Biography name of nelson mandela

After becoming involved in the anti- apartheid movement in his 20s, Mandela joined the African National Congress in For 20 years, he directed a campaign of peaceful, nonviolent defiance against the South African government and its racist policies. Beginning inMandela spent 27 years in prison for political offenses. For generations to come, Mandela will be a source of inspiration for civil rights activists worldwide.

His birth name was Rolihlahla Mandela. Mandela's father, who was destined to be a chief, served as a counselor to tribal chiefs for several years but lost both his title and fortune over a dispute with the local colonial magistrate. Mandela was only an infant at the time, and his father's loss of status forced his mother to move the family to Qunu, an even smaller village north of Mvezo.

The village was nestled in a narrow grassy valley; there were no roads, only footpaths that linked the pastures where livestock grazed. The family lived in huts and ate a local harvest of maize, sorghum, pumpkin and beans, which was all they could afford. Water came from springs and streams and cooking was done outdoors. Mandela played the games of young boys, acting out male right-of-passage scenarios with toys he made from the natural materials available, including tree branches and clay.

At the suggestion of one of his father's friends, Mandela was baptized in the Methodist Church. He went on to become the first in his family to attend school. As was custom at the time, and probably due to the bias of the British educational system in South Africa, Mandela's teacher told him that his new first name would be Nelson. When Mandela was 12 years old, his father died of lung disease, causing his life to change dramatically.

He was adopted by Chief Jongintaba Dalindyebo, the acting regent of the Thembu people — a gesture done as a favor to Mandela's father, who, years earlier, had recommended Jongintaba be made chief. Mandela subsequently left the carefree life he knew in Qunu, fearing that he would never see his village again. He traveled by motorcar to Mqhekezweni, the provincial capital of Thembuland, to the chief's royal residence.

Though he had not forgotten his beloved village of Qunu, he quickly adapted to the new, more sophisticated surroundings of Mqhekezweni. Mandela was given the same status and responsibilities as the regent's two other children, his son and oldest child, Justice, and daughter Nomafu. Mandela took classes in a one-room school next to the palace, studying English, Xhosa, history and geography.

It was during this period that Mandela developed an interest in African history, from elder chiefs who came to the Great Palace on official business. He learned how the African people had lived in relative peace until the coming of the white people. According to the elders, the children of South Africa had previously lived as brothers, but white men had shattered this fellowship.

While Black men shared their land, air and water with white people, white men took all of these things for themselves. When Mandela was 16, it was time for him to partake in the traditional African circumcision ritual to mark his entrance into manhood. The ceremony of circumcision was not just a surgical procedure, but an elaborate ritual in preparation for manhood.

In African tradition, an uncircumcised man cannot inherit his father's wealth, marry or officiate at tribal rituals. Mandela participated in the ceremony with 25 other boys. He welcomed the opportunity to partake in his people's customs and felt ready to make the transition from boyhood to manhood. His mood shifted during the proceedings, however, when Chief Meligqili, the main speaker at the ceremony, spoke sadly of the young men, explaining that they were enslaved in their own country.

Because their land was controlled by white men, they would never have the power to govern themselves, the chief said. He went on to lament that the promise of the young men would be squandered as they struggled to make a living and perform mindless chores for white men. Mandela would later say that while the chief's words didn't make total sense to him at the time, they would eventually formulate his resolve for an independent South Africa.

He only started studying again in in prison. He finally graduated with an LLB through Unisa 27 years later. Later in he became the National Volunteer-in-Chief of the Defiance Campaign against apartheid laws. He and 19 others were later charged and sentenced to nine months, suspended for two years. In those days one could practise as an attorney with a two-year diploma.

Later that year he was banned for the first time — he had to ask the government for permission whenever he needed to leave Johannesburg. After the adoption of the Freedom Charter inpeople were arrested and charged with treason. The trial lasted four-and-a-half years until 29 March by which time all were acquitted. Completing his BA through the University of South Africa Unisa inhe commenced study for his Bachelor of Laws Degree shortly afterwards though he left the University of the Witwatersrand without graduating in Starting out with 60 members, all of whom were residing around the Witwatersrand, these young people set themselves the formidable task of transforming the ANC into a more radical mass movement.

Mandela soon impressed his biographies name of nelson mandela by his disciplined work and consistent effort and was elected as the league's national secretary in Spurred on by the victory of the National Party, which won the all-white elections on the platform of apartheid, at the Annual Conference, the Programme of Action, inspired by the Youth League, which advocated the weapons of boycott, strike, civil disobedience and non-cooperation, was accepted as official ANC policy.

The Defiance Campaign was conceived as a mass civil disobedience campaign that would snowball from a core of selected volunteers to involve more and more ordinary people, culminating in mass defiance.

Biography name of nelson mandela: Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was a

Fulfilling his responsibility as volunteer-in-chief, Mandela travelled the country, organising resistance to discriminatory legislation. Charged, with Moroka, Sisulu and 17 others, and brought to trial for his role in the campaign, the court found that Mandela and his co-accused had consistently advised their followers to adopt a peaceful course of action and to avoid all violence.

For his part in the Defiance Campaign, Mandela was convicted of contravening the Suppression of Communism Act and given a suspended prison sentence. Shortly after the campaign ended, he was also prohibited from attending gatherings and confined to Johannesburg for six months. In Decemberin partnership with Tambo, Mandela opened South Africa's first black law firm in central Johannesburg.

Biography name of nelson mandela: The Autobiography of Nelson

InMandela was given the responsibility to prepare a plan that would enable the leadership of the movement to maintain dynamic contact with its membership without recourse to public meetings. The objective was to prepare for the possibility that the ANC would, like the Communist Party, be declared illegal and to ensure that the organisation would be able to operate from underground.

This was the M-Plan, named after him. During the early s, Mandela played an important part in leading the resistance to the Western Areas removals, and to the introduction of Bantu Education. He also played a significant role in popularising the Freedom Charter, adopted by the Congress of the People in During the whole of the s, Mandela was the victim of various forms of repression.

Biography name of nelson mandela: Nelson Mandela was the

He was banned, arrested and imprisoned. A five-year banning order was enforced against him in March For much of the latter half of the s, Mandela was one of the accused in the mammoth Treason Trial. After the Sharpeville Massacre on 21 Marchthe ANC was outlawed, and Mandela, still on trial, was detained, along with hundreds of others. Mandela shared Mahatma Gandhi's views on nonviolence and initially tried to adhere to them in his early political career.

However, it became clear that the white supremacist supporters in power were not inclined to respond to symbolic protests. Mandela then created and led the armed wing of the African National Congress ANCwhose goal was to sabotage and carry out attacks on symbolic targets of the regime. He insisted that these acts of sabotage should not result in human casualties and criticized his comrades who advocated "an eye for an eye" principle.

InMandela was arrested for inciting workers to strike and for his illegal departure from the country black individuals required special permission to travel. After some time, he was accused of organizing sabotage and preparing for the violent overthrow of the existing system.

Biography name of nelson mandela: Rolihlahla Mandela was born into

Mandela and his comrades accepted the first accusation but rejected the second. They turned the trial into the first public condemnation of apartheid in the history of South Africa. The prosecutor demanded the death penalty for attempting to overthrow the state, but the judge showed leniency and sentenced the defendants to life imprisonment. Thus, sinceMandela was excluded from active political life and had only an indirect relationship to the abolition of apartheid.

By the late s, significant changes had taken place in the world.