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Home > Modern History > Personalities in the Twentieth Century > Nelson Mandela 1918 to 2000 > Mandela

Nelson Mandela 1918 to 2000

Troy Neale
Eagle ValeHigh School

1. Historical context

1. Decolonization after World War II
   Post World War II Africa was a rapidly changing continent. Decolonization became the driving force of change. Colonial power was replaced by indigenous control that had either been granted or obtained by force. The majority of African nations achieved their independence in the 1950s and 1960s. As decolonization gained pace, hundreds of years of colonial rule by Britain, France, Portugal, Spain and Belgium came to an end.
   
   The European withdrawal from African colonies was a direct challenge to the white minority government of South Africa. In April 1960, Eric Louw, the South African Foreign Minister, accurately predicted that white rule would soon be confined to the Portuguese territories (Angola and Mozambique), Rhodesia and South Africa. As part of the British Commonwealth, SouthAfrica deemed decolonization to be a betrayal of South Africa and the ‘white man’, and as a result left white South Africa open to attack by ‘immature’ black communist nations to the north.
   
   The rapid advance of decolonization left South Africa increasingly isolated on the continent and internationally. The newly-free African states would not tolerate the racism and oppression of black Africans by white governments any longer. Internationally, both the United Nations (UN) and the Organization of African Unity (OAU) demanded South Africa enter the modern world and end its racial policies.
   
   In 1960 the British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, toured Africa He observed the growing strength of Africa nationalism. The concluding address of his visit was made to the South African Parliament at Cape Town. In this speech, known as the famous ‘winds of change’ speech, he stated:
   
   “The wind of change is blowing through the continent…. Whether we like it or not, this growth of national consciousness is a political fact…. The aim (of our modern Commonwealth).. is to create a society which represented the rights of individual.. in which merit and merit alone is the criterion for a man’s advancement, whether political or economic” Harold McMillan, speech to the South Africa Parliament February 1960.
   
   
2. Rise of the National Party and creation of the apartheid state
   During the Great Depression of the 1930s in South Africa, Afrikaner nationalism was growing stronger. Afrikaner nationalism stressed the uniqueness of Afrikaners as God’s chosen people. They used their selected retelling of the history of the Great Trek and the Battle of Blood River, to justify their ideas of racial superiority. These ideas would eventually be formalized in the doctrine of apartheid. During the 1930s, there were a number of different political parties among the whites in South Africa. In 1934, Prime Minister J.B.M Hertzog wanted unification with the party of Jan Smuts and subsequently formed the United Party. Unhappy with this Alliance many Afrikaners saw this as betrayal and left the party. Dr D.F.Malan a minister in the Hertzog government formed a new party of Afrikaners the Purified National Party.
   
   The new (Purified) National Party (NP) believed it represented the ‘true’ South Africans- the Afrikaners, whose ancestors were Dutch colonists and trekboers who farmed and settled in South Africa since the 1600s. The National Party heavily promoted Afrikaner Nationalism, creating the Voortreeker Monument dedicated to the trekboers at Pretoria. The surge in Afrikaner nationalism also created a propaganda film called “Bou van ‘n Nasie”: translated as “They built the nation”. This film was based on the myth of Afrikaners racial superiority and their struggle to survive against hostile forces in Africa.
   
   During World War II many blacks entered the cities and urban areas to work. After the war, whites particularly Afrikaners, believed they would be swamped by black Africans and they would be forced to surrender economic and political power. The Afrikaners in the National Party vowed to protect whites from losing out economically to blacks and they also vowed to protect the ‘poor whites’. The National Party under the leadership of Dr D.F.Malan also believed that Afrikaners would be undermined by historically wealthier English South Africans, Jews and Indians. Apartheid effectively became a platform of both Afrikaner affirmative action to protect the interest of the Afrikaners and a doctrine of racial segregation described as separateness.
   
   The result in the 1948 election was a landslide win for the new National Party under Dr. D.F. Malan campaigning on the apartheid platform. The NP won over seventy-nine seats in parliament. The NP would stay in power for another forty-six years as the ruling party of white South Africa.
   
   Questions to consider:
   1. Describe the impact of decolonization on South Africa in the period before 1960.
   2. Explain why the NP was so successful in the 1948 election.
      
      
   Reference: Brits, JP, Modern South Africa: Afrikaner power, the politics of race, and resistance, 1902 to the 1970’s (Pretoria, University of South Africa Press, 2005)
   
   
3. Nature of the apartheid system
   Refer to: Hyperlink to South Africa: National Study HSC Online)
   
   
4. Varieties of resistance to apartheid
   Refer to : Hyperlink to South Africa: National Study HSC Online)

2. Background

1. Family background and education
   A member of the Madiba clan and of the royal family of the Thembu people, Rolihlahla Dalibunga Mandela, was born on the 18th of July 1918, in a tiny village of Mvezo on the banks of the river Mbashe. Mvezo is in the district of Umtata in what was then called the Transkei. He lived in a peaceful farming area which is between the Cape and Natal in a thatched rondavel with his mother Nosekeni Fanny and his father Gadla Hendry Mandela. He was born into the Xhosa nation in which his father was a respected chief. The birth of Mandela brought great celebration in his village. His father named him Rolihlahla, which in Xhosa literally means, ‘pulling the branch of a tree’ or ‘troublemaker’.
   
   As a member of the Thembu people, Mandela’s father was a highly respected chief, who was known for his stubbornness, often clashing with the white authorities.
   
   When Mandela was about one year old, his father had a dispute with the local white authorities. He was stripped of his position as chief and lost his cattle and home, and the family was forced to move to the nearby villageof Qunu. At Qunu, Mandela lived with his aunties, uncles and his half- brothers and sister who supported the Mandela family. Mandela’s mother converted to Christianity and joined the Methodist congregation. In 1925, at the age of seven Mandela was sent to the nearby Wesleyan church and was educated in the one room mission school. When Mandela arrived at the school, the teacher could not pronounce his name and therefore he was given the English name of Nelson.
   
   In 1927, after being in school for only two years Mandela’s father died of lung disease. Mandela was placed in the care of Jongintaba, the Chief Regent of the Thembu taught the traditions of the Xhosa people and Mandela become a man in the traditional African way by being circumcised. In his teenage years Mandela was sent to the Wesleyan mission school. Mandela excelled academically at Clarkbury. Later, Mandela enrolled at Healdtown, a Wesleyan college in Fort Beaufort. In 1938, at the age of 21, Mandela graduated from Healdtown and, he then, enrolled at Fort Hare University, the only black university in South Africa.
   
   Reference: Mandela, Nelson, Long Walk to Freedom, (London, Abacus, 1994)
   
   
2. Career as lawyer
   At fort Hare, Mandela’s guardian tried to arrange a marriage for him. Mandela fled to Johannesburg to escape the arranged marriage and worked for a time as a guard at Crown Mines. At the mines, Mandela witnessed the true brutality of apartheid on non-whites in South Africa. Mandela was fired from his job as a guard at the Crown Mines, but luckily met Walter Sisulu, an estate agent who employed Mandela as a law clerk. Sisulu and Mandela become good friends. Sisulu was a member of the African National Congress and influenced Mandela greatly. Shortly after meeting Sisulu, Mandela joined the ANC. Mandela had graduated with Bachelor of Arts degree from Fort Hare and now wanted to enroll in a law degree at the University of Witwatersrand (or Wits) the premier English-Speaking University in South Africa. At Wits, Mandela had many problems with the racist lecturers, but at the same time he met Joe Slovo and his partner Ruth First, both white members of the South African Community Party (SACP) who were dedicated to fighting apartheid in South Africa. They introduced Mandela to many politically active whites. Eventually Mandela left Wits without his law degree and studied via correspondence at the University of South Africa and achieved his legal qualification. At Forte Hare, Mandela had met Oliver Tambo, and in 1952, they opened the first black legal service, providing free or low-cost legal counsel for many blacks who would otherwise have been without legal representation. ‘Mandela and Tambo’ was the name on the brass plate of Africa’s first black law firm. Mandela and Tambo spent every day dealing with the injustices of the apartheid state on poor blacks who had been arrested and/ or charged for minor breaches of the apartheid laws, including being on ‘whites only’ beaches or buses. In defending poor blacks, Mandela and Tambo met with the racist attitudes of the white legal system.
   
   Mandela found himself fighting for the victims of police brutality, and the decisions of the racial Classification Board, where many people had their ‘colour’ determined by the court.
   
   Mandela clearly states in Long Walk to Freedom, that his time fighting the injustices of the apartheid systems at his firm, ‘Mandela and Tambo’ shaped his ideas about needing radically different methods for fighting apartheid:
   
   “I began by speaking about the increasing repressiveness of the government in the wake of the Defiance Campaign. I said the government was now scared of the might of the African people. As I spoke, I grew more and more indignant. In those days, I was something of a rabble-rousing speaker. I liked to incite an audience, and I was doing so that evening. … As I condemned the government for its ruthless and lawless, I overstepped the line: I said the time for passive resistance had ended, that non-violence was a useless strategy and could never overturn a white minority regime bent on retaining its power at any cost. At the end of the day I said that violence was the only weapon that would destroy apartheid and we must be prepared, in the near future, to use that weapon”. Long Walk to Freedom pp.181-182
   
   Reference: Mandela, Nelson, Long Walk to Freedom, (London, Abacus, 1994)
   
   Questions to consider:
   3. What impact did the loss of his father’s position as chief have on Mandela and his family?
   4. Outline the main features in Nelson Mandela’s background.

3. Rise to prominence

Before you consider the question below - read about Nelson Mandela’s rise to prominence and about both:

1. the Youth League and Program of Action
   
   And
   
   
2. Membership of African National Congress (ANC)

by reading through the relevant information on the National Study on South Africa 1960-1994

Question to consider:

5. Describe Mandela’s rise to prominence.

4. Significance and evaluation

Before you consider the question that follows - find out about the significance of Nelson Mandela by reading through the relevant information covering points a to f below included in the National Study on South Africa 1960-1994

1. Defiance Campaign and Freedom Charter
2. Umkhonto we Sizwe 'The Spear of the Nation' (MK)
3. Rivonia Trial
4. Imprisonment on Robben Island
5. 'Free Mandela' campaign
6. Dismemberment of the apartheid system
   
   Question to consider:
   6. Which events in Mandela’s life were the most significant in his rise to power?
      
      
7. Presidential years (1994 -1999)
   As the first black President and former prisoner of the apartheid regime, Nelson Mandela faced almost insurmountable odds in his first years as President of South Africa. His main focus was reconciliation, and he was painstaking in his role as unifier of many different hostile African nations and the powerful white minority. He created the Government of National Unity (GNU) which consisted of himself as President and two Deputy Presidents, former President F.W de Klerk and Thabo Mbeki from the ANC. His presidency was characterized by the successful negotiation of a new constitution and a start on the massive task of restructuring the civil service. Mandela was forced to deal with many pressing economic problems and the threat of civil war between the ANC and the mainly Zulu party Inkatha.
   
   To heal the wounds of the past, Mandela set up the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). Its aim was ‘forgiving without forgetting’. Mandela believed all South Africans could only move forward once the truth was told and wounds healed. Many members of the South Africa Security Forces, who told their stories and displayed genuine remorse, were granted pardons and amnesties. The TRC was headed by Archbishop Desmond Tutu. The TRC faced many critics, but Mandela insisted that it was necessary if South Africa was ever to move forward.
   
   Unemployment in South Africa soared as many whites fearful of their future left for places like Australia and England. They took with them great amounts of wealth and capital and this caused more unemployment. The level of crime increased and horror stories of carjacking, rapes and murder dominated the media. Mandela and GNU faced much criticism and many in the white population resented the end of apartheid and pointed to unemployment and crime as the result of multi-racial democracy. Mandela knew that hundreds of years of racial economic oppression would not be fixed overnight.
   
   The ANC set up the Reconstruction and Development Plan (RDP). It aimed to build millions of new homes, and provide free education for all. Mandela hoped that the western world would re-invest in South Africa and help the country to recover economically. This did not occur and the government’s job was made considerably more difficult.
   
   The economic difficulties became all most unsolvable and corruption became a political and economic reality in South Africa as it struggled to throw off the chains of apartheid. Many blacks were dissatisfied with their new freedom and many whites were disappointed with the level of corruption and crime. Johannesburg became one of the most dangerous places in the world for both blacks and whites.
   
   Another massive problem for the ANC was the HIV-Aids epidemic. Aids became rampant in South Africa from the early 1990s and devastated many communities. By 1998 the Department of Health estimated that 3.6 million South Africans (10 percent of the population) were infected with HIV, and the number was increasing every year. The new government did not know how to control the HIV epidemic.
   
   South Africa seemed cursed with problems on its road to recovery from apartheid. The ANC government struggled to keep South Africa from imploding. One ray of hope came in 1995 when South Africa successfully hosted the Rugby Union World Cup. When the South African team won this championship, Mandela donned a Springbok shirt and presented the winning trophy to Springbok captain Francois Piennar. This gesture highlighted Mandela’s role as unifier to his own people and to the world, and was a major step in the reconciliation of black and white South Africans.
   
   In 1999 Mandela retired as the president of South Africa and was succeeded by the Deputy President, Thabo Mbeki. Mandela started an international tour of the world as a global statesman and freedom fighter.
   
   The major problems of crime, unemployment and HIV were not solved during the Presidency of Nelson Mandela. He did, however, keep his country on the democratic path. Through his commitment to reconciliation, Mandela greatly reduced many divisions and enabled him to lay the foundation stone for a secure and democratic peace.
   
   Reference: Roberts, Martin, South Africa 1948-1994: The Rise and Fall of Apartheid third edition (England, Pearson Education Limited, 2001)
   
   Questions to consider:
   7. Research the extent of the economic and social problems that confronted the new government.
   8. Outline the steps taken by Mandela to promote reconciliation.
      
      
8. Evaluation: for example revolutionary, conservative nationalist?
   Historical Significance
   Nelson Mandela is a modern-day giant of both international and South African history. Mandela is the most significant African freedom fighter among many, including: Walter Sislu, Oliver Tambo and Robert Sobukwae. Mandela dedicated his life and sacrificed his freedom to end apartheid. Historically, Nelson Mandela’s life is complex and worthy of great historical investigation. His struggle for the freedom of his people can be compared to that of Dr Martin Luther King, who struggled against segregation in the United States.
   
   Mandela may have been lost to history on RobbenIsland (which is what the white government desired), had it not been for the international anti-apartheid movement. Mandela became the symbol of the liberation struggle and transformed him from just another imprisoned ‘terrorist’ to the world’s most famous prisoner: Number-46664.
   
   Nelson Mandela is still living in his hometown in South Africa and has just celebrated his 90th Birthday. He has developed an almost ‘messiah’ status for his work in transforming South Africa after hundreds of years of white oppression to the ‘miracle’ rainbow nation that it is today. Since the first free election in 1994, Mandela has not stood still and the problems and complexities of transformation from apartheid have overshadowed a valid historical and political evaluation of South Africa’s greatest freedom fighter. Many great biographies have been written which follow a narrative path, i.e. simply narrating his life. Some historians have argued that Mandela was essentially stage-managed by the ANC for maximum political advantage in the struggle, while others claim that he acted with great political skill while on Robben Island, controlling the political activities of the ANC and other parties in South Africa and internationally.
   
   Evaluation
   Nelson Mandela’s life is complex and deserves more in-depth exploration. Historians will write about his life and make evaluations of his contribution to history for time to come. In the final analysis, Nelson Mandela was a freedom fighter who ‘helped transform a bitterly divided land and led South Africa to freedom and democracy. In doing so, he became a worldwide symbol of the endurance of the human spirit, and of victory over evil’ (Limb). Mandela changed from organizing terrorist attacks for MK to leading the ANC, and from prisoner to President. As President he was in the end a unifier and global statement who avoided a bloody civil war and created the ‘small miracle’ of transforming South Africa to multi-racial democracy and ‘rainbow nation’.
   
   At his inauguration as President on the vast lawn of the Union Building in Pretoria Mandela said:
   ‘Never, never and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another… The sun will never set on so glorious a human achievement. Let freedom reign. God bless Africa’
   Mandela, Nelson, Long Walk to Freedom, (London, Abacus, 1994)
   
   Reference: Peter Limb, Nelson Mandela: A Biography. (Westport Greenwood Press, 2008)
   
   Questions to consider:
   9. Brainstorm a list of characteristics and skills that make a great leader.
      Did Mandela have some or all of these qualities?
   10. Identify key events in Mandela’s life? Explain how he was affected by these events.
   11. How did Nelson Mandela's leadership role change as his circumstances changed?
   12. Research at least two historians’ interpretations of Mandela’s leadership. Comment on the conclusions they draw. (Refer to the list of biographers in the bibliography.)

One historian’s Conclusions: (Mis) Understanding Nelson Mandela., Raymond Suttner

In a recent article on Nelson Mandela entitled: (Mis) Understanding Nelson Mandela African Historical Review 39(2) 2007.( Klieo) University of South Africa, Pretoria. Raymond Suttner reviews the current writing on the political figure of Nelson Mandela, including the biographies current and past. Suttner states: ‘that to understand Mandela, and especially Mandela as a political figure, it is essential to locate him as a changing political and human being in a dynamic and diverse political environment”. He essentially argues that Mandela’s personality evolved, like the ANC itself and is both the same and different over time.

Suttner identifies Mandela as:

1. Revolutionary
   Nelson Mandela was clearly a revolutionary: His leadership and activities in MK, the military wing of the ANC, and its terror campaign to bring down the white state were clearly the actions of a revolutionary. Mandela freely admitted that peaceful resistance was not a strategy that would work in South Africa, as it had in India, and that violence should be a course of action in the future. Operation Mayibuye which eventually sent Mandela to Robben Island for life, was clearly a revolutionary act aimed at changing the status quo in South Africa. However, his revolutionary activities must be understood within the context of other freedom fighters around the world such as Martin Luther King, Malcolm X and the Weathermen in the United States. Mandela convinced the ANC leadership to sanction MK terrorists activities by regularly stating “the attacks of the wild beast [apartheid state] cannot be fought off with only bare hands”
   
   
2. Communist
   In his article, Suttner examines Nelson Mandela’s connections to the South Africa Communist Party and the influence of Communism on his life. He examines Mandela’s deep reading of Marxism, the course on Marxism he taught while on Robben Island, his attendance of Communist Party meetings plus the pictures of Lenin and Stalin on his cell wall. He concludes that Communism ultimately can have an ideological impact on the life of any person without it necessarily being a doctrine they follow for life. Mandela denied being a Communist in the Rivonia Trial. The Suppression of Communism Act was the key instrument the white government used to ban the Communist Party and all other parties in the ‘struggle’ including the ANC and PAC. The members of the South African Communist Party (SACP) such as Joe Slovo and his wife Ruth First were originally the only whites willing to help black Africans fight for a non-racial democracy in South Africa. As an individual from an oppressed class/race, Mandela would have been attracted to those people and ideas. The following is a statement from Nelson Mandela while on trial for being a Communist and the ANC as a Communist organization in the Rivonia Trial, 1964. It speaks for itself about whether Nelson Mandela was or considered himself a Communist: Of course one must remember the context, Mandela was on trial for his life being charged with treason and the state originally called for the death penalty for all the accused.
   ‘I am not a communist and have never been a member of the Communist Party… The most important political document ever adapted by the ANC is the Freedom Charter. It is by no means the blueprint for a socialist state. The ANC has never… advocated a revolutionary change in the economic structure of the country, nor... ever condemned capitalist society…
   It is true that there has often been close cooperation between the ANC and the Communist Party. But cooperation is merely proof of a common goal… not of a complete community of interests.
   
   Mandela, Nelson, Long Walk to Freedom, (London, Abacus, 1994)
   
   
3. Conservative / Africa nationalist
   Some historians and political commentators view Mandela’s actions in the struggle to end apartheid in South Africa as those of a liberal conservative or African nationalist. These arguments have merit and fit into the complexities of Mandela’s political life. Mandela was raised a Methodist and educated by the Wesleyan church. This certainly influenced his admiration for British institutions. Also one could see in his behavior as international statesmen, including meeting with British Prime Minister Margret Thatcher, that he was seeking a profoundly peaceful and legal path to revolution. These actions were about seeking support for the struggle for liberation and narrowing the support base of the enemy. These are the tactics of an astute politician, who changes to suit changing political circumstances; they ultimately make him a unifying diplomat not a political conservative.
   
   Mandela can easily be evaluated as an African Nationalist. Mandela was a freedom fighter for the South Africa which he loved, not just for black Africans, which is why he championed a multi-racial democratic South Africa, based on the principles of the Freedom Charter and consistently rejected the PAC goal of exclusivity for black Africans. His primary objective was to end apartheid in South Africa and begin the process of healing the wounds for all people who had lived and suffered under the apartheid regime.
   
   “During my life I have dedicated my life to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideas of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony, and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But, if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die”
   
   Mandela, Nelson, Long Walk to Freedom, (London, Abacus, 1994)
   
   Questions to consider:
   13. Mandela’s speech in the Rivonia Trial and his autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, are important historical documents. What limitations do they have for the historian when assessing Mandela’s leadership?
   14. Make a list of points that support the views of Mandela described by Suttner. Which description do you think best describes the leadership of Mandela? Explain your reasons.
   15. Assess the strengths and weaknesses of Mandela’s leadership.
   16. To what extent does history present a balanced interpretation of Mandela’s life?

Glossary

ANC: African National Congress;South African political group led by Nelson Mandela; led the fight against Apartheid. They won the majority of legislative seats in the 1994 election and continue to lead the government of South Africa.

ANC Youth League: Founded in 1944 by Nelson Mandela and other young nationalist members of the ANC to steer the parent organization toward a more militant mass resistance agenda.

Apartheid: From 1948-1991, the white minority of South Africa used force to oppress the black majority by forcing them into segregated homelands and denying them equality.

Bantu : Identifies a particular group of people coming from Central to Southern Africa. The Nationalist government used this term in a derogatory way to identify Black Africans.

Biko, Steve: Founder of South Africa's Black Consciousness movement & president of the South African Students' Organization. Banned by the government from political activity in 1973; he was killed while in police custody in 1977. Biko became an international symbol of the repression of the white government of South Africa.

Black Conscientiousness: South African movement led by Steve Biko; stressed black pride and the rediscovery of black culture.

Boers : Afrikaans word meaning farmers, these were the first White settlers from Holland who arrived in South Africa in 1652.

Botha, Pieter Willem: White minority ruler of South Africa from 1978-1989.

Buthelezi, Mangosthutu: Former Prime Minister of the Kwazulu homeland and leader of the Inkatha; Zulu king who challenged Mandela for leadership of South Africa.

clan: Group of several people, usually several lineages, who claim descent from a common ancestor.

coloureds : Those "of mixed race," in apartheid terminology; usually referred to people with African and Dutch ancestry.

de Klerk, Frederik Willem: The last white minority president of South Africa. In 1989, de Klerk became president and began to dismantle the Apartheid system. He freed Nelson Mandela in 1990, and negotiated with Mandela a peaceful transfer of power & free elections. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize along with Mandela in 1993.

Homelands: Nine mini-states designated by the ruling Nationalist Party as self governing black areas intended to segregate blacks and limit their contact with the minority white population. More than 80% of the population was relegated to these nine states which represented approximately 13% of the total land. The homelands were carved out of the least agriculturally and economically desirable land in the country.

inkosi: leader of a Xhosa clan.

Joseph, Helen Beatrice: One of the first white South Africans to join the fight against apartheid; founding member of white wing of the ANC.

Luthuli, Albert John: Zulu chief who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1960 for his fight against apartheid; wrote Let My People Go.

Mandela, Nelson: leader of ANC; first democratically elected leader of South Africa; in prison from 1962-1990.

Mbecki, Thabo: president of South Africa from 1994-present.

Nationalist Party: White minority party that came to power in 1948 and institutionalized the system of apartheid.

Organization of African Unity: Organization of African nations created to promote continental peace, unity, and cooperation. The group works to resolve conflicts between nations and to coordinate political, economic, cultural, scientific, medical, and defense policies.

Nationalist Party: White minority party that came to power in 1948 and institutionalized the system of apartheid.

Pass Laws: South African legislation controlling the movements of blacks and coloreds (people of mixed racial descent) under the Apartheid system. The laws were created to control the movement of people between their homes and places of work, and between rural and urban areas. Between 1952 and 1986, millions were punished by the courts for failing to carry their passes. The Pass Laws were abolished in 1986.

Sisulu, Walter: Prominent leader of the South African fight against apartheid. Imprisoned from 1962-1989.

Sobukwe, Robert Magaliso: Founder of the anti-apartheid PAC, Pan-Africanist Congress. Helped organized the demonstrations against the Pass Laws in 1960. He was banned & imprisoned from1960-1969.

Soweto: South African township near Johannesburg. One of the largest urban areas in southern Africa. Notorious for its poverty, overcrowding, and oppression, from 1976 to 1991, Soweto became the center of the student fight against apartheid.

Tambo, Oliver: Mandela’s lifelong friend who directed the ANC from exile while Mandela was in prison.

Townships: Government-built towns in South Africa with minimal municipal services near cities that were designated as living areas for members of specific racial groups in order to separate them from Whites. For example, Soweto (South West Township) is a black township in the Johannesburg area.

trekboer: The Dutch farmer settlers who colonized the interior of South Africa in nineteenth-century population migrations eastward from the Cape of Good Hope..

Tutu, Desmond: Anglican Archbishop of CapeTown who led the nonviolent resistance against apartheid in South Africa. His international fight led to sanctions against South Africa. Winner of the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize. From 1996-1999, he led the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK): Underground militant wing founded by ANC in 1961 to "hit back by all means within our power in defense of our people, our future and our freedom."

Timeline of Nelson Mandela’s Life

Useful websites:

• hhtp//www.history-timelines.org.uk/people-timelines/11-Nelson Mandela
• www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/mandela/etc/cron.html

18 July 1918	Rolihlahla Mandela is born in a small South African village called Mvezo in Transkei. The name Rolihlaha means “pulling the Branch of the tree”.
1919	Father (Gadla Henry Mphakanyiswa) is dispossessed of his land and money due to orders passed by a white magistrate
1925	Mandela becomes the first person in his family to go to school. A teacher gives him the name Nelson after having difficulty pronouncing his real name.
1927	With the death of his father, he is placed in the care of the acting chief of the Thembu clan, Jongintaba Dalindyebo.
1937	Having passed his Junior Certificate in two years at Clarkebury Boarding Institute, Mandela joins Healdtown, a college in Fort Beaufort to study for his BA. This is where he meets his lifelong friend Oliver Tambo.
1941	Both Mandela and Tambo are expelled from Fort Hare for political activism. Mandela flees to Johannesburg, to avoid an arranged marriage. Completes his degree through correspondence from University of SouthAfrica and also studies law. There he meets Walter Sisulu and begins work at his law firm.
1943	Joins the African National Congress (ANC), initially as an activist.
1944	With close friends Oliver Tambo and Walter Sislu, Mr Mandela and 60 other young members form the Youth League of the ANC. Marries his first wife, Evelyn Mase. They were divorced in 1957 after having three children.
1947	He is elected secretary of the ANCYL, and becomes a member of the Transvaal ANC executive.
1948	The National Party comes to power on the policy of apartheid. The ANC launch a campaign of passive resistance against the laws. They later begin the Campaign for the Defence of Unjust Laws.
1951	Mandela is made president of the Youth League.
1952	Mandela sets up the country's first black law firm with Oliver Tambo. They provide legal services to those who would have normally had no representation. Mandela becomes president of the Transvaal ANC but is banned under Suppression of Communism Act even from attending meetings
1953	The ANC is concerned that it will be banned so Mandela is tasked with ensuring the party can work underground.
1955	The Freedom Charter is adopted at the Congress of the People, calling for equal rights and equal share of wealth with the country's white population.
1956	Mandela, along with 155 other political activists, is accused of conspiring to overthrow the South African state by violent means, and is charged with high treason. After a four-year trial, the charges are dropped.
1958	Marries Nomzamo "Winnie" Madikizela, who is a social worker and eventually have two children.
1959	ANC loses much of its financial and military support because many members break up and form Pan Africanist Congress under the leadership of Robert Sobukwe.
21 March1960	Police kill 69 people, including women and children, as black people protest in Sharpeville against the new Pass Laws that place restrictions on their freedom of movement. A state of emergency is declared, amid fears of retaliation, and the ANC is banned.
1961	The ANC concludes that peaceful protest is not enough to combat apartheid and forms an underground military wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation). Mandela, now vice-president of the ANC, is appointed as the group's first leader. Under the 1961 Unlawful Organisations Act, the South African government banned the ANC and PAC. The MK and the PAC’s Poqo begin sabotage campaigns.
1962	He is smuggled out of South Africa, addresses the conference of African nationalist leaders, undergoes guerilla training and flew to London to meet with Tambo. Having spent a year underground, Mandela is arrested for leaving the country illegally. He is sentenced to five years in jail but somehow escapes
1963	While Mandela is in prison, fellow ANC members are arrested. They are charged with sabotage and treason, along with Mandela. The men appear in court in Rivonia.
12 June 1964	At the end of the eight-month trial, Mandela and seven other defendants are given life sentences and taken to prison on Robben Island. His wife Winnie spearheads a campaign for his release.
1976	Over 600 students killed in protests at Soweto and Sharpeville
1977	Steve Biko, the leader of the protests, is killed whilst in police custody
1980	Oliver Tambo, who is in exile, launches an international campaign for the release of Mandela. Meanwhile Zimbabwe gains independence
March 1982	Mandela and fellow ANC leaders are transferred to Pollsmoor Prison
1986	The international community tightens sanctions against SouthAfrica. It is estimated that, between 1988 and 1990, the economic embargoes cost the country's treasury more than $4bn in revenue.
11 Feb 1990	Mandela is freed after 27 years, as a result of a relaxation of apartheid laws and the lifting of the ban on the ANC by President De Klerk. He is greeted by large crowds as he and wife Winnie leave the prison grounds.
1991	At the ANC's first national conference in South Africa, Mandela is elected president of the party. The International Olympics Committee lift a 21 year ban on south African sportsmen to compete in Olympics
1993	Mandela, along with South African President FW De Klerk, is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for efforts to bring stability to South Africa. Accepting the award, Mandela says: "We will do what we can to contribute to the renewal of our world."
1994	Runs for the post of President in the free elections where black South Africans are allowed to vote for the first time. Wins the elections with majority and becomes the first black President of South Africa. Nelson Mandela addresses the crowds at his inauguration, saying: "Let freedom reign, God bless Africa!" Thabo Mbeki, Mandela's deputy, takes over the day-to-day running of government, leaving Mandela to promote the country around the world
1995	South Africa hosts as well as wins the Rugby World Cup. Nelson Mandela wears a Springbok shirt when he presents the trophy to Afrikaner captain Francois Pienaar. This gesture was seen as a major step in the reconciliation of white and black South Africans.
1997	Steps down as leader of the ANC in favour of Thabo Mbeki. Despite his retirement, Mandela forms The Elders. The group, which includes Archbishop Desmond Tutu and other statesmen and women, aims to help tackle the world's problems.
1998	Marries for the third time on his 80th birthday, Graca Machel, who is the widow of the former President of Mozambique
1999	Relinquishes the post of president. Tours world as a global statesman
2000	Played the role of a mediator in the civil war in Burundi

Internet sites

http://www.sahistory.org.za : Has a History of Film in South Africa (including a chronology), a history classroom section, This Day in History, a chronology of South African history , biographies, topics (African independence, Black Consciousness, Black education, Gandhi, Paul Kruger, Mandela, Umkhonto we Sizwe, passive resistance, the United Nations and apartheid,

http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/history/mandela/ Selected speeches, statements and writings of Nelson Mandela

http://www.africawithin.com/mandela/selected_speeches.htm Excellent decade by decade of Nelson Mandela’s selected speeches and writings

http://africanstudies.org

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/mandela/ Chronology, interviews, tapes and transcripts, biographers, viewers’ and teachers’ guide

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/133400.stm

http://archives.cbc.ca/politics/international_politics/topics/3547/ CBC Digital Archives of Nelson Mandela career Prisoner, president, peacemaker

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1851882

http://www.time.com/time/time100/leaders/profile/mandela.html : A profile of Mandela

Bibliography

Review Article

(Mis) Understanding Nelson Mandela., Raymond Suttner
African Historical Review 39(2) 2007.( Klieo) Unisa Press, University of South Africa, Pretoria. (Walter and Albertina Sisulu Knowledge and Heritage Unit University of South Africa)

Biography

Brits, JP, Modern South Africa: Afrikaner power, the politics of race, and resistance, 1902 to the 1970’s (Pretoria, Uni.of South Africa Press, 2005)
Brits, JP, Modern SouthAfrica: From Soweto to Democracy (Pretoria, University of South Africa Press, 2005)
Keller, Bill, Tree Shaker, (Kingfisher January 2008)
Limb Peter, Nelson Mandela: A Biography. (Westport Greenwood Press, 2008)
Lodge, T. Mandela. A Critical Life (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2006)
Mandela, Nelson, Long Walk to Freedom, (London, Abacus, 1994)
Meredith, Martin, Nelson Mandela: A Biography (Griffin, February 1999)
Roberts, Martin, South Africa 1948-1994: The Rise and Fall of Apartheid third edition (England, Pearson Education Limited, 2001)
Ross, R, A Concise History of South Africa (London, Cambridge University Press, 1999)
Sampson, A. Mandela. The Authorized Biography (London, Harper Collins, 1999)
Thompson, Leonard, A History of SouthAfrica (USA, Yale Nota Bene, 2001)
Understanding Apartheid: Apartheid Museum, (South Africa, Oxford University Press, 2006)
Waldmeir, Patti, Anatomy Of A Miracle (WW Norton, Feb 24 1998)