Madiba spent much time trying to unify and build the ANC. He was later elected ANC president, becoming State President after the historic election in 1994.
Mandela personifies passion. He sacrificed his private life and his youth for the people, and remains the world’s best loved hero. He never gave up, even while spending 27 years behind bars as a political prisoner.
He spent his life fighting for racial inequality.
What’s remarkable is Mandela has successfully maintained his integrity and stature even after taking office: many freedom fighters have become dictators with power. But not Madiba.
He led the fight that led to the demise of apartheid. He built the ANC into the vote gobbling monster it is today. In the early 1960s and disguising himself as a chauffeur, Mandela travelled the country incognito, organising the ANC’s new cell structure and a mass stay-at-home strike.
His revolutionary activities gained attention in 1952 with the defiance campaign against apartheid. Deciding on a path of non-violent resistance influenced by Mahatma Gandhi, some considered it the ethical option, but Mandela instead considered it pragmatic.
At a Durban rally, Mandela addressed an assembled crowd of 10 000, initiating the campaign protests for which he was arrested and brieflyinterned in Marshall Square prison. With further protests the ANC’s membership grew.
He had been arrested, found guilty of statutory communism and banned from attending meetings or talking to more than one individual at a time.
At some point he came to the conclusion that the ANC had no alternative but to take up arms and resist through violent means.
After his release from prison, Mandela led a multiracial ANC delegation into preliminary negotiations with a government delegation of 11 Afrikaner’s, impressing them with his discussions on Afrikaner history.
Forever a messenger of peace, Mandela once incurred the wrath of activists from the ANC military wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe by offering a ceasefire after he recognised the ANC’s severe military disadvantage.
Happy birthday Tata. You are loved by all across the globe, today and always.
