Rolihlahla Mandela was born into the Madiba clan in the village of Mvezo , Transkei, on 18 July 1918. His mother was Nonqaphi Nosekeni and his father was Nkosi Mphakanyiswa Gadla Mandela, principal counsellor to the Acting King of the Thembu people, Jongintaba Dalindyebo. In 1930, when he was 12 years old, his father died and the young Rolihlahla became a ward of Jongintaba at the Great Place in Mqhekezweni .
Hearing
the elders’ stories of his ancestors’ valour during the wars of resistance, he
dreamed also of making his own contribution to the freedom struggle of his
people.
The
narrated life and times of Nelson Mandela
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.
On his return to the Great Place
at Mqhekezweni 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, he was
introduced to Lazer Sidelsky. He then did his articles through a firm of
attorneys, Witkin Eidelman and Sidelsky.
He
completed his BA through the University of South Africa and went back to Fort
Hare for his graduation in 1943.
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 1952 without graduating. He only started studying again through
the University of London after his imprisonment in 1962 but 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.
Entering politics
Nelson
Mandela, while increasingly politically involved from 1942, only joined the
African National Congress in 1944 when he helped to form 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. He and his wife
divorced in 1958.
Nelson
Mandela rose through the ranks of the ANCYL and through its efforts, the ANC
adopted a more radical mass-based policy, the Programme of Action in 1949.
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 permitted to watch in secret as the Freedom Charter was adopted in Kliptown on 26 June 1955.
President
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 was installed as 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 is
an inspiration to all who are oppressed and deprived; and to all who are
opposed to oppression and deprivation.
He died
at his home in Johannesburg on 5 December 2013.
