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Chronicles of Greatness (14) Nelson Mandela
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Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (1918 –2013)
"Sometimes it falls upon a generation to be great. You can be that great generation. Let your greatness blossom.
- Nelson Mandela
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela popularly known and called Nelson Mandela or Mandiba was Born on 18 July 1918 in the little village of Mvezo, in Qunu in southern Transkei, into the Tembu Family, a royal family of the a Xhosa-speaking tribe in South Africa His father had four wives and 13 children. He is among the youngest of his father's four boys.
At age 9, Nelson Mandela lost his father and after his father's death, his uncle who was also the head of his tribe became his guardian.
He was the first of his family to go to school. At age 7, he started his primary education at a Methodist missionary school, where he was named Nelson. From there, he attended the Clarkebury School. After soometime, he moved to the all-British Healdtown High School, a strict Methodist college. It was in this school Mandela heard of the African National Congress (ANC) for the first time.
Mandela started a bachelor of arts degree at the African Native College of Fort Hare but was expelled shortly after with Oliver Tambo for participating in a student strike.
In 1941, Mandela moved to Soweto, Southern outskirts of Johannesburg to escape from an arranged marriage. He worked as a nightwatchman at a gold mine. After his BA, he went further to enrol for a degree in law at the University of South Africa. It was in the school Mandela met Walter Sisulu an ANC active member who recommended him for a job with a lawyer at Johannesburg. He also granted Mandela loans to support him. The employment and the loan helped Mandela complete his law degree. This also was the beginning of a great friendship between them.
In 1944, Mandela joined ANC . He, Sisulu and Tambo founded the ANC Youth Colleague. That same year, Mandela married his first wife, Evelyn Mase, a trainee nurse. They had four children together, two boys and two girls. However, their first daughter died at nine months in 1948 while their eldest son died in a car crash in 1969. In 1947, Mandela was elected secretary of the ANC Youth League.
In 1948, the National Party was voted into power by the white electorate. The party introduced the “apartheid” system to start racism. This led to the discrimination against blacks, “coloureds” and Asians. All South Africans were legally assigned into one racial group – white, African, coloured of Asian. All races lived in separate areas and amenities such as toilets, parks and beached. Signs imposing the separation were erected throughout the country and only white South Africans were vested full political rights.
Black Africans had no parliamentary representation apart from the supposedly independent homelands created by the state. Inter racial marriages were prohibited. Black trade unions were banned. Education was only up to a level deemed as "a native is fitted." There were separate universities and colleges established for Africans, coloureds and Indians and jobs were categorised as being for whites only. Travel without a pass is not permitted and many more.
The Suppression of Communism Act (1950) allowed the police to "list" almost any opponent of apartheid as a supporter of the outlawed Communist Party of South Africa. The Native Administration Act (1956) allows the government to "banish" Africans to remote rural areas.
In the 1950s there were approximately 500,000 passed law arrests annually, more than 600 individuals were listed as communists, nearly 350 were banned, and more than 150 were banished.
In 1949, precisely December 17, the Youth League's 'Program of Action' set to achieve full citizenship and direct parliamentary representation for all South Africans was adopted by the ANC at its annual conference. The program advocated the use of boycotts, strikes, civil disobedience and noncooperation.
In 1950, Mandela was elected to the ANC National Executive Committee at the ANC's national conference. In 1951 he became national president of the Youth League.
In 1952, February, the ANC called on the government to repeal all unjust laws or face a 'Campaign for the Defiance of Unjust Laws'. Mandela was placed in charge of volunteers for the campaign. He travelled round the country to organise resistance to discriminatory legislation; mass rallies and strikes staged on 6 April and 26 June attracted thousands of supporters. The government only reacted by introducing harsher penalties for protests against apartheid. Campaign leaders and opposition newspapers were banned and about 8,500 people were arrested, including Mandela.
However, because of the disciplined and nonviolent nature of the campaign, Mandela received a suspended sentence, alongside a banning order that confined him to Johannesburg for six months and prohibited him from attending gatherings. During the period he was banned he formulated a plan to break down ANC branches into underground cells to enable greater contact with the African community – 'M-Plan' or Mandela plan.
In 1953, he was force to resign officially from ANC and work underground. In 1955, a 'Freedom Charter' was written by ANC which stated that South Africans should be treated equally. When this Charter was been deliberated upon by the congress of the people, the police disrupted the meeting and announced that they suspected treason was being committed and took the names and addresses of all those present.
In 1956, Mandela, Tambo, Sisulu and 153 others were arrested for high treason and charges under the Suppression of Communism Act. During the subsequent 'Treason Trial' Mandela conducted his own defence and the defendants were acquitted on all counts in 1961. The court discovered that the ANC did not have a policy of violence.
In 1957,Mandela met social worker Nomzamo Zaniewe Winifred "Winnie" Madikizela. He divorced his first wife and marries Winnie in 1958. The couple have two daughters.
In the 1960s, the regime introduced a program of forced relocation. Africans, coloureds and Asians were moved from areas designated for whites only to the "homelands" and other declared areas. By the 1980s about 3.5 million have been relocated.
...to be continued
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This post was edited by Adebola Ayoade at May 7, 2015 6:31 AM CEST