Rest in peace Mandela – a biography

Rolihahla Mandela was born into the Madiba clan in Mvezo, Transkei, on July 18, 1918, to Nonqaphi Nosekeni and Nkosi Mphakanyiswa Gadla Mandela, principal counsellor to the acting King of the Thembu people, Jongintaba Dalindyebo.
His father died when he was a child 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 also dreamt of making his own contribution to the freedom struggle of his people.
He attended primary school in Qunu where his teacher, Madingane, 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. He completed his BA through the University of South Africa, and went back to Fort Hare for his graduation in 1943.
When he returned to Mqhekezweni in December 1940, Mandela found that marriage had been arranged for him, and so he fled to Johannesburg via Queenstown, arriving in April 1941. He went to work as a mine security officer and after meeting Walter Sisulu, an estate agent, who introduced him to Lazar Sidelsky, he did his articles through the firm of attorneys Witkin Eidelman and Sidelsky.
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 1948 without graduating.
He only started studying again through the University of London and 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.
Nelson Mandela, while increasingly politically involved from 1942, only joined the African National Congress in 1944, when he helped form the ANC Youth League.
In 1944 he married Walter Sisulus 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. They effectively separated in 1955 and divorced in 1958.
Mandela rose through the ranks of the ANCYL, and throughout its work, the ANC adopted in 1949 a more radical mass-based policy, the Programme of Action.
In 1952 he was chosen at the National Volunteer-in-Chief of the Defiance Campaign with Maulvi Cachalia as his deputy. 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 Mandela to practice law, and in August 1952, he and Oliver Tambo established South Africas 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 able to secretly watch as the Freedom Charter was adopted at Kliptown on June 26, 1955.
Nelson Mandela was arrested in a countrywide police swoop of 156 activists on December 5, 1955, which led to the 1956 Treason Trial. Men and women of all races found themselves in the dock in trial that only ended when the last 28 accused, including Mandela, were acquitted on March 29, 1961.
During the trial, 1958, Mandela married a social worker Winnie Madikizela. They had two daughters Zenani and Zindziswa. The couple divorced in 1996.
On March 21, 1960, police killed 69 unarmed people in a protest at Sharpeville against the pass laws. This led to the countrys first State of Emergency on March 31, and the banning of the ANC and the Pan Africanist Congress on April 8.
Mandela and his colleagues in the treason trial were among the thousands detained during the State of Emergency.
Days before the end of the treason trial, Mandela travelled to Pietermaritzburg to speak at the All-in Africa Conference, which resolved he should write to Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd, requesting a non-racial national convention, and to warn that should he not agree, there would be a national strike against South Africa becoming a republic.
As soon as he and his colleagues were acquitted in the treason trial, Mandela went underground and began planning a national strike for March 29, 30 and 31. In the face of a massive mobilisation of State security, the strike was called off early.
In June 1961, after helping to organise and to lead many peaceful protest campaigns, it became clear to Mandela and his colleagues that the regime would not allow a peaceful change, and Umkhonto weSizwe (Spear of the Nation) also known as MK was formed. This was an army for freedom-fighters, which launched the armed struggle.
On January 11, 1962, using the adopted name David Motsamayi, Mandela left South Africa secretly. He travelled around Africa and visited England to gain support for the armed struggle. He received military training in Morocco and Ethiopia, and returned to South Africa in July 1962.
He was arrested in a police roadblock outside Howick on August 5, while returning from KwaZulu-Natal where he briefed ANC President, Chief Albert Luthuli about his trip.
He was charged with leaving the country illegally, and inciting workers to strike. He was convicted and sentenced to five years imprisonment, which he began serving in the Pretoria Local Prison.
On May 27, 1963, he was transferred to Robben Island, and returned to Pretoria on June 12. Within a month, police raided a secret hide-out in Rivonia, used by ANC and Communist Party activists, and several of his comrades were arrested.
In October 1963, Mandela joined nine others on trial for sabotage, in what became known as the Rivonia Trial. On June 11, 1964, Mandela and seven other accused were convicted, and the next day were sentenced to life imprisonment.
On March 31, 1982, Nelson Mandela was transferred to Pollsmoor Prison. In 1988, he was treated for Tuberculosis, and was transferred on December 7, 1988, to a house at Victor Verster Prison near Paarl.
During his time in prison, he withstood harsh conditions with dignity and fortitude. Other prisoners remarked on how he became a leader of all the other prisoners, fighting for their rights to get better treatment, improved food and study privileges.
He encouraged fellow prisoners never to give away their dignity.
He was released from its gates on Sunday, February 11, 1990, nine days after the unbanning of the ANC and the PAC, and nearly four months after the release of the remaining Rivonia Trial comrades.
Throughout his imprisonment, he had rejected at least three conditional offers of release.
Nelson Mandela immersed himself into official talks to end white minority rule, and in 1991, was elected ANC President, to replace his ailing friend Oliver Tambo.
In 1993, he and President FW de Klerk, jointly won the Nobel Peace Prize, and on April 27, 1994, he voted for the first time in his life.
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 State President.