Nelson Mandela
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Nelson Mandela is one of the greatest human rights campaigners of our world. His tireless
efforts to bring down apartheid (separate development) won him the Nobel peace prize.
Nelson Rolihala Mandela was born in 1918 a small Xhosa village in the south east corner of
South Africa. He was only seven years old when his father died on lung cancer and he was sent
to live with Jongitaba, King of the Xhosas.
Jongitaba was a man who fervently believed in a good education for his children. Nelson first
went to a boarding school named Clarkebury where he saw glimpses of the world outside of the
Xhosa society. The young Nelson Mandela was originally in awe of the White Man, a view he
would later change. He saw white people as benefactors to society, because they brought
education and health is stuff. Later, when he went to Fort Hare University, the only university
in South Africa that accepted black students, he argued about the beneficence of the white
settlers. In his second year at Fort Hare University, Mandela protested about the terrible quality
of food served. He went on a protest and was ultimately expelled.
In Jongitaba’s palace, Mandela discovered that the Xhosa King had arranged for him and his
cousin Justice to be married via arranged marriages. The boys thought they were too young to
be married so they stole two of Jongitaba’s cattle and sold them. Using this money they fled to
Johannesburg. Johannesburg in the 1950’s was a wild place. Justice and Mandela sought to
work in the famous Gold Mines but they were refused. But once they were refused they were
living on the street without food or shelter. In desperation they turned to Walter Sisulu. Walter
Sisulu was an African businessman who helped poor black people find jobs. He helped
Mandela and his cousin find accommodation and jobs. At Sisulu’s house Mandela was first
introduced to the African National Congress and Evelyn Mase, his future wife.
This was a non-violent organization that endeavoured to fight for black rights. At that stage,
the organization lacked energy and zest. Mandela and his old Fort Hare colleague, Oliver
Tambo founded the ANC youth league as a means to re-invigorate the organization. The youth
league was enormously successful and many of its leaders were elected to the national
executive board of the ANC. Mandela started many new campaigns. The most famous being
the defiance campaign. This was an enormously successful resistance against apartheid.
Apartheid was a plan whereby everything was separated: parks, hospitals, education, jobs and
living areas. During the defiance campaign, black Africans simply ignored the signs and sat on
whites only benches, played on whites only beaches, and rode on whites only trains.During the
campaign Mandela met Winnie Madzikela
Shortly after the defiance campaign, Mandela and the executive committee decided that the
ANC needed something to work towards. They joined together with an Indian group: the SAIC
the SACOD (the South African Indian Congress of Democrats), The SACTU (the South
African Congress of Trade Unions), and the SACC, (the South African Coloureds Congress) to
form the Congress Alliance. The Alliance first met in Kliptown to create its constitution: The
Freedom Charter. Halfway through the meeting, military police stormed in and arrested 156
people on counts of treason.
When the treason trial as it was called, commenced in 1956, all of the accused pleaded not
guilty. The proceedings during the treason trial were painfully slow. Four years after it began,
everyone was released, free of charges.
When Mandela returned back home to Johannesburg, he decided that the government was out
to get him. While they had failed in the law courts, they were determined to beat Mandela using
new laws permitting the government to throw people in prison for no reason at all. So Mandela
escaped to Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) and the black pimpernel was born. The black pimpernel (as
Mandela was now known) was the most wanted man in his South Africa. In exile, Mandela set
up Umkhonto We Sizwe (The Spear of the Nation). MK as it was known was the military arm
of the ANC which carried out acts of sabotage against South African government assets.
In 1962 Mandela was captured at a road block near the port city of Durban. He was sentenced
to five years imprisonment for inciting violence. One year after the black pimpernel’s capture,
the government stormed Lilliesleaf farm, the headquarters of the MK. The government arrested
all the high command and accused them of high treason. They were all found guilty but instead
of the death penalty, which they expected, they received life imprisonment. The black prisoners
were sent to Robben Island, one of the world’s toughest and very remote prisons, near Cape
Town.
Even on Robben Island, the racial ideals of apartheid still implied coloured and Indian
prisoners received more food and better quality clothing than black prisoners. The experience
was greatly affected by who the governor was at any given time. In 1982, the government
announced that Mandela and his colleagues would be moved to Pollsmoor prison in Cape
Town. This first move hinted Mandela that the government was beginning to make room for
talks.
Mandela repeatedly asked the government if they would negotiate with him and eventually
they agreed. Mandela discussed the differing policies and one day shocking new applied. P W
Botha, the president at the time, had stepped down. F W De Klerk announced that all political
prisoners. 1990 was the year of Mandela’s release. He and his colleagues had lengthy
conferences at the World Trade Centre in Johannesburg. These were named CODESA, or the
Convention for a Democratic South Africa.
In the 1994, elections were held and Mandela was elected as president of a non racial, united
South Africa. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for his efforts to make South Africa a better
place.