Nelson Mandela
Nelson Mandela was born into
After receiving a
primary education at a local mission school, Nelson Mandela was sent to Wesleyan
Secondary School, where he finished. He then enrolled at the University College
of Fort Hare for the Bachelor of Arts Degree, and was elected onto the Representative
Council.
He entered politics in earnest
while studying in Johannesburg. At the height of the WWII, a small group of
young Africans banned together. They set themselves the formidable task of
transforming the African National Congress (ANC) into a mass movement. And in
April 1944 they came together and found the African National Congress Youth
League, their goal - to achieve true democracy in the whole African continent.
In 1948 the National Party came to power in South Africa. During the 1950's, Mandela was the victim of various forms of repression. He was banned, arrested and imprisoned. After the Sharpville Massacre in 1960, the ANC was illegal. The leadership picked up the threads from its underground headquarters. Nelson Mandela emerged at this time as the leading figure.
Mandela, moving from place to place, was forced to live apart from his family to evade detection by the government. He was convicted and sentenced to five years imprisonment, and while serving his sentence, was charged in the Rivonia Trial with Sabotage. Mandela's statements are well known in the history of resistance to apartheid.
'I have fought against white domination and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is and is an ideal which I hope to live for and achieve. But if needs be, it's an ideal for which I am prepared to die.'
- South Africa GSCE
Mandela was sentenced to life imprisonment. He started his prison years in Robben Island Prison (7km off the coast of Cape Town) in April 1984 e was transferred to Pollmoors prison in Cape Town, and in 1988 to Victor Verster Prison near Paarl. He was released on 11 February 1990.
