nelson mendela

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was innate in Transkei, South Africa on 18 July , 1918. His father was



Hendry Mphakanyiswa of the Tembu Tribe. Mandela himself was learned at University College of



Fort Hare and the University of Witwatersrand where he considered law. He joined the African



National Congress in 1944 and was committed in resistance against the governing National



Party's apartheid policies after 1948. He went on trial for mutiny in1956-1961 and was acquitted



in 1961.

After the forbidding of the ANC in 1960, Nelson Mandela argued for the setting up of a military



wing within the ANC. In June 1961, the ANC executive treated his proposal on the use of



destructive tactics and agreed that those members who wished to include themselves in



Mandela's campaign would not be stopped from doing so by the ANC. This led to the formation of



Umkhonto we Sizwe. Mandela was taken into custody in 1962 and sentenced to five years'



forcible detention with hard labour. In 1963, when many associate leaders of the ANC and the



Umkhonto we Sizwe were jailed, Mandela was brought to stand trial with them for plan to



overthrow the government by assault. His statement from the dock received reasonable



international publicity. On June 12, 1964, eight of the blamed, including Mandela, were sentenced



to life custody. From 1964 to 1982, he was incarcerated at Robben Island Prison, off Cape Town;



after that, he was at Pollsmoor Prison, adjacent on the mainland.



During his years in prison, Nelson Mandela's influence grew steadily. He was widely approved as



the most significant black leader in South Africa and became a dominant symbol of resistance as



the anti-apartheid action gathred strength. He consistently denied to compromise his political



position to get his freedom.



Nelson Mandela was discharged on February 11, 1990. After his release, he drive himself



wholeheartedly into his life's work, striving to achieve the targets he and others had set out



almost four decades earlier. In 1991, at the first national convention of the ANC held inside South



Africa after the organization had been banned in 1960, Mandela was chosen President of the ANC



while his lifelong friend and co-worker, Oliver Tambo, became the organisation's National













Chairperson.

short clip

Watch a video clip of Nelson Mandela and Frederik Willem de Klerk receiving their Nobel Peace



Prize medals and diplomas at the time the Nobel Peace Prize Award Commemoration at the Oslo



City Hall in Norway, 10 December 1993.

Nelson Mandela died on 5 December 2013.