Strangely, his baptismal name, Rolihlahla, which means “troublemaker,” fit him well as he grew up. Through the anti-apartheid movement and other revolutionary actions, he caused a lot of trouble for the South African government. Mandela was brought up in a Methodist Christian community. His father gave him a “proud rebelliousness” and a “sense of fairness.” He has been active in anti-colonial politics since he was young, which led him to join the ANC. Mandela’s admission was a major event in his life and the lives of all South Africans, as it led to the end of discrimination in the country. Mandela was inspired by Gandhi and committed to nonviolent struggle, but after a while, he switched to armed struggle. This was mostly because peaceful protests against apartheid had failed and the government was becoming more violent and repressive. Mandela was in politics for 67 years. During that time, he led many movements and was arrested, tried, and jailed many times, with the longest sentence being 27 years of life in prison. But all the pain was worth it because 1994 was the last year of apartheid and the first year that elections were open to people of different races. Apart from being the first black President of the country, Mandela also became the first President of the country.
Early years and childhood
Nelson Mandela’s parents, Gadla Henry Mphakanyiswa and Nosekeni Fanny gave birth to him on July 18, 1918. His father was a chief in the area and a member of the king’s council. He had more than one wife. He had four wives and thirteen kids, four boys and nine girls.
Mandela was raised in the town of Qunu. He spent much of his childhood taking care of the cattle and playing with other boys in the area. Even though neither of his parents could read or write, they knew how important it was for him to go to school and sent him to a Methodist school when he was seven. Two years later, Mandela’s teacher gave him the name Nelson as his first name.
After Mandela’s father died, his mother gave him to Chief Jongintaba Dalindyebo. He was a big part of the Dalindyebo family, and they treated young Nelson Mandela like one of their own.
He went to a school for missionaries that was near the palace. It was here that he became very interested in African history. He also studied English, Xhosa, history, and geography in addition to this.
When Mandela turned 16, he went to Tyhalarha for the ritual of circumcision, which was a sign of the change from boy to man. After the ceremony was over, the name “Dalibunga” was given to him.
Mandela went to a well-known school for his secondary education. After that, in 1937, he enrolled at the Methodist college in Fort Beaufort. Even though his teachers stressed how important and better the English culture and government were, Mandela found his true calling in the culture of his own country.
He then went to the University of Fort Hare to get his bachelor’s degree, but he was told to leave because he was on the Student Representative Council and was boycotting the school’s rules.
In 1941, he moved to Johannesburg. During the day, he worked for Walter Sisulu, who was an activist for the African National Congress. At night, he took a correspondence course to finish his BA.
Political Pursuits
After getting his BA in 1943, Mandela started his law studies at the University of Witwatersrand. He was the only person in his class who was born in Africa. Mandela joined the ANC when Sisulu was in charge. Sisulu’s influence was growing on Mandela.
During this time, Mandela’s political ideas began to take shape. He joined the fight against apartheid and even suggested that the ANC should have a youth wing. On Easter Sunday, the African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) was founded, and Mandela was on its executive committee.
At the ANCYL in 1947, Mandela was given the job of Secretary. The organization wanted to stop using the old method of political petitioning and start using new methods like boycotts, strikes, civil disobedience, and non-cooperation. Their policy goals were full citizenship, redistribution of land, trade union rights, and free and mandatory education for all children.
In 1950, the ANCYL chose Mandela to be its national leader. Mandela kept fighting against racism after he got his new job. Besides this, he was interested in the bigger picture, which meant he was working for national freedom.
Gandhi had a big impact on Mandela, and two years later, Mandela began his path of nonviolent resistance. Together with Indian and communist groups, he came up with the Defiance Campaign to fight apartheid. Starting with just 10,000 people, the group grew quickly to include 100,000 people.
To fight back against the campaign, the government let martial law and mass arrests happen. They even stopped Transvaal ANU President J. B. Marks from going out in public, which led to Mandela taking over his job as president.
Mandela was arrested a few times because of his work against apartheid. Because of his Defiance Campaign, he was found guilty of going against the law against communism on July 30, 1952, and his prison sentence was put on hold. He was also told he couldn’t go to meetings or talk to more than one person at a time for the next six months.
As a result of the ban, Mandela set up the M-Plan, also called the Mandela Plan, which involved splitting the organization into cells and making the leadership more centralized. The main goal of the plan was to give ANC leaders a way to stay in touch with other members without having to hold public meetings.
In the meantime, Mandela passed the test that allowed him to become a full-fledged lawyer. He first worked for the firm, Terblanche, and Briggish. Later, he and Oliver Tambo opened their law firm, which they called Mandela and Tambo. The firm was the only one that was run by Africans. It often helps people who have been hurt by the police.
Years After
Mandela started the Congress of the People in 1955, with the help of the South African Indian Congress, the Coloured People’s Congress, the South African Congress of Trade Unions, and the Congress of Democrats. The main goal of the movement was to get South Africans to think about what should happen after apartheid and send in ideas.
The Freedom Charter is the result of several ideas that were put into action. The charter was written by Rusty Bernstein, and its goal was to create a democratic, non-racist state by taking over big businesses. There was a call for a conference, and 3000 people went. But it didn’t work out because the police had to step in.
Even though he was banned several times, which kept him from going out in public, Mandela defied the ban and went out in public often. After this, Mandela and other ANC members were arrested on December 5, 1956, for high treason against the state.
Even though they were freed two weeks later, the court case didn’t start until January 9, 1957, when the judge decided there was enough evidence to put the defendants on trial. Six years later, in 1961, the trial came to an end. The defendants were found to be innocent and were billed as “not guilty.”
At the same time, militant Africans led by Robert Sobukwe started a new group called the Pan-African Congress (PAC). The actions against the government led to a lot of arrests, including Mandela and other ANC and PAC leaders, and the two groups were banned.
Mandela went around the country in disguise from 1961 to 1962 to spread the word about the mass stay-at-home strike. He also helped set up the ANC’s new cell structure, which was called Umkhonto we Sizwe, or “Spear of the Nation,” or MK.
The ANC’s armed group, MK, was involved in some violent actions against the government. The MK wanted to put as much pressure on the government as possible while hurting as few civilians as possible. Because of this, they usually attacked military bases, power plants, phone lines, and transportation links at night.
In February 1962, Mandela was chosen to represent the African National Congress (ANC) at the meeting of the Pan-African Freedom Movement for East, Central, and Southern Africa (PAFMECSA). Mandela learned from the tour because he was able to see how other countries changed their political systems and meet important activists, reporters, and politicians. He also managed to get some of the money that MK needed to buy weapons.
Life Imprisonment
When Mandela went back to South Africa, he was arrested for leaving the country without permission and given a five-year prison sentence. Mandela’s time in prison got longer and longer until he was sentenced to life in prison for crimes he committed while leading the ANC struggle.
He spent almost 18 years of his 27-year sentence in Robben Island Prison, a maximum-security prison on a small island near Cape Town. After that, he was sent to Pollsmoor Prison in Cape Town and then to Victor Verster Prison near Paarl. He was finally let out of the Victor Verster Prison.
Mandela was offered freedom if he would change his political views, but he refused. He stuck to his opinion that personal freedom didn’t matter if people couldn’t get together to help each other.
What Happens Next
On February 2, 1990, Nelson Mandela was let out of prison after the ban on the ANC was lifted by State President F.W. de Klerk. Mandela said that his years in jail had not made him less willing to fight, and he promised to bring peace to the black majority and give them the right to vote in elections.
He took back control of the ANCF and went back to work as the elected President of the ANC, which was based in Shell House. With his multi-party negotiations, he pushed for the first elections that included people of different races.
Even though the white South Africans were willing to share power, the black South Africans wanted full control and a complete power transfer. This led to a lot of violent eruptions. Mandela, on the other hand, tried to find a balance between political pressure and intense negotiations while armed resistance was going on.
South Africa held its first free elections in 1994. Mandela won the election, and he went on to become the first black president of the country.
As President, Mandela worked tirelessly to ensure that the transition from a minority black government to a majority black government went as smoothly as possible. He got rid of the rule of apartheid and made a new constitution. This Constitution set up a strong central government based on majority rule that protected the rights of minorities and freedom of speech.
He made changes to the country’s economic policy to encourage land reform, fight poverty, and improve health care. Mandela acted as a mediator between Libya and the UK on the world stage, and he was in charge of the military intervention in Lesotho.
Mandela didn’t run for a second term after his first one went well. Instead, he retired from politics. But he didn’t stop being involved in social issues. He raised money to build schools and health centers in South Africa’s rural areas. He started the Mandela Foundation and was a peacemaker during the civil war in Burundi.
Works of note
Mandela was a member of the ANC Youth League from the beginning. During his time with the ANCYL, he changed it from the ground up. He got rid of all the old ways of doing things and replaced them with new ways like boycotting, striking, civil disobedience, and not cooperating. His main goals were to get rid of racism, give people full citizenship, redistribute land, give trade unions rights, and make sure that all children got a free and required education.
His Defiance Campaign in 1952 and Congress of the People in 1955 brought him to the public’s attention. The campaign was a nonviolent way of standing up to the South African government and its racist policies.
He started the Umkhonto we Sizwe, also called MK or “Spear of the Nation.” It was a part of the ANC, and its goal was to show violent actions against the government.
Awards & Achievements
Nelson Mandela is happy to have won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993, along with F.W. de Klerk. He gave the award to Mahatma Gandhi, who had a big impact on his life.
In 2009, Mandela’s birthday was named “Mandela Day” by the United Nations General Assembly. This was done to honor his great work in the anti-apartheid movement.
Queen Elizabeth II gave Mandela the Bailiff Grand Cross of the Order of St. John and the Order of Merit as a way of honoring him.
When he was given the Order of Canada, Mandela became the only person still alive to be given honorary Canadian citizenship.
Personal History and Legacies
Mandela got married three times in his life. After 13 years of being together, Evelyn charged Mandela with adultery and being away from home all the time. The couple had two boys and two girls, but only two of them are still alive right now.
In 1958, Mandela and Winnie Madikizela-Mandela walked up the aisle together for the second time. They were lucky to have two daughters. In 1992, they stopped living together. In 1996, they got a divorce.
On the occasion of his 80th birthday in 1998, Mandela remarried Graca Machel (nee Simbine), who had been married to Samora Machel before he died.
Since 2004, Mandela’s health has been getting worse. In 2011, he was hospitalized with a respiratory illness, which made his health even worse. Mandela was taken to the hospital several times after that, and he died on December 5, 2013.
Trivia
Even though most people call him Nelson Mandela, his given name isn’t the same as the name he was given at birth.
In South Africa, he is called “the father of the nation,” “the founding father of democracy,” “the national liberator, the savior, its Washington and Lincoln rolled into one,” and “the founding father of democracy.”
The Top 10 Nelson Mandela Facts You Didn’t Know
Nelson Mandela went to school before anyone else in his family.
In 1952, he and Oliver Tambo opened the first law firm in South Africa that was run by black people.
Mandela’s favorite food was tripe, which is the lining of a farm animal’s stomach.
He was often called “the Black Pimpernel” because he could change his appearance to avoid being caught. He often wore the clothes of a farmer, a chef, or a chauffeur.
He was a great communicator, and while he was in jail on Robben Island, he came up with a way to send secret notes to other prisoners.
He thought that sports were a great way to bring people of different races in the country together.
Australopithecus Nelson Mandela, a woodpecker from the past, is named after him.
Mandela was once on a list of people to watch for terrorism in the U.S. because of how hard he fought against apartheid.
In the 1992 movie “Malcolm X,” Nelson Mandela had a small role as a school teacher.
Mandela won more than 250 awards, and more than 50 universities around the world gave him honorary degrees.
