Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela “Mandela” redirects here. For other uses, see Mandela Government of National Unity, which promulgated a new (disambiguation). constitution, Mandela also created the Truth and Rec- onciliation Commission to investigate past human rights abuses. While continuing with the former government’s Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (/mænˈdɛlə/;[1] Xhosa pro- economic liberalism, his administration introduced mea- nunciation: [xoˈliːɬaɬa manˈdeːla]; 18 July 1918 – 5 De- cember 2013) was a South African anti-apartheid rev- sures to encourage land reform, combat poverty, and ex- olutionary, politician, and philanthropist who served as pand healthcare services. Internationally, he acted as me- President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. He was the diator between Libya and the United Kingdom in the Pan country’s first black chief executive, and the first elected Am Flight 103 bombing trial, and oversaw military in- in a fully representative democratic election. His gov- tervention in Lesotho. He declined to run for a second ernment focused on dismantling the legacy of apartheid term, and was succeeded by his deputy, Thabo Mbeki. through tackling institutionalised racism and fostering Mandela became an elder statesman, focusing on chari- racial reconciliation. Politically an African nationalist table work in combating poverty and HIV/AIDS through and democratic socialist, he served as President of the the Nelson Mandela Foundation. African National Congress (ANC) party from 1991 to Mandela was a controversial figure for much of his life. 1997. Internationally, Mandela was Secretary General of Denounced as a communist terrorist by critics, he never- the Non-Aligned Movement from 1998 to 1999. theless gained international acclaim for his activism, hav- A Xhosa born to the Thembu royal family, Mandela at- ing received more than 250 honours, including the 1993 tended Fort Hare University and the University of Witwa- Nobel Peace Prize, the US Presidential Medal of Free- tersrand, where he studied law. Living in Johannesburg, dom, and the Soviet Lenin Peace Prize. He is held in deep he became involved in anti-colonial politics, joining the respect within South Africa, where he is often referred to by his Xhosa clan name, Madiba, or as Tata (“Father”); ANC and becoming a founding member of its Youth League. After the Afrikaner minority government of he is often described as the "Father of the Nation". the National Party established apartheid – a system of racial segregation that privileged whites – in 1948, he rose to prominence in the ANC’s 1952 anti-apartheid 1 Early life Defiance Campaign, was appointed superintendent of the organisation’s Transvaal chapter and presided over the 1955 Congress of the People. Working as a lawyer, he 1.1 Childhood: 1918–34 was repeatedly arrested for seditious activities and, with the ANC leadership, was unsuccessfully prosecuted in Mandela was born on 18 July 1918 in the village of Mvezo [2] the Treason Trial from 1956 to 1961. Influenced by in Umtata, then a part of South Africa’s Cape Province. Marxism, he secretly joined the South African Com- Given the forename Rolihlahla, a Xhosa term colloqui- [3] munist Party (SACP). Although initially committed to ally meaning “troublemaker”, in later years he became [4] non-violent protest, in association with the SACP he co- known by his clan name, Madiba. His patrilineal great- founded the militant Umkhonto we Sizwe in 1961, lead- grandfather, Ngubengcuka, was ruler of the Thembu peo- ing a sabotage campaign against the government. In ple in the Transkeian Territories of South Africa’s mod- [5] 1962, he was arrested, convicted of conspiracy to over- ern Eastern Cape province. One of this king’s sons, throw the state, and sentenced to life imprisonment in the named Mandela, became Nelson’s grandfather and the [6] Rivonia Trial. source of his surname. Because Mandela was only the king’s child by a wife of the Ixhiba clan, a so-called “Left- Mandela served 27 years in prison, initially on Robben Hand House”, the descendants of his cadet branch of Island, and later in Pollsmoor Prison and Victor Verster the royal family were morganatic, ineligible to inherit the Prison. An international campaign lobbied for his re- throne but recognised as hereditary royal councillors.[6] lease, which was granted in 1990 amid escalating civil His father, Gadla Henry Mphakanyiswa, was a local chief strife. Mandela joined negotiations with President F. W. and councillor to the monarch; he had been appointed de Klerk to abolish apartheid and establish multiracial to the position in 1915, after his predecessor was ac- elections in 1994, in which he led the ANC to victory cused of corruption by a governing white magistrate.[7] and became South Africa’s first black president. He pub- In 1926 Gadla was also sacked for corruption, but Nel- lished his autobiography in 1995. Leading South Africa’s son was told that he had lost his job for standing up to 1 2 1 EARLY LIFE the magistrate’s unreasonable demands.[8] A devotee of the god Qamata,[9] Gadla was a polygamist, having four wives, four sons and nine daughters, who lived in dif- ferent villages. Nelson’s mother was Gadla’s third wife, Nosekeni Fanny, who was daughter of Nkedama of the Right Hand House and a member of the amaMpemvu clan of Xhosa.[10] “No one in my family had ever attended school [...] On the first day of school my teacher, Miss Mdingane, gave each of us an English name. This was the custom among Africans in those days and was undoubtedly due to the British bias of our education. That day, Miss Mdingane told me that my new name was Nelson. Why this partic- ular name I have no idea.” — Mandela, 1994[11] Later stating that his early life was dominated by “custom, ritual and taboo”,[12] Mandela grew up with two sis- ters in his mother’s kraal in the village of Qunu, where he tended herds as a cattle-boy, spending much time out- side with other boys.[13] Both his parents were illiterate, but being a devout Christian, his mother sent him to a Mandela c. 1937 local Methodist school when he was about seven. Bap- tised a Methodist, Mandela was given the English forename of “Nelson” by his teacher.[14] When Mandela was about nine, his father came to stay at Qunu, where he ondary education at Clarkebury Methodist High School died of an undiagnosed ailment which Mandela believed Engcobo, a Western-style institution that was the largest to be lung disease.[15] Feeling “cut adrift”, he later said school for black Africans in Thembuland.[23] Made to so- that he inherited his father’s “proud rebelliousness” and cialise with other students on an equal basis, he claimed “stubborn sense of fairness”.[16] that he lost his “stuck up” attitude, becoming best friends with a girl for the first time; he began playing sports and Mandela’s mother took him to the “Great Place” developed his lifelong love of gardening.[24] Completing palace at Mqhekezweni, where he was entrusted under his Junior Certificate in two years,[25] in 1937 he moved the guardianship of Thembu regent, Chief Jongintaba to Healdtown, the Methodist college in Fort Beaufort Dalindyebo. Although he did not see his mother again attended by most Thembu royalty, including Justice.[26] for many years, Mandela felt that Jongintaba and his wife The headmaster emphasised the superiority of English Noengland treated him as their own child, raising him culture and government, but Mandela became increas- alongside their son Justice and daughter Nomafu.[17] As ingly interested in native African culture, making his first Mandela attended church services every Sunday with his non-Xhosa friend, a Sotho language-speaker, and com- guardians, Christianity became a significant part of his ing under the influence of one of his favourite teachers, a life.[18] He attended a Methodist mission school located Xhosa who broke taboo by marrying a Sotho.[27] Spend- next to the palace, studying English, Xhosa, history and ing much of his spare time long-distance running and geography.[19] He developed a love of African history, lis- boxing, in his second year Mandela became a prefect.[28] tening to the tales told by elderly visitors to the palace, and became influenced by the anti-imperialist rhetoric of With Jongintaba’s backing, Mandela began work on a Chief Joyi.[20] At the time he nevertheless considered the Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree at the University of Fort European colonialists as benefactors, not oppressors.[21] Hare, an elite black institution in Alice, Eastern Cape, Aged 16, he, Justice and several other boys travelled to with around 150 students. There he studied English, Tyhalarha to undergo the circumcision ritual that symbol- anthropology, politics, native administration, and Roman ically marked their transition from boys to men; the rite Dutch law in his first year, desiring to become an in- over, he was given the name Dalibunga.[22] terpreter or clerk in the Native Affairs Department.[29] Mandela stayed in the Wesley House dormitory, be- friending his own kinsman, K.D. Matanzima, as well as 1.2 Clarkebury, Healdtown, and Fort Oliver Tambo, who became a close friend and comrade Hare: 1934–40 for decades to come.[30] Continuing his interest in sport, Mandela took up ballroom dancing,[31] performed in a Intending to gain skills needed to become a privy council- drama society play about Abraham Lincoln,[32] and gave lor for the Thembu royal house, Mandela began his sec- Bible classes in the local community as part of the Stu- 3 dents Christian Association.[33] Although having friends funeral.[48]

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