RAMADJI.com , updated 25 April 2006

Nelson R. Mandela " Madiba"

 

One of my greatest dream is to be able to meet President Mandela one day. I keep praying for it. Here is a man who sacrificed 27 years of his life to fight for racial equality, justice, freedom and democracy in South Africa. He is the true leader. He is a great source of inspiration for all of us. He is the pride of mankind. How many among those who call themselves leaders can do what President Mandela has done for mankind? I don't see many out there these days.  Let's me pay tribute to my leader.
Nelson R. Mandela "Madiba" We love you and thank you for what you have done !	Mr. Mandela was born at Qunu, near Umtata on July 18, 1918. This is in what is now the Eastern Cape Province. Born Rolihlahla Dalibhunga, Mr. Mandela was given his English name, Nelson, by a teacher at his school. Mr. Mandela matriculated at Healdtown Methodist Boarding School and then started a BA degree at Fort Hare. In 1940, he participated in a student strike and was expelled from Fort Hare along with the late Mr. Oliver Tambo. He completed his degree by correspondence from Johannesburg, did articles of clerkship and enrolled for an LLB at the University of the Witwatersrand.

In 1944 he helped found the ANC Youth League, whose Programme of Action was adopted by the ANC in 1949.

Mr. Mandela was elected national volunteer-in-chief of the 1952 Defiance Campaign. He traveled the country organizing resistance to discriminatory legislation.

Mr. Mandela qualified as a lawyer and in 1952 opened a law practice, the first black legal firm in the country, in Johannesburg with his partner, Oliver Tambo. Together, Mr. Mandela and Mr. Tambo campaigned against apartheid, the system devised by the all-white National Party which oppressed the black majority

When the ANC was banned after the Sharpeville massacre in 1960, he was detained until 1961 when he went underground to lead a campaign for a new national convention.

He went to Algeria and also visited other independent African countries during this period. On his return, he was arrested for leaving the country illegally and for incitement to strike. He conducted his own defense. He was convicted and jailed for five years in November 1962. While serving his sentence, he was charged, in the Rivonia trial, with sabotage. In the winter of 1964 he was sentenced to life in prison.

In the space of 12 months between 1968 and 1969, Mr. Mandela's mother died and his eldest son was killed in a car crash but he was not allowed to attend the funerals.

Robben Island, where he was imprisoned, became a centre for learning, and Mandela was a central figure in the organized political education classes. He remained in prison on Robben Island for 18 years before being transferred to Pollsmoor Prison on the mainland in 1982.

In prison Mr. Mandela never compromised his political principles and was always a source of strength for the other prisoners. During his years in prison, Nelson Mandela's reputation grew steadily. He was widely accepted as the most significant black leader in South Africa and became a potent symbol of resistance as the anti-apartheid movement gathered strength.

In 1980, Mr. Tambo, who was in exile, launched an international campaign to release Mr. Mandela. The world community tightened the sanctions first imposed on South Africa in 1967 against the apartheid regime. The pressure produced results, and in 1990, President FW de Klerk lifted the ban on the ANC, and Mr. Mandela was released from prison on Sunday, 11 February 1990.

On Monday, November 19, 2001, Mr. Mandela became the second person in the world to receive Honorary Canadian Citizenship. For a more detailed biography of Mr. Mandela, please read his autobiography, The Long Walk to Freedom.

• Learn More about South Africa
• Embassy of the Republic of South Africa