Who was: Nelson Mandela

BLACK LEADER AND STAFF OF SOUTH AFRICA

Nelson Mandela

18/07/1918, Mvezo, Transkei - 12/5/2013, Johannesburg, South Africa                                                                                                 Nelson Mandela was a rebel leader and later president of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. His real name is Rolihlahla Madiba Mandela. The main representative of the antiapartheid movement, regarded by the people as a warrior in freedom struggle, was regarded by the South African government as a terrorist and spent almost three decades in jail.

Of the Xhosa ethnic group, Mandela was born in a small village in the Transkei region. At age seven, Mandela became the first family member to attend school, where he was given the English name "Nelson". His father died soon after and Nelson went to a school near the Regent's palace. Following the Xhosa traditions, he was initiated into society at the age of 16, moving to the Clarkebury Institute, where he studied Western culture.

In 1934, Mandela moved to Fort Beaufort, a town with schools that received most of the Thembu royalty, and there he became interested in boxing and racing. After enrolling, he began his bachelor's degree in law at Fort Hare University, where he met Oliver Tambo and began a long friendship.

At the end of the first year, Mandela became involved with the student movement, in a boycott of university policies, and was expelled from the university. From there he went to Johannesburg, where he graduated from the University of South Africa (UNISA) by correspondence. He continued his law studies at the University of the Witwatersrand.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    As a young law student, Mandela became involved in opposition to the apartheid regime, which denied blacks (majority of the population), mestizos and Indians (an expressive colony of immigrants) political, social and economic rights. He joined the African National Congress in 1942 and two years later founded, along with Walter Sisulu and Oliver Tambo, among others, the CNA Youth League.

After the 1948 election gave the Afrikaners (National Party), who supported the policy of racial segregation, Mandela became more active in the ANC, taking part in the People's Congress (1955) which released the Freedom Charter - a document containing A fundamental program for the antiapartheid cause.

Initially committed only to nonviolent acts, Mandela and his colleagues agreed to resort to guns after the Sharpeville massacre in March 1960, when South African police shot black demonstrators, killing 69 people and injuring 180.

In 1961, he became commander of the CNA's armed wing, the Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), founded by him and other militants. Mandela coordinated a sabotage campaign against military and government targets and traveled to Morocco and Ethiopia for paramilitary training.

In August 1962 Nelson Mandela was arrested after CIA reports to the South African police and sentenced to five years in prison for illegally traveling abroad and encouraging strikes. In 1964 he was sentenced to life imprisonment for sabotage (which Mandela admitted) and for conspiring to help other countries invade South Africa (which Mandela denies).

During his 27-year stint, Mandela became so closely associated with the opposition to apartheid that the cry "Free Nelson Mandela" became the motto of anti-apartheid campaigns in several countries.

During the 1970s, he refused a review of the sentence and in 1985 he did not accept parole in exchange for not encouraging the armed struggle. Mandela remained in prison until February 1990, when the CNA campaign and international pressure succeeded in getting him released on February 11, at age 72, by order of President Frederik Willem de Klerk.

Nelson Mandela and Frederik de Klerk shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993.

As president of the ANC (from July 1991 to December 1997) and first black president of South Africa (from May 1994 to June 1999), Mandela led the transition from minority rule to command, apartheid, gaining international respect For their struggle for internal and external reconciliation.                                                                                                                                                             He married three times. Mandela's first wife was Evelyn Ntoko Mase, from whom she divorced in 1957 after 13 years of marriage. He later married Winnie Madikizela, and with her became 38 years old, divorced in 1996, with political differences between the couple coming to the public. On his 80th birthday, Mandela married Grace Machel, widow of Samora Machel, a former Mozambican president.

After the end of his term as president in 1999, Mandela turned to the cause of various social and human rights organizations. He received many international awards, including the Order of St. John, Queen Elizabeth II, George W. Bush's Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Bharat Ratna (the highest distinction in India), and the Order of Canada.

In 2003, Mandela made some statements attacking the foreign policy of US President Bush. At the same time, he announced his support for the AIDS fundraising campaign called "46664" - his number at the time he was in prison.

In June 2004, at the age of 85, Mandela announced that he would withdraw from public life. He made an exception, however, for his commitment to fighting AIDS.

The celebration of his 90th birthday was a public performance with concerts, which took place in London in July 2008, and was attended by artists and celebrities engaged in this fight.

Nelson Mandela died in 2013 at age 95 at his home in South Africa.