Republic of
South
Africa
Africa
F.W. DeKlerk
Nelson Mandela
Apartheid in the
Republic of
South Africa
Africa
Nelson
Mandela
“During my lifetime, I have
dedicated myself to the struggle
of the African people.”
The Prisoner
•
In the winter of 1964, Mandela arrived on
Robben Island where he would spend 18 of
his 27 years in prison. He was confined to a
small cell. The floor served as his bed and a
bucket for a toilet. He was forced to do hard
labor in a quarry. He was allowed one visitor a
year for 30 minutes. He could write and
receive one letter every six months. But
Robben Island became the cubicle which
transformed him. Through his intelligence,
charm, and dignified defiance, Mandela
eventually bent even the most brutal prison
officials to his will. He assumed leadership
over his jailed comrades and became the
master of his own prison. He emerged from
prison the mature leader who would fight and
win great political battles that would lead to an
end of apartheid in South Africa.
The Revolutionary
•
During the 1950s, Mandela was exiled,
arrested, and imprisoned for challenging the
system of apartheid. He was accused in the
massive Treason Trial at the end of the
decade and following the 1960 banning of the
African National Congress, he went
underground, utilizing a number of disguises.
Sometimes he posed as a laborer; other
times he worked as a chauffeur. The press
called him “the black pimpernal” because of
his ability to evade the police. During this
period, he and other leaders formed the
ANC’s armed division – Umkhonto we sizwe
(MK). Mandela was secretly appointed its
commander-in-chief.
Childhood
•
Nelson Mandela was born at Qunu near
Umtata on July 18, 1918. This is what is now
the Eastern Cape Province. Born Rolihlahla
Dalibhunga, Mandela was given his English
name, Nelson, by a teacher at his school.
•
“My mother presided over three huts at Qunu which, as I
remember, were always filled with babies and children of my
relations. In fact, I hardly recall any occasion as a child when I
was alone. In African culture, the sons and daughters of one’s
aunts or uncles are considered brothers and sisters, not
cousins. We do not make the same distinctions among
relations practiced by whites….”
•
“Of my mother’s three huts, one was used for cooking, one for
sleeping, one for storage. In the hut in which we slept, there
was no furniture in the Western sense. We slept on mats and
sat on the ground. I did not discover pillows until I went to
Mqhekezweni. My mother cooked food in a three-legged iron
pot over an open fire in the center of the hut or outside.
Everything we ate, we grew and made ourselves.”
Timeline