nelson mandela

Mandela had warned that after he retired he would feel free to criticise the leadership as an ordinary member of the ANC. But he knew that he was no ordinary member. He was careful not to upstage or embarrass Mbeki he largely avoided commenting on domestic affairs and talked mainly about the need for reconciliation and peacemaking. But his relations inevitably became trickier.At public occasions, Mandela inevitably overshadowed his successor and often won more applause. Some of his public statements went against Mbekis policies, while in private he became more critical. I dont want to be a praise singer, he explained after one closed ANC conference.I want to be objective, and I did indicate his weaknesses, which was unpalatable to many members.Mbeki in turn became more obviously resentful of Mandelas prominence.He sometimes omitted Mandela from state occasions, and was often slow to return his phone calls.Mbekis handling of Aids provoked the most obvious tensions, as he delayed facing and publicising the problem while Mandela was impatient for bolder action, to make up for his own past neglect.He was determined to break through the taboo. In August 2002, he publicly embraced a militant Aids activist Zachie Achmat who was HIV positive a powerful image that was reproduced round the world. And Mandela disclosed that three members of his own family had died of Aids. There is no shame, he said, to disclose a terminal disease from which you are suffering.

Mandela still travelled tirelessly, making up for his lost years and relishing foreign friendships and grand occasions. In London, he often called on the Queen, with whom he enjoyed a personal friendship he broke with protocol by writing to her as Dear Elizabeth. He was the only foreigner to be awarded the Order of Merit.He could still play a personal role abroad in encouraging peaceful settlements and negotiations. He preferred working behind the scenes. In dealing with Zimbabwes President Robert Mugabe, who he believed to be a brilliant politician who should never be underestimated. Mandela feared that overt South African intervention would be counterproductive, provoking a civil war in Zimbabwe that would bring force millions of people from their homes. But Mandela later became much more outspoken than Mbeki about Mugabes tyranny.Mandela had more success in Libya, where he enjoyed the unique trust of President Muammar Gaddafi. He and his representative Jakes Gerwel persuaded Gaddafi to release the suspects in the Lockerbie airline crash, to be tried in the Netherlands, in return for relaxing sanctions. And Gaddafis trust in Mandela and Gerwel prepared the way for the later reconciliation between Libya and the American and British governments.

Mandela became more critical of American and British foreign policies, particularly after the Kosovo war, worried that they wanted to be the policemen of the world and Washington was undermining the fragile basis of international law. Theyre introducing chaos in to international affairs, he said.He was much more worried about American domination after 11 September 2001. When he talked with President George W Bush soon afterwards in Washington, he said Osama bin Laden should be held responsible, captured and tried. But his Muslim friends soon persuaded him to modify his support, and he explained that US policy could be seen as undermining some of the basic tenets of the rule of law. He warned that the war against terrorism must not itself adopt the weapons of terrorism. And he was increasingly opposed to Israeli policies towards Palestinians like many of his Jewish colleagues in the ANC.

Mandela was still a fairytale figure to millions of people around the world the prisoner who became president, who caught the imagination of crowds and children. The name Mandela was attached to streets, squares, scholarships and buildings across the world including an elegant new bridge across central Johannesburg that celebrated his 85th birthday.The less heroic other world leaders, the more Mandela appeared as a solitary hero left over from an age of giants. And as an individual freed from the compromises of power, his icon shone still brighter.But the myth was still connected to a statesman who could play a role in a dangerous and divided world. His long career had given him a deep personal experience of both power and powerlessness. He could speak for the huge populations in the developing world who were ignored by the richer countries, while he retained his moral authority in the West, even in America, as the champion of reconciliation and a multiracial society.

Mandela took Xumas place on the ANC National Executive in March 1950. That month, the Defend Free Speech Convention was held in Johannesburg, bringing together African, Indian and communist activists to call an antiapartheid general strike. Mandela opposed the strike because it was not ANCled, but a majority of black workers took part, resulting in increased police repression and the introduction of the Suppression of Communism Act, 1950, affecting the actions of all protest groups. In 1950, Mandela was elected national president of the ANCYL, at the ANC national conference of December 1951, he continued arguing against a racially united front, but was outvoted. Thenceforth, he altered his entire perspective, embracing such an approach, influenced by friends like Moses Kotane and by the Soviet Unions support for wars of independence, Mandelas mistrust of communism also broke down. He became influenced by the texts of Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong, and embraced dialectical materialism. In April 1952, Mandela began work at the H.M. Basner law firm, though his increasing commitment to work and activism meant he spent less time with his family.

In 1952, the ANC began preparation for a joint Defiance Campaign against apartheid with Indian and communist groups, founding a National Voluntary Board to recruit volunteers. Deciding on a path of nonviolent resistance influenced by Mahatma Gandhi, some considered it the ethical option, but Mandela instead considered it pragmatic. At a Durban rally on 22 June, Mandela addressed an assembled crowd of 10,000, initiating the campaign protests, for which he was arrested and briefly interned in Marshall Square prison. With further protests, the ANCs membership grew from 20,000 to 100,000, the government responded with mass arrests, introducing the Public Safety Act, 1953 to permit martial law. In May, authorities banned Transvaal ANC President J. B. Marks from making public appearances, unable to maintain his position, he recommended Mandela as his successor. Although the ultraAfricanist Bafabegiya group opposed his candidacy, Mandela was elected regional president in October.

On 5 August 1962, police captured Mandela along with Cecil Williams near Howick.A large number of groups have been accused of having tipped off the police about Mandelas whereabouts including Mandelas host in Durban GR Naidoo, white members of the South African Communist Party, and the CIA, but Mandela considered none of these connections to be credible and instead attributes his arrest to his own carelessness in concealing his movements. Of the CIA link in particular, Mandelas official biographer Anthony Sampson believes that the claim cannot be substantiated.Jailed in Johannesburgs Marshall Square prison, he was charged with inciting workers strikes and leaving the country without permission. Representing himself with Slovo as legal advisor, Mandela intended to use the trial to showcase the ANCs moral opposition to racism while supporters demonstrated outside the court. Moved to Pretoria, where Winnie could visit him, in his cell he began correspondence studies for a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) degree from the University of London. His hearing began on 15 October, but he disrupted proceedings by wearing a traditional kaross, refusing to call any witnesses, and turning his plea of mitigation into a political speech. Found guilty, he was sentenced to five years imprisonment, as he left the courtroom, supporters sang Nkosi Sikelel iAfrika.I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons will live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal for which I hope to live for and to see realised. But, My Lord, if it needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die. Rivonia Trial Speech, 1964.

On 11 July 1963, police raided Liliesleaf Farm, arresting those they found there and uncovering paperwork documenting MKs activities, some of which mentioned Mandela. The Rivonia Trial began at Pretoria Supreme Court on 9 October, with Mandela and his comrades charged with four counts of sabotage and conspiracy to violently overthrow the government. Their chief prosecutor was Percy Yutar, who called for them to receive the death penalty.Judge Quartus de Wet soon threw out the prosecutions case for insufficient evidence, but Yutar reformulated the charges, presenting his new case from December until February 1964, calling 173 witnesses and bringing thousands of documents and photographs to the trial.

With the exception of James Kantor, who was innocent of all charges, Mandela and the accused admitted sabotage but denied that they had ever agreed to initiate guerilla war against the government. They used the trial to highlight their political cause. At the opening of the defences proceedings, Mandela gave a threehour speech. That speech which was inspired by Castros History Will Absolve Me speech was widely reported in the press despite official censorship, and has been hailed as one of his greatest speeches. The trial gained international attention, with global calls for the release of the accused from such institutions as the United Nations and World Peace Council. The University of London Union voted Mandela to its presidency, and nightly vigils for him were held in St. Pauls Cathedral, London. The South African government generally deemed Mandela and his codefendants violent communist saboteurs, and on 12 June 1964, justice Quartus de Wet found Mandela and two of his coaccused guilty on all four charges, sentencing them to life imprisonment rather than death.

By the time of his death, Mandela had come to be widely considered the father of the nation within South Africa, and the founding father of democracy, being seen as the national liberator, the saviour, its Washington and Lincoln rolled into one. Mandelas biographer Anthony Sampson commented that even during his life, a myth had developed around him that turned him into a secular saint and which was so powerful that it blurs the realities. Within a decade after the end of his Presidency, Mandelas era was being widely thought of as a golden age of hope and harmony. Across the world, Mandela earned international acclaim for his activism in overcoming apartheid and fostering racial reconciliation, coming to be viewed as a moral authority with a great concern for truth.

Throughout his life, Mandela had also faced criticism. Margaret Thatcher attracted international attention for describing the ANC as a typical terrorist organisation in 1987, although she later called on Botha to release Mandela. On his death, various Twitter users repeated the denunciations that he was a communist and a terrorist, while various antiabortion activists across the world took the opportunity to condemn him for supporting the 1996 Choice of Termination of Pregnancy Act.Mandela has also been criticised for his friendship with political leaders such as Fidel Castro, Muammar Gaddafi, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, and Suharto deemed dictators by critics as well as his refusal to condemn their human rights violations.

Many artists have dedicated songs to Mandela. One of the most popular was from The Special AKA who recorded the song Free Nelson Mandela in 1983, which Elvis Costello also recorded and had a hit with. Stevie Wonder dedicated his 1985 Oscar for the song I Just Called to Say I Love You to Mandela, resulting in his music being banned by the South African Broadcasting Corporation.In 1985, Youssou NDours album Nelson Mandela was the Senegalese artists first US release. Other artists who released songs or videos honouring Mandela include Johnny Clegg.

Mandela has been depicted in cinema and television on multiple occasions. He was portrayed by Danny Glover in the 1987 HBO telefilm Mandela. The 1997 film Mandela and de Klerk starred Sidney Poitier as Mandela, and Dennis Haysbert played him in Goodbye Bafana (2007). In the 2009 BBC telefilm Mrs Mandela, Mandela was portrayed by David Harewood,and Morgan Freeman portrayed him in Invictus (2009). Terrence Howard portrayed him in the 2011 film Winnie Mandela. He is portrayed by Idris Elba in the 2013 film Mandela Long Walk to Freedom.

Nelson Mandela was born on July 18, 1918, into a royal family of the Xhosaspeaking Thembu tribe in the South African village of Mvezo, where his father, Gadla Henry Mphakanyiswa (c. 18801928), served as chief. His mother, Nosekeni Fanny, was the third of Mphakanyiswas four wives, who together bore him nine daughters and four sons. After the death of his father in 1927, 9yearold Mandelathen known by his birth name, Rolihlahlawas adopted by Jongintaba Dalindyebo, a highranking Thembu regent who began grooming his young ward for a role within the tribal leadership.The first in his family to receive a formal education, Mandela completed his primary studies at a local missionary school. There, a teacher dubbed him Nelson as part of a common practice of giving African students English names. He went on to attend the Clarkebury Boarding Institute and Healdtown, a Methodist secondary school, where he excelled in boxing and track as well as academics. In 1939 Mandela entered the elite University of Fort Hare, the only Westernstyle higher learning institute for South African blacks at the time. The following year, he and several other students, including his friend and future business partner Oliver Tambo (19171993), were sent home for participating in a boycott against university policies.

After learning that his guardian had arranged a marriage for him, Mandela fled to Johannesburg and worked first as a night watchman and then as a law clerk while completing his bachelors degree by correspondence. He studied law at the University of Witwatersrand, where he became involved in the movement against racial discrimination and forged key relationships with black and white activists. In 1944, Mandela joined the African National Congress (ANC) and worked with fellow party members, including Oliver Tambo, to establish its youth league, the ANCYL. That same year, he met and married his first wife, Evelyn Ntoko Mase (19222004), with whom he had four children before their divorce in 1957.

Nelson Mandelas commitment to politics and the ANC grew stronger after the 1948 election victory of the Afrikanerdominated National Party, which introduced a formal system of racial classification and segregationapartheidthat restricted nonwhites basic rights and barred them from government while maintaining white minority rule. The following year, the ANC adopted the ANCYLs plan to achieve full citizenship for all South Africans through boycotts, strikes, civil disobedience and other nonviolent methods. Mandela helped lead the ANCs 1952 Campaign for the Defiance of Unjust Laws, traveling across the country to organize protests against discriminatory policies, and promoted the manifesto known as the Freedom Charter, ratified by the Congress of the People in 1955. Also in 1952, Mandela and Tambo opened South Africas first black law firm, which offered free or lowcost legal counsel to those affected by apartheid legislation.

On December 5, 1956, Mandela and 155 other activists were arrested and went on trial for treason. All of the defendants were acquitted in 1961, but in the meantime tensions within the ANC escalated, with a militant faction splitting off in 1959 to form the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC). The next year, police opened fire on peaceful black protesters in the township of Sharpeville, killing 69 people, as panic, anger and riots swept the country in the massacres aftermath, the apartheid government banned both the ANC and the PAC. Forced to go underground and wear disguises to evade detection, Mandela decided that the time had come for a more radical approach than passive resistance.