President of South Africa, Antiapartheid Activist
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was born on July 18,1918, in the small village of Mvezo in the Eastern Cape. Following the death of his father, Mandela was “adopted” by the egent of the Tembus, Chief Jongintaba Dalindyebo. With the intention of preparing the boy for a career as a councillor to the Tembu king, the regent sent him to be educated at the Clarkebury Institute, Healdtown College, and the University of Fort Hare.
In 1941 Mandela was expelled from Fort Hare and, faced with an arranged marriage, he fled to Johannesburg. His first job was as a night watchman with Crown Mines. Among his new friends was Walter Sisulu, who would become a lifelong political colleague. Sisulu introduced Mandela to a liberal law firm who employed him as an articled clerk. By 1944 Mandela was an active member of the African National Congress (ANC) Youth League. In the same year he married a young nurse, Evelyn Mase.
As a member of the Youth League, Mandela adopted a position of African nationalism, strongly opposed to the influence of the Communist Party of South Africa. During 1951 Mandela began to accept the importance of a strategic alliance between the ANC and the Communists. In 1952 he played an important organizing role in the Defiance Campaign. In the same year Mandela established the first African law firm in South Africa in partnership with his political colleague, Oliver Tambo.
Throughout most of the 1950s, Mandela was either “banned” or on trial. At the same time he wrote a number of essays and speeches. In 1953, for example, he developed the M-plan, a secret cell-structure for the ANC. In 1956 he contributed an article to Liberation on his interpretation of the Freedom Charter. He noted that when the Freedom Charter was instituted “the non-European bourgeoisie will have the opportunity to own in their own name and right mills and factories, and trade and private enterprise will boom and flourish as never before.” This sentence would attain great importance in the decades that followed as Mandela had to defend himself against the accusation that he was a secret member of the Communist Party. In the mid-1950s, Mandela’s first marriage broke down and he married Winnie Nomzamo Madikizela in 1958.
Mandela had been arrested in 1956 and charged with treason along with 155 other political leaders. Five years later, the treason trial ended and Mandela and his co-accused were found to be innocent of the charges leveled against them. In the wake of the Sharpeville massacre and the banning of the ANC (1960), Mandela decided to go underground and rapidly entered South African popular mythology as the “Black Pimpernel.” In the same year he assumed the leadership of Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), the military wing of the ANC. After extensive travels through Africa and a brief visit to London, Mandela was captured in Natal. In October 1962 he was sentenced to five years imprisonment. Less than a year later, this sentence was overtaken by fresh charges related to the capture of the MK high command at Rivonia in July 1963. Following the Rivonia trial, Mandela was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1964.
Mandela’s years in prison steeled and hardened him for the negotiations that lay ahead. He rapidly emerged as the leader of the ANC group of political prisoners on Robben Island. Conditions were grim during the 1960s and visits by relatives were infrequent. However, by the mid-1970s, hard labor was phased out and prisoners were allowed to take part in organized sports and academic study. With the arrival of black consciousness activists following the Soweto uprising, Robben Island became something of a university of revolution. For Mandela, this was the ultimate test of his political skill. Faced with radical youngsters imbued with militant passion, he successfully argued the case for nonracialism and collective discipline. In 1978, to note his sixtieth birthday, the first Free Mandela campaign was launched by the ANC and the antiapartheid movement in London. The Mandela campaigns would grow in magnitude throughout the 1980s.
In 1982 Mandela and a handful of his senior colleagues were transferred from Robben Island to Pollsmoor Prison. Secret talks with representatives of the government began in the mid-1980s, although Mandela engaged in these talks without the authorization of the exiled ANC. In December 1988 he was moved to Victor Verster Prison. In February 1990 President F. W. de Klerk announced Mandela’s release and lifted the ban on various liberation organizations. Mandela had served twenty-seven years in prison.
The transition period in South Africa between 1990 and 1994 was tortuous. As the leader of the ANC, in practice, if not to begin with in name, Mandela tended to stand apart from the negotiations, only intervening in moments of crisis. He traveled throughout the world raising funds for the ANC and was greeted with almost universal acclaim, in the process finding himself acknowledged as one of the great iconic figures of the twentieth century. In 1993 Mandela shared the Nobel Peace Prize with F. W. de Klerk although their relationship was marked by resentment. In the same year, following the murder of Chris Hani, Mandela appeared on television to calm the anger of the people. It was apparent that fundamental power had already shifted in South Africa. This was confirmed by South Africa’s election in April 1994 during which the ANC won a resounding victory.
As president of South Africa from 1994 to 1999, Mandela devoted his time in office to reconciliation with his former enemies. Although the “Rainbow Nation” suffered economic crisis and burgeoning crime, he was not a hands-on politician; rather, as president Mandela was something of a monarchical figure. In 1998 he married for the third time, to Graca Machel. Mandela retired in 1999, having guided South Africa through its first period of majority rule. Mandela’s retirement set something of a precedent in Africa by demonstrating that a great leader can willingly hand over the reins of power.
James Sanders
See also: Luthuli, Albert John Mavumbi; Madikizela-Mandela, Winnie; South Africa: Antiapartheid Struggle, International; South Africa: Defiance Campaign, Freedom Charter, Treason Trials: 1952-1960; South Africa: 1994 to the Present; South Africa: Transition, 1990-1994.
Biography
Born on July 18,1918, in the small village of Mvezo in the Eastern Cape. Expelled from the University of Fort Hare and moves to Johannesburg to avoid an arranged marriage in 1941. Becomes active in the ANC Youth League. Marries Evelyn Mase in 1944. Established the first African law firm in South Africa with his political colleague Oliver Tambo in 1952. Divorces and marries, to Winnie Nomzamo Madikizela, in 1958. Arrested and charged with treason in 1956. The ANC banned, and Mandela goes “underground,” in 1960. Captured in Natal, and sentenced to life imprisonment in 1964. Released February 11, 1990. Shared the Nobel Peace Prize with F. W. de Klerk in 1993. Served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. Married for the third time, to Graca Machel, in 1998. Retired in 1999.
Further Reading
Benson, M. Nelson Mandela: The Man and the Movement. London: Penguin, 1994.
Mandela, N. Long Walk to Freedom. Rev. ed. London: Abacus, 1995.
-. Nelson Mandela Speaks: Forging a Democratic, Nonracial South Africa.
Sampson, A. Mandela: The Authorised Biography. London: HarperCollins, 1999.
World History
