21/07/2011
No wonder for his recognition, apart from his 6 meter statue at Nelson Mandela Square, Sandton, Johannesburg, there is a bridge named after him in the same city. Also there is a statue of this famous African son in Parliament Square in London and another Mandela Garden in Leeds. This legend, who was at the forefront of the struggle to halt apartheid in South Africa, on Monday clocked 93 years. Prominent world leaders marked the day with encomiums on his many achievements in life.
Background
Mandela was born 18 July 1918 in Mvezo, a small village situated in the district of Umtata, Eastern Cape Province in South Africa. His linage is traced to the cadet branch of the Thembu dynasty. His patrilineal great-grandfather Ngubengcuka (who died in 1832), ruled as king of the Thembu people. One of the king’s sons, named Mandela, became Nelson’s grandfather and the source of his surname.
Mandela’s father, Gadla Henry Mphakanyiswa, served as chief of the town of Mvezo. However, upon alienating the colonial authorities, they deprived Mphakanyiswa of his position, and moved his family to Qunu. Mandela spent much of his childhood. His traditional name Rolihlahla means “to pull a branch of a tree”, or more colloquially, “troublemaker”. Mandela became the first member of his family to attend a school, where his teacher Miss Mdingane gave him the English name “Nelson”. In South Africa, Mandela is often known as Madiba, his Xhosa clan name; or as tata meaning father in Xhosa.
His marital life
His first marriage was to Evelyn Ntoko Mase but broke up in 1957 after 13 years, with two sons, because of his constant absence, devotion to revolutionary agitation and because she was a Jehovah’s Witness. His second marriage was to Winnie Madikizela-mandela. They had two daughters. The marriage ended in separation in April 1992 and divorce was later conducted in March 1996, which was fuelled by political estrangement. He was remarried for the third time in 1998 on his 80th birthday to Graca Machel; widow of Samora Machel the former Mozambican president and ANC ally who was killed in an air crash 12 years earlier.
His arrest and imprisonment
On 5 August 1962 Mandela was arrested after living on the run for seventeen months, and was imprisoned in the Johannesburg Fort. The arrest was made possible because the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) tipped off the security police as to Mandela’s whereabouts and disguise. Three days later, the charges of leading workers to strike in 1961 and leaving the country illegally were read to him during a court appearance. On 25 October 1962, Mandela was sentenced to five years in prison. While Mandela was imprisoned, police arrested prominent ANC leaders on 11 July 1963, at Liliesleaf Farm, Rivonia, north of Johannesburg. Mandela was brought in, and at the Rivonia Trial they were charged by the chief prosecutor Dr. Percy Yutar with four charges of the capital crimes of sabotage (which Mandela admitted) and crimes which were equivalent to treason, but easier for the government to prove. They were also charged with plotting a foreign invasion of South Africa, which Mandela denied.
The specifics of the charges to which Mandela admitted complicity involved conspiring with the African National Congress and South African Communist Party to the use of explosives to destroy water, electrical, and gas utilities in the Republic of South Africa. Mandela was imprisoned on Robben Island where he remained for the next eighteen of his twenty-seven years in prison. While in jail, his reputation grew and he became widely known as the most significant black leader in South Africa. On the island, he and others performed hard labour in a lime quarry. Prison conditions were very basic. Prisoners were segregated by race, with black prisoners receiving the fewest rations. Political prisoners were kept separate from ordinary criminals and received fewer privileges. Mandela describeshow, as a D-group prisoner (the lowest classification) he was allowed one visitor and one letter every six months. Letters, when they came, were often delayed for long periods and made unreadable by the prison censors.
Whilst in prison he undertook study with the University of London by correspondence through its External Programme and received the degree of Bachelor of Laws. He was subsequently nominated for the position of Chancellor of the University of London in the 1981 election, but lost to Princess Anne.
Freedom
President F. W. de Klerk reversed the ban on the ANC, State and other anti-apartheid organisations on 2 February 1990, and announced that Mandela would shortly be released from prison. He was released from Victor Verster Prison in Paarl on 11 February 1990. The event was broadcast live all over the world. Political history In 1961 Mandela became leader of the ANC’s armed wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe (translated Spear of the Nation, and also abbreviated MK), which he co-founded. He coordinated sabotage campaigns against military and government targets, making plans for a possible guerrilla war if the sabotage failed to end apartheid. He also raised funds for MK abroad and arranged for paramilitary training of the group. Later, mostly in the 1980s, MK waged a guerrilla war against the apartheid government in which many civilians became casualties.
As South Africa’s President from 1994 to 1999, he was the first president to be elected in a fully representative democratic election. Before his presidency, Mandela was an anti-apartheid activist, and the leader of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing of the African National Congress (ANC). In 1962 he was arrested and convicted of sabotage and other charges, and sentenced to life in prison. Mandela served 27 years in prison, spending many of these years on Robben Island. Following his release from prison on 11 February 1990, Mandela led his party in the negotiations that led to multi-racial democracy in 1994. As president from 1994 to 1999, he frequently gave priority to reconciliation. He has received more than 250 awards over four decades, including the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize.
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