Nelson Mandela

Biography• Rolihlahla Dalibhunga

Mandela was born in Mvezo near Umtata on 18th July 1918

• his father Henry Mgdala Mandela was a chief of the Thembus

• his family was quite wealthy Mandela had a happy

childhood• at the age of nine he lost his

father• he was given his British

name “Nelson“ at a Methodist school

• 1939: Mandela studied at “Fort Hare College“, where he met Oliver Tambo

there he was first confronted with the injustice of the supremacy¹ of the whites

• after a students‘ strike Mandela and Tambo were expelled

• he met Walter Sisulu who arranged a place at “Witwatersrand university“ where he finished his law studies

Political career• as a student Mandela got

involved in the political opposition which struggled for equal rights for the black majority

• 1944: he joined the African National Congress (ANC) and two years later he founded the Youth League of the ANC (ANCYL) with Tambo and Sisulu

• after the National Party had won the election the ANC was forced to fight harder against Apartheid

• Mandela demanded: → the preservation of full

citizenship for everyone → direct representation² of all

South-Africans in Parliament → the right of trade unions,

education and culture for everyone

→ compulsory school attendance for everybody

• 1952: Mandela, who had become the president of the ANC and ANCYL, travelled through the country to call upon the population to protest

• because of this Defiance Campaign he received a nine months suspended sentence with probation5

• 1956: Mandela and others were accused of high treason 1961: the defendants were set free• 1960: after the Sharpeville massacre the ANC was forbidden his attitude changed, he accepted that violence was necessary• 1961: Mandela founded the armed wing of the ANC, the

Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the nation)• because of forbidden journeys abroad he was sentenced to five

years imprisonment• police found documents of the ANC which incriminated Mandela and other members they were condemned³ to lifelong imprisonment

Time in prison• He spent 18 years of his

prison time on Robben Island

→ lived in a 6x6- cell → black prisoners weren‘t

considered to be human beings

• they developed the so-called “Mandela University“ where they passed on the political views and the history of the ANC

1982: they were sent to Pollsmore Prison

• 1985: Mandela refused a possibility to get free because he would have to stop fighting violently

• many people demonstrated for Mandela‘s release¹

→ also many important politicians visited him

• 1988: he was moved to a prison near Paarl, where he didn‘t feel like a prisoner any more

• Frederik Willem de Klerk became leader of the National Party and president of south Africa

→ he abolished the ban on the ANC

• after the pressure of the ANC and foreign organisations and with the help of de Klerk Mandela was released in 1990

Peace work• 1990-1994: after his release he started to

negotiate¹ with all sections of the population

→ Mandela and de Klerk received the Noble Peace Prize

• 1994: Mandela became the first democratically elected president of South Africa

• he fought for better relationships between the black and the white population

• he developed a new constitution²• 1999: Mbeki, who was also his successor³

in the ANC, replaced him as president• 2000: he worked as a mediator in Burundi

and helped to develop a peace treaty4