Dubai: Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was born in Transkei, South Africa on July 18, 1918. Upon the death of his father, Mandela was adopted by the local village chief Jongintaba.
After moving to Johannesburg, Mandela studied law at University of Witwatersrand and soon became actively involved in the anti-apartheid movement, joining the African National Congress in 1942.
Within the ANC, he led the African National Congress Youth League which garnered support at the grassroots level.
For 20 years, Mandela directed peaceful, non-violent acts of defiance such as boycotts, non-cooperation, strikes, civil disobedience to protest against the South African government and its racist policies, including the 1952 Defiance Campaign and the 1955 Congress of the People.
He founded the law firm Mandela and Tambo (with Oliver Tambo) which provided free and low-cost legal counsel to unrepresented blacks.
In 1956, Mandela and 150 others were arrested and charged with treason for their political advocacy (they were eventually acquitted).
After the banning of the ANC in 1960, Mandela set up the military wing of the ANC — Umkhonto we Sizwe — dedicated to sabotage and guerrilla war tactics to end apartheid.
In 1963, when many fellow leaders of the ANC and the Umkhonto we Sizwe were arrested, Mandela was brought to stand trial with them for plotting to overthrow the government by violence. On 9 October 1963 Mandela joined ten others on charges of sabotage in the Rivonia Trial.
From 1964 to 1982, he was incarcerated at Robben Island Prison, thereafter, he was at Pollsmoor Prison.
During his years in prison, Nelson Mandela’s reputation grew steadily as he became a potent symbol of black resistance as the anti-apartheid movement gathered strength.
Frederik Willem de Klerk finally announced Mandela’s release on February 11, 1990. De Klerk also unbanned the ANC.
In 1991, at the first national conference of the ANC held inside South Africa (the organisation had been banned in the country in 1960), Mandela was elected President of the ANC.
On 10 May 1994, Mandela was inaugurated as South Africa’s first democratically elected President. Mandela stepped down in 1999 after one term as President.
He continued to work with the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund he set up in 1995 and established the Nelson Mandela Foundation and The Mandela Rhodes Foundation.
Mandela also established a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to oversee hearings of atrocities committed during apartheid. The UN declared July 18 as International Nelson Mandela Day.
Mandela died at his home in Johannesburg on December 5, 2013.
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