Nelson Mandela

Biography

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was born on 18 July 1918 in Mvezo, a small village in the Transkei region of South Africa, into the royal family of the Thembu tribe. His English name, Nelson, was given to him by a schoolteacher at primary school. He grew up in a country where the racial segregation regime weighed on every aspect of Black daily life. Studying law at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, he joined the ANC (African National Congress) in 1944 and co-founded its Youth League, giving the organisation a decisively activist orientation.

As a lawyer, Mandela was at the heart of resistance to apartheid, officially instituted in 1948. In 1952 he co-founded the first Black law firm in South Africa. In 1961, convinced that peaceful resistance alone could not overcome the regime, he created Umkhonto we Sizwe ("Spear of the Nation"), the ANC's armed wing, and organised acts of sabotage targeting economic infrastructure rather than individuals. In 1964, after the landmark Rivonia Trial, Mandela delivered a speech for the ages ("I am prepared to die for this ideal") and was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Nelson Mandela spent twenty-seven years in prison, eighteen of them on Robben Island, a windswept penal island off the Cape. Conditions were harsh: forced labour in limestone quarries, a cell measuring 2 square metres, strictly limited correspondence and visits. Yet far from being broken, he became the worldwide symbol of the fight against apartheid. The international community mobilised; economic sanctions were imposed on South Africa. In February 1990, President Frederik Willem de Klerk announced Mandela's release and the legalisation of the ANC.

On his release on 11 February 1990, Mandela resumed his diplomatic struggle and negotiated with de Klerk the transition to democracy. In 1993, both men received the Nobel Peace Prize for their joint efforts. On 27 April 1994, in South Africa's first multiracial elections, Mandela was elected president with 62% of the vote. He presided over the establishment of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, chaired by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, choosing national reconciliation over vengeance.

Nelson Mandela stepped down from the presidency in 1999 after a single term, true to his pledge to strengthen democracy. He then devoted himself to numerous humanitarian causes, including the fight against HIV/AIDS, a tragedy that had touched his own family. He passed away on 5 December 2013 at the age of 95 in Johannesburg, mourned by the entire world. His journey, from political prisoner to father of the Rainbow Nation, remains one of the most extraordinary human stories of the twentieth century.