by: Neha Ichharam
Nelson
Mandela was born on July 18, 1918 in South Africa. He lived during apartheid, a
period of segregation similar to that of segregation in the United States.
Mandela
was expelled from Fort Hare University in his second year for siding with the
majority of students demanding better food and more power to be held by the
Student Representative Council (SRC). In this action, he resigned from his
position in the SRC, which was taken as disobedience.
A
few weeks after Mandela returned home, the man who adopted him announced that
he had arranged a marriage for him. Shocked by the news and feeling trapped, he
ran away from home and settled in Johannesburg. He worked different jobs and
later enrolled in the University of Witwatersrand to study law.
Mandela
soon joined the African National Congress (ANC) and became involved in the
anti-apartheid movement. Within the ANC, a group of young Africans banded
together and called themselves the African National Congress Youth League.
In 1949, the ANC adopted the African National
Congress Youth Leagues methods of boycott, strike, and civil disobedience,
deeming their polite petitioning ineffective.
Mandela participated in peaceful, nonviolent acts of defiance against
South African government and its racist policies for 20 years. In 1956, In
1961, Mandela led a three-day national worker’s strike. In the next year, he
was arrested for leading the strike and sentenced to five years in prison. Two
years later, Mandela was brought to trial again with 10 other ANC leaders who
were all sentenced to life imprisonment. He spent 18 of his 27 years of
imprisonment on Robben Island. While there, Mandela developed tuberculosis and,
being a black political prisoner, received the lowest level of help from prison
workers. However, he earned his Bachelor of Law degree while in prison.
In
1985, President P. W. Botha offered Mandela’s release if the prisoner rejected
armed struggle to which Mandela flatly turned down the offer. On February 11,
1990, Mandela’s release was finally announced.
The new president also unbanned the ANC. In 1991, Mandela was elected
president of the ANC. On May 10, 1994, Mandela was inaugurated as South
Africa’s first black president at the age of 77.
By
1999, Mandela retired from active politics. However, he continued to raise
money to build schools and clinics in South Africa.
On December 5, 2013, Nelson Mandela died at age 95 in his home in
Johannesburg, South Africa from a respiratory infection. The current president,
President Zuma, announced a 10 day mourning period for all South Africans and
declared Sunday, December 8, 2013, a day of national prayer and remembrance.
