Nelson Mandela

President of South Africa (1994–1999) and Nobel Peace Prize laureate

• Date of birth: July 18, 1918
• Place of birth: Mvezo, South Africa
• Died: December 5, 2013
• Place of death: Houghton Estate, Johannesburg, South Africa

Nelson Mandela dedicated his life to the struggle to end racial segregation and white minority rule under the apartheid system in South Africa. His contribution to the political education, mobilization, and organization of millions of people against apartheid remains unparalleled. In the 1990s, the South African government moved to abolish apartheid, and Mandela was elected the nation's first black president in 1994.

Early Life

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was born in 1918 in Transkei, South Africa, in a village called Mvezo. Although born of royal parentage, Mandela was reared in the traditional African setting among the Thembu. In addition to his mother, who was strong willed and dignified, Mandela’s father had three other wives. Along with his peers, Mandela was inculcated with a tremendous sense of responsibility to his family and community, reflected in some of his childhood duties such as plowing land, herding cattle, and tending sheep.

An important element that contributed to the political consciousness of Mandela during his youth was his listening to the elders of his village discuss the history of their people. Mandela learned of the noble traditions of his people before the European colonial invasion and the gallant struggles of resistance to European colonial rule. Mandela’s insatiable thirst for knowledge was partially satisfied when he attended mission school as a child and then later while studying at Clarebury, a nearby training college. He learned much about the atrocities experienced by his people under European colonial rule. Mandela’s desire to study law emanated from his observations of the paramount chief conducting court in his village and from his commitment to helping end minority rule and apartheid in South Africa.

Perhaps the most significant event that raised Mandela’s political consciousness while still a teenager was the series of laws that were passed by the white-controlled minority government in 1936. In the face of massive opposition, the entire black South African population was effectively disenfranchised; laws that restricted the movement and daily lives of black South Africans were extended throughout the country; and the increased expropriation of land owned by black South Africans left the black majority population (80 percent) with only 12.7 percent of land. Mandela was deeply affected by these events.

Mandela’s initiation into political activism began in 1940 while he was working on his bachelor of arts degree at Fort Hare University in the Eastern Cape. As a member of the Students’ Representative Council, he was suspended from school for participating in a boycott to protest the reduction of the council’s powers by authorities. After returning home briefly, he soon left for Johannesburg to avoid an arranged marriage and being trained for chieftainship.

Mandela found a small room in Alexandra, an overcrowded township on the edge of Johannesburg. With the encouragement of activist Walter Sisulu, in 1941 he joined the African National Congress (ANC), an antiapartheid organization founded in 1912. This marked the beginning of Mandela’s enduring struggle to establish justice and equality throughout South African society.

Life’s Work

Along with Oliver Tambo, his former schoolmate at Fort Hare College, and Sisulu, who provided Mandela with work and financial assistance to finish his BA by correspondence, Mandela helped revitalize a faltering ANC. By 1944, Mandela was instrumental in founding the Youth League, which became an integral part of the ANC. As the most radical element within the ANC, the Youth League helped turn the ANC into a mass movement. In 1949, Mandela was elected secretary of the Youth League and helped develop its program of action, which it submitted to the ANC executive officers. The program of action called for a series of boycotts, strikes, and other forms of civil disobedience designed to end white minority rule in South Africa. As a newly elected member of the ANC national executive board, Mandela worked hard to ensure that the ANC would adopt the program of action and implement it on May Day of 1950. Despite brutal repression by the South African government, the program of action gained considerable support from South African workers.

Near the end of 1950, with the apartheid system fully intact, Mandela was elected the national president of the Youth League. His natural charisma and dauntless personality contributed significantly to his outstanding leadership ability. As Youth League president, Mandela helped formulate a plan to intensify the ANC’s antiapartheid activities, called the Defiance Campaign. In 1952, he was appointed the campaign’s national volunteer in chief, which required that he travel throughout South Africa visiting the many black townships to explain and win mass support for the campaign. During this period, Mandela played a leading role in forming the first significant alliance between the black South Africans, Asians, and so-called "coloureds" of the country against the apartheid system.

On June 26, 1952, the official start of the campaign, Mandela was arrested for the first time by South African police for violating the curfew restrictions imposed on black South Africans at that time. He was soon released and observed the rapid spread of the campaign throughout the country. Within a month, he, Sisulu, and others were arrested once again, charged with “furthering the aims of communism,” under the Suppression of Communism Act. Their arrest merely fueled the antiapartheid movement across the country. Nevertheless, the South African government remained intransigent as it eventually crushed the movement.

Although Mandela was released after a few months in jail, his freedom of movement was severely restricted, and he lived under the constant threat of imprisonment for life. Nevertheless, he was able to qualify as an attorney after several years of studying law part time at the University of Witwatersrand, and he and Tambo, also an attorney, established a partnership in 1953. They practiced together during the mid-1950s, handling as many as seven cases a day, at times, in a country that then has one of the highest arrest and imprisonment rates in the world. In 1955, he was among the most influential attendees of the Congress of the People, where the ANC formulated the Freedom Charter, its manifesto for a nonracist society, human rights, labor reform, and land reform. When police disrupted the conference during its second day, Mandela escaped disguised as a milkman.

Once again, however, because of his continued ANC activity, Mandela was arrested shortly before 1957. He, along with Sisulu, Tambo, and others, was charged with high treason. Their trial, which gained worldwide attention, took more than four years to complete, during which time they spent two years in prison under very harsh and intolerable conditions. While in prison during this trial, Mandela was elected spokesperson for the accused. His brilliant testimony in court in their defense is regarded as one of the most profound antiapartheid commentaries ever made. On March 29, 1961, the judge found Mandela and the other defendants not guilty.

After his release, and with the ANC officially banned by the South African government, Mandela’s freedom of movement was restricted more than ever before. As the newly elected leader of the ANC, he was now faced with the formidable task of building the ANC underground. Mandela soon violated his restrictions, and the government issued a warrant for his arrest. It was another seventeen months before he was captured. During the interim, he was able to evade arrest through the use of a series of disguises and with the help of close friends and associates. These efforts by Mandela were very inspiring to his supporters, as he secretly toured the country meeting with people, giving advice, and directing certain efforts.

As the South African government intensified its campaign to destroy every manifestation of peaceful resistance to apartheid, Mandela, initially adherent to the nonviolent principles of Mahatma Gandhi, began to question the ANC’s long-standing policy of unconditional peaceful resistance. By mid-1961, in the face of several more brutal government attacks against peaceful demonstrations, Mandela led a group of ANC loyalists in forming Umkhonto we Sizwe (spear of the nation), the armed wing of the ANC. He began reading the writings of armed struggle strategists such as Mao Zedong and Che Guevara. When Mandela was smuggled out of South Africa in January 1962 to visit other countries in Africa, he learned considerably more about armed struggle, especially from the Algerians, who were engaged in an armed struggle against the French. After secretly returning to South Africa, Mandela resumed his duties of building Umkhonto we Sizwe. He was finally captured, however, by South African police on August 5, 1962.

After being found guilty for inciting workers to strike and leaving the country without appropriate travel documents, Mandela was sentenced on November 7, 1962, to five years’ hard labor. He was tried again, along with Sisulu and several other defendants, for recruiting persons for sabotage and guerrilla warfare and several other charges relating to a supposed violent overthrow of the South African government. Rather than deny guilt in any legal sense, Mandela convinced his codefendants that the trial should be used as an opportunity to espouse their antiapartheid beliefs. They did, and Mandela concluded his defense: “I have cherished the ideal of a democracy in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities.” It was an ideal, he continued, for which he was prepared to sacrifice himself if necessary. In June 1964, he and his fellow defendants were found guilty and sentenced to life in prison. Rather than appeal the decision, they simply left the court with dignity.

Between 1962 and 1982, Mandela was confined to the maximum security prison on Robben Island, where he lived and labored under very harsh conditions. While in prison, Mandela completed a bachelor of law degree through correspondence courses from the University of London. In April 1982, he and his comrades were transferred to Pollsmoor Prison, another maximum security prison on the mainland. State president P. W. Botha offered to free Mandela in 1985 if he agreed to abandon armed struggle, but Mandela refused. Officials, however, continued to meet with him while he was under treatment for prostate cancer in a Cape Town hospital. International and domestic pressure moved the government to place Mandela under minimum security in 1988. State president F. W. de Klerk came to power in August 1989 after Botha suffered a stroke. On February 2, 1990, de Klerk lifted the thirty-year ban on the ANC. Nine days later, after having served twenty-seven years in prison, Mandela was freed.

Despite his ordeal, Mandela’s spirit and commitment to ending apartheid had not diminished. He spoke to throngs of people in Cape Town and Soweto and stressed his unequivocal loyalty to the ANC and his continued support for armed struggle and for an international campaign of divestment and economic sanctions against South Africa. Additionally, after his release, Mandela traveled extensively outside South Africa, including a visit to the United States in June 1990, during which he stressed the importance to his cause of maintaining sanctions against the apartheid-supporting government. In 1991, during its national conference, ANC members chose Mandela to be the organization’s president. In February 1991, de Klerk pledged to repeal apartheid legislation.

The two following years saw intense negotiations between the government and the ANC. Spurred on by fears of increasing violence in the country, Mandela and President de Klerk announced in 1993 an agreement by which the ANC and the National Party would form a transitional government, ending apartheid and opening the political process to all South Africans. For their achievement, they shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993. In 1994, Mandela was elected president of South Africa. Forming a government of national unity, de Klerk served as Mandela’s first deputy and Thabo Mbeki, also of the ANC, was second deputy. The economic sanctions that many nations had established against South Africa were lifted, and trade and tourism increased under his presidency.

Mandela long recognized the power of sports in the political arena. In 1995, President Mandela sported the jersey of the nation's historically white rugby team, the Springboks, at the Rugby World Cup and shook hands with the Afrikaner captain to show national solidarity; these were major steps toward the reconciliation between white and black South Africans that Mandela sought in the postapartheid era. (This event was memorialized in the award-winning 2009 biopic Invictus.) He was later instrumental in bringing the 2010 FIFA World Cup soccer finals to South Africa, a point of great pride for the nation, and appeared at the closing ceremony.

During his five years as president, Mandela oversaw a campaign for reconciliation between races and between political factions. However, the transition was painful and slow. In 1998, he had to send the military into Lesotho, an autonomous kingdom within South Africa, to support the winner in a disputed election. Mandela was also active in international affairs. For instance, he helped settle the lengthy dispute between Libya and Great Britain over the trial of Libyan agents accused of masterminding the sabotage of Pan Am Flight 103, which had exploded over Scotland in December 1988.

In December 1997, Mandela stepped down from his role as president of the African National Congress, and Thabo Mbeki succeeded him as ANC president. Mandela chose not to run for reelection, and he stepped down from the presidency on June 14, 1999. Vice president Mbeki succeeded him. However, Mandela’s worldwide reputation for ending apartheid gave him broad moral authority, and he put it to use in working for social betterment and human rights. By 1998, he had already initiated the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund, and since 2000, the Nelson Mandela Invitational, a golf tournament, has raised millions of dollars for children’s charities. He founded the National Mandela Foundation in 2000 to promote political debate and social reform. The foundation also seeks to preserve and curate his legacy as a key part of South African history and inspire others to follow Mandela's example of service through the Nelson Mandela International Day. Beginning in 2001, he worked to raise funds to treat acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) in Africans; during his presidency, he had been criticized for neglecting the epidemic. Following the death of his eldest son, Makgatho, to AIDS on January 6, 2005, Mandela devoted a great deal of his remaining years to the 46664 Campaign, an HIV/AIDS awareness initiative named after Mandela's own prison number. In 2003, he established the Mandela Rhodes Foundation, a partnership with the Rhodes Trust to educate future African leaders. That same year, he denounced US president George W. Bush for invading Iraq and called for mass protests from Americans.

Still troubled by prostate cancer, Mandela announced his retirement from public life in June 2004. However, he continued to make occasional public appearances, particularly related to his philanthropic endeavors, and was revered as Madiba, an honorary title for elders in his clan that became synonymous with him among South Africans.

In 2007, he cofounded the Elders, a group of senior statesmen that has included Kofi Annan, Jimmy Carter, and Li Zhaoxin; the organization's goal is to foster agreement and inspire hope behind the scenes during political troubles. Also in 2007, the J. Alexander Galleries in La Jolla, California, hosted an exhibition of Mandela’s lithographic drawings.

Mandela was hospitalized in January 2011 for a respiratory infection and released after receiving treatment. However, the problem proved long term: he was hospitalized again in June 2013 and died in Johannesburg, South Africa, on December 5, 2013, at the age of ninety-five of a chronic lung infection. His body lay in state in Pretoria ahead of his burial in his home village. His memory was honored by major world leaders such as US president Barack Obama, who cited Mandela as a particular inspiration.

From 1944 to 1958, Mandela was married to Evelyn Ntoko Mase, with whom he had two sons, Thembekile and Makgatho, and two daughters, who were both named Makaziwe, after the first died in infancy. Following their divorce, he was married a second time from 1958 to 1996 to Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, with whom he had two daughters, Zenani and Zindziswa. His third and final marriage was to Graça Machel, widow of one-time president of Mozambique, Samora Machel, from 1998 until his death. He was survived by his widow, Graça, and his daughters Makaziwe, Zenani, and Zindziswa. In 2015, a sequel to his 1995 memoir Long Walk to Freedom was announced; the posthumous publication of the book is scheduled for 2016.

Significance

The impact of Mandela’s life on South Africa in particular and the world in general has been and will continue to be tremendous. The extreme sacrifices that he made, the unflinching courage that he exemplified, and the dogged commitment that he maintained all served to move millions of people around the world against the apartheid system. Mandela’s numerous trials in South African courts, for example, always received the watchful eye of the world community. On each occasion, his renowned defense of the ideals of freedom and democracy helped to raise the consciousness of the world against the daily injustices experienced by black South Africans.

Furthermore, Mandela lent his outstanding talent as a charismatic leader to rebuilding the ANC into a liberation movement with a huge mass following inside South Africa and with international respectability abroad. The ANC has been regarded as the organization most representative of the South African people; a large part of this accomplishment is the result of Mandela’s successful efforts at working with people of different races toward common aims in the struggle against apartheid. As the human embodiment of this struggle, Mandela served for almost thirty years as the quintessential political prisoner. As president, the daily challenges that the people of South Africa faced as they sought to heal the wounds of apartheid required all of Mandela’s hard-won courage, strength, and charisma as he continued to galvanize the energies of millions of people toward reconciliation and the establishment of a just and democratic order in South Africa.

For his work, Mandela was granted the Nobel Peace Prize, the US Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Order of St. John from Britain, the Bharat Ratna from India, and the Order of Canada. Also among his many honors were 2008 tribute show for his ninetieth birthday and the issuance of 2012 commemorative banknotes in South Africa.

Bibliography

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