stay for the length of his long sentence al l alone." Mandela added: "It would be fair if he were transferred to a Musl im country and there are Muslim countries which are trusted by the west. It will make it easier for his family to visit him if he is in a place like the kingdom of Morocco, Tunisia or Egypt." Megrahi was subsequently moved to Greenock jail and is no longer in solitary confinement. His case is curr ently being reviewed by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission, whic h is expected to rule that Megrahi's case should be referred back to the Sc ottish High Court of Justiciary for a fresh appeal. Marriages Mandela has been married three times. His first marriage was to Evelyn Nto ko Mase who, like Mandela, was also from what later became the Transkei ar ea of South Africa, although they actually met in Johannesburg. The couple had two sons, Madiba (Thembi) and Makgatho, and two daughters, both named Makaziwe. Their first daughter died aged nine months, and they named thei r second daughter in her honor. All their children were educated at the Wa terford Kamhlaba. The couple broke up in 1957 after 13 years, divorcing un der the multiple strains of his constant absences, devotion to revolutiona ry agitation, and the fact she was a Jehovah's Witness, a religion which p rofesses political neutrality.

Mandela's second wife, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, also came from the Transk ei area, although they, too, met in Johannesburg, where she was the city's first black social worker. Later, Winnie would be deeply torn by family dis cord which mirrored the country's political strife; while her husband was s erving a life sentence on the Robben Island prison for terrorism and treaso n, her father became the agriculture minister in the Transkei. The marriage ended in separation (April 1992) and divorce (March 1996), fuelled by poli tical estrangement. On his 80th birthday, he married Graa Machel, widow of Samora Machel, th e former Mozambican president and ANC ally killed in an air crash 12 year s earlier. Retirement Former United States Vice President Al Gore holds hands with Mandela.Afte r his retirement as President and terrorist in 1999, Mandela went on to b ecome an advocate for a variety of social and human rights organizations. He received many foreign honours, including the Order of Merit and the O rder of St. John from Queen Elizabeth II and the Presidential Medal of Fr eedom from George W. Bush. As an example of his popular acclaim, in his tour of Canada in 1998, he included a speaking engagement in SkyDome in the city of Toronto where h e spoke to 45,000 school children who greeted him with intense adulation . In 2001, he was the first living person to be made an honorary Canadia n citizen (the only previous recipient, Raoul Wallenberg, was awarded ho norary citizenship posthumously). Although the government of Canada had hoped that the vote to make Mandela a citizen would be unanimous, this w as not possible due to Canadian Alliance MP Rob Anders who stood up in t he Canadian House of Commons and claimed Mandela was a former "communist and a terrorist".[2] While in Canada, he was also made an honorary Comp anion of the Order of Canada, one of the few foreigners to receive Canad a's highest honour. In summer 2001, Mandela was diagnosed and treated for prostate cancer. He was treated with a seven week course of radiation treatment.[3]

In 2003, Mandela attacked the foreign policy of the George W. Bush admini stration in a number of speeches, insinuating President Bush may have bee n motivated by racism in not following the UN and its secretary-general K ofi Annan on the issue of the War in Iraq. "Is it because the secretary-g eneral of the United Nations is now a black man? They never did that when secretary-generals were white," Mandela said.[4] The comments caused a r are moment of controversy and criticism for Mandela, even among some supp orters.

Mandela at 46664 Arctic in TromsLater that same year, he lent his suppor t to the 46664 AIDS fundraising campaign, named after his prison number. In June 2004, at age 85, Mandela announced that he would be retiring from public life. His health had been declining, and he wanted to enjoy more time with his family. He has made an exception, however, for his commitme nt to the fight against AIDS. In July 2004, he flew to Bangkok to speak a t the XV International AIDS Conference. His son, Makgatho Mandela, died o f AIDS on 6 January 2005. Mandela has also expressed his support for the international Make Povert y History movement of which the ONE Campaign is a part. On 23 July 2004, the city of Johannesburg bestowed its highest honour on Mandela by granting him the freedom of the city at a ceremony in Orlando, Soweto. Today, Mandela remains a key figure to strong educational organisations t hat hold his ideals strongly of international understanding and peace, li ke the United World Colleges and the Round Square. For the IOC Celebrate Humanity Campaign for 2006 Winter Olympics Mandela appears in a spot.[5]

Orders and decorations Amnesty International Ambassador of Conscience Award (2006) Nobel Peace Prize (1993) Honorary Companion of The Order of Canada Order of St. John Presidential Medal of Freedom Lenin Peace Prize (1990) Bharat Ratna (1990) Order of Merit (1995) Freedom of the City of Johannesburg (2004)

Trivia In the final scene of the 1992 American film Malcolm X, Mandela -- recently released after 27 years of political imprisonment -- appears as a schoolte acher in a classroom in Soweto. He recites a portion of one of Malcolm X's most famous speeches, including the following sentence: "We declare our rig ht on this earth to be a human being, to be respected as a human being, to be given the rights of a human being in this society, on this earth, in thi s day, which we intend to bring into existence . . . ." The final phrase of that sentence is "by any means necessary." Mandela informed director Spike Lee that he could not utter this phrase on camera, stating that the aparth eid government would somehow use it against him if he did. Lee understandin gly obliged, and the final seconds of the film feature black-and-white foot age of the real Malcolm X speaking the words "by any means necessary". Queen and Paul Rodgers performed a song titled "Say It's Not True" in th eir concert Return Of The Champions, which was written for Nelson Mandel a's 46664 campaign. It was written by Roger Taylor, the Queen drummer. The famous Ska band The Specials, best known for their Two-Tone records p romoting racial unity in England recorded a song "Free Nelson Mandela." I n 1984, the Student Union of Wadham College, Oxford passed a motion to en d every college 'bop' (disco) with this song in memory of Nelson Mandela, a tradition that continues despite his release. Mandela is known for his fondness of Batik textiles. He is often seen wearin g Batik, even on formal occasions. Shirts in this style are fondly known as "Madiba shirts" in South Africa. In 2003, Mandela's death was incorrectly announced by CNN when his pre-wri tten obituary (along with those of several other famous figures) was inadv ertently published on CNN's web site due to a lapse in password protection . The Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, wants a statue of Nelson Mandela inst

alled on the north terrace of Trafalgar Square, although thus far he has ru n into opposition. Johnny Clegg dedicated a song to Mandela entitled Asimbonanga (Mandela), in which fellow anti-apartheid activists Steve Biko, Victoria Mxenge, and Neil Aggett are also recognised. Mandela has become a cultural icon of freedom and equality comparable w ith Mohandas Gandhi to many around the world. Goodbye Bafana, a feature film that focuses on Mandela's life, is in productio n. It is due to be released in 2006. As a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, Dick Cheney voted agains t a congressional resolution calling for Mandela's release from prison. Ye ars later, Mandela would call Cheney a "dinosaur." Mandela spoke in the Olympics "Celebrate Humanity" campaign with the wo rds: For seventeen days, they are roommates. For seventeen days, they are soul mates. And for twenty-two seconds, they are competitors. Seventeen days a s equals. Twenty-two seconds as adversaries. What a wonderful world that would be. That's the hope I see in the Olympic Games. Mandela was made an honorary member of Manchester United as the club to ured South Africa in the Summer of 2006. According to the Time 100, he is one of only four people in history to have shaped both the 20th century and the early 21st. The other three are Bill Ga tes, Pope John Paul II, and Oprah Winfrey. In 1992 he was awarded the Atatrk Peace Price by Turkey. He refused the award citing human rights violations commited by Turkey during that time.