Rolihlahla Mandela was born into the Madiba
clan in Mvezo, Transkei, on July 18, 1918, to
Nonqaphi Nosekeni and Nkosi Mphakanyiswa
Gadla Mandela, principal counsellor to the
Acting King of the Thembu people, Jongintaba
Dalindyebo.
His father died when he was a child and the
young Rolihlahla became a ward of Jongintaba
at the Great Place in Mqhekezweni. Hearing
the elder’s stories of his ancestor’s valour
during the wars of resistance, he dreamed also of making his own contribution to the freedom struggle of his people.
He attended primary school in Qunu where his
teacher Miss Mdingane gave him the name
Nelson, in accordance with the custom to give
all school children “Christian” names.
He completed his Junior Certificate at
Clarkebury Boarding Institute and went on to
Healdtown, a Wesleyan secondary school of
some repute, where he matriculated.
Nelson Mandela began his studies for a
Bachelor of Arts Degree at the University
College of Fort Hare but did not complete the
degree there as he was expelled for joining in
a student protest. He completed his BA
through the University of South Africa and
went back to Fort Hare for his graduation in
1943.
On his return to the Great Place at
Mkhekezweni the King was furious and said if
he didn’t return to Fort Hare he would arrange wives for him and his cousin Justice. They ran away to Johannesburg instead arriving there in 1941. There he worked as a mine security
officer and after meeting Walter Sisulu, an
estate agent, who introduced him to Lazar
Sidelsky. He then did his articles through the
firm of attorneys Witkin Eidelman and
Sidelsky.
Meanwhile he began studying for an LLB at the University of the Witwatersrand. By his own admission he was a poor student and left the university in 1948 without graduating. He only started studying again through the University of London and also did not complete that degree.
In 1989, while in the last months of his
imprisonment, he obtained an LLB through the
University of South Africa. He graduated in
absentia at a ceremony in Cape Town.
Nelson Mandela, while increasingly politically
involved from 1942, only joined the African
National Congress in 1944 when he helped
formed the ANC Youth League.
In 1944 he married Walter Sisulu’s cousin
Evelyn Mase, a nurse. They had two sons
Madiba Thembekile ‘Thembi’ and Makgatho and two daughters both called Makaziwe, the first of whom died in infancy. They effectively separated in 1955 and divorced in 1958.
Nelson Mandela rose through the ranks of the
ANCYL and through its work the ANC adopted in 1949 a more radical mass-based policy, the Programme of Action.
In 1952 he was chosen at the National
Volunteer-in-Chief of the Defiance Campaign
with Maulvi Cachalia as his Deputy. This
campaign of civil disobedience against six
unjust laws was a joint programme between
the ANC and the South African Indian
Congress. He and 19 others were charged
under the Suppression of Communism Act for
their part in the campaign and sentenced to
nine months hard labour suspended for two
years.
A two-year diploma in law on top of his BA
allowed Nelson Mandela to practice law and in
August 1952 he and Oliver Tambo established
South Africa’s first black law firm, Mandela
and Tambo.
At the end of 1952 he was banned for the
first time. As a restricted person he was only
able to secretly watch as the Freedom Charter was adopted at Kliptown on 26 June 1955. Nelson Mandela was arrested in a country wide police swoop of 156 activists on 5 December 1955, which led to the 1956 Treason Trial. Men and women of all races found themselves in the dock in the marathon trial that only ended when the last 28 accused, including Mr.
Mandela were acquitted on 29 March 1961.
On 21 March 1960 police killed 69 unarmed
people in a protest at Sharpeville against the
pass laws. This led to the country’s first state
of emergency on 31 March and the banning of
the ANC and the Pan Africanist Congress on 8 April. Nelson Mandela and his colleagues in the Treason Trial were among the thousands
detained during the state of emergency.
During the trial on 14 June 1958 Nelson
Mandela married a social worker Winnie
Madikizela. They had two daughters Zenani
and Zindziswa. The couple divorced in 1996.
Days before the end of the Treason Trial
Nelson Mandela travelled to Pietermaritzburg
to speak at the All-in Africa Conference,
which resolved he should write to Prime
Minister Verwoerd requesting a non-racial
national convention, and to warn that should he not agree there would be a national strike
against South Africa becoming a republic. As
soon as he and his colleagues were acquitted in the Treason Trial Nelson Mandela went
underground and began planning a national
strike for 29, 30 and 31 March. In the face of a massive mobilization of state security the strike was called off early. In June 1961 he was asked to lead the armed struggle and
helped to establish Umkhonto weSizwe (Spear
of the Nation).
On 11 January 1962 using the adopted name
David Motsamayi, Nelson Mandela left South
Africa secretly. He travelled around Africa
and visited England to gain support for the
armed struggle. He received military training
in Morocco and Ethiopia and returned to
South Africa in July 1962. He was arrested in
a police roadblock outside Howick on 5 August while returning from KwaZulu-Natal where he briefed ANC President Chief Albert Luthuli about his trip. He was charged with leaving the country illegally and inciting workers to strike. He was convicted and sentenced to five years imprisonment which he began serving in Pretoria Local Prison. On 27 May 1963 he was transferred to Robben Island and returned to Pretoria on 12 June. Within a month police raided a secret hide-out in Rivonia used by ANC and Communist Party activists and several of his comrades were arrested.
In October 1963 Nelson Mandela joined nine
others on trial for sabotage in what became
known as the Rivonia Trial. Facing the death
penalty his words to the court at the end of
his famous ‘Speech from the Dock’ on 20 April 1964 became immortalized:
“I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have
cherished the ideal of a democratic and free
society in which all persons live together in
harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an
ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve.
But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am
prepared to die.”
On 11 June 1964 Nelson Mandela and seven
other accused Walter Sisulu, Ahmed
Kathrada, Govan Mbeki, Raymond Mhlaba,
Denis Goldberg, Elias Motsoaledi and Andrew
Mlangeni were convicted and the next day
were sentenced to life imprisonment. Denis
Goldberg was sent to Pretoria Prison because
he was white while the others went to Robben
Island. Nelson Mandela’s mother died in 1968 and his eldest son Thembi in 1969. He was not allowed to attend their funerals.
On 31 March 1982 Nelson Mandela was
transferred to Pollsmoor Prison in Cape Town
with Sisulu, Mhlaba and Mlangeni. Kathrada
joined them in October. When he returned to
the prison in November 1985 after prostate
surgery Nelson Mandela was held alone.
Justice Minister Kobie Coetsee had visited him in hospital. Later Nelson Mandela initiated talks about an ultimate meeting between the apartheid government and the ANC.
In 1988 he was treated for Tuberculosis and
was transferred on 7 December 1988 to a
house at Victor Verster Prison near Paarl. He
was released from its gates on Sunday 11
February 1990, nine days after the unbanning
of the ANC and the PAC and nearly four
months after the release of the remaining
Rivonia comrades. Throughout his imprisonment he had rejected at least three conditional offers of release.
Nelson Mandela immersed himself into official talks to end white minority rule and in 1991 was elected ANC President to replace his ailing friend Oliver Tambo. In 1993 he and
President FW de Klerk jointly won the Nobel
Peace Prize and on 27 April 1994 he voted for
the first time in his life.
On 10 May 1994 he was inaugurated South
Africa’s first democratically elected
President. On his 80th birthday in 1998 he
married Graça Machel, his third wife.
True to his promise Nelson Mandela stepped
down in 1999 after one term as President. He
continued to work with the Nelson Mandela
Children’s Fund he set up in 1995 and
established the Nelson Mandela Foundation
and The Mandela-Rhodes Foundation.
In April 2007 his grandson Mandla Mandela
became head of the Mvezo Traditional Council
at a ceremony at the Mvezo Great Place.
Nelson Mandela never wavered in his devotion
to democracy, equality and learning. Despite
terrible provocation, he never answered racism with racism. His life has been an inspiration to all who are oppressed and deprived, to all who are opposed to oppression and deprivation.
www.nelsonmandela.org/content/page/biography

He lived such a selfless life. With his passing, I lost an hero, Africa lost a father and the world lost a gem. RIP Madiba, humanity will forever be grateful to you.