Nelson Mandela
Topics
• biography
• family
• political career • AIDS work
• time in prison
• peace work
• future?
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
expelled²
• he met Walter Sisulu who
arranged a place at
“Witwatersrand University“
where he finished his law
studies
¹ - Vormachtsstellung
² - verwiesen
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 election¹ the ANC
was forced to fight harder
against Apartheid
¹ - Wahl
• Mandela demanded:
→ the preservation¹ 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
attendance³ 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
Campaign4 he received a
nine months suspended
sentence with probation5
1–
Erhaltung 2 – Vertretung
4 – Missachtungskampagne
3–
Schulpflicht
5 – auf Bewährung
• 1956: Mandela and others were accused of high treason¹
 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
for treason against the
government
 they were condemned³ to
lifelong imprisonment
¹-
Time in prison
• He spent 18 years of his
prison time on Robben
Island
→ lived in a 4 sqm- 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
organizations and with the
help of de Klerk Mandela
was released in 1990
¹ - Freilassung
Peace work
• 1990-1994: after his release he started to
negotiate¹with 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
AIDS work
• January 2005: Mandela’s
second son died of AIDS
• 2002: Nelson Mandela‘s
worldwide campaign “46664“
against AIDS was founded
→ 46664 was his prison
number on Robben Island
• aim of the organization is to
inform people about AIDS
and how important it is to
protect oneself
→ live events with famous
people such as Will Smith are
organized
Future?
 What will happen when Mandela is dead?
• Mandela works for peace between whites and blacks
• many blacks are angry at the whites because a lot of them still
experienced what Apartheid was like
→ Mandela stops them from taking revenge
• “When Mandela is dead, the whites will die like flies!“
• hypothesis:
→ civil war?
→ whites being murdered?
→ blacks will oppress whites?
→ or whites will oppress blacks again?