"I hate race discrimination most intensely and
in all its manifestations. I have fought it all during my life; I fight it now,
and will do so until the end of my days."
· Yang amat menarik berkaitan hidup Mandela ialah, sifat pemaafnya sebaik dibebaskan dari penjara dan dilantik menjadi Prsiden Afrika Selatan.
NAME: Nelson
Mandela
·
OCCUPATION: Civil Rights
Activist, World Leader, Writer
·
DEATH DATE: December 05, 2013
·
EDUCATION: Clarkebury Boarding Institute,
Wesleyan College, University College of Fort Hare, University of London,
University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
·
PLACE OF BIRTH: Mveso, Transkei, South Africa
·
PLACE OF DEATH: Johannesburg, South Africa
·
FULL NAME: Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela
·
AKA: Nelson Mandela
·
AKA: Rolihlahla
·
NICKNAME: Madiba
·
ORIGINALLY: Rolihlahla Mandela
·
NICKNAME: Black Pimpernel
Nelson Mandela was born on July 18, 1918, in Mveso, Transkei, South
Africa. Becoming actively involved in the anti-apartheid movement in his 20s,
Mandela joined the African National Congress in 1942. For 20 years, he directed
a campaign of peaceful, nonviolent defiance against the South African
government and its racist policies. In 1993,
Mandela
and South African President F.W. de Klerk were
jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts to dismantle the
country's apartheid system. In 1994, Mandela was inaugurated as South Africa's
first black president. In 2009, Mandela's birthday (July 18)
was declared "Mandela Day" to promote global peace and celebrate the
South African leader's legacy. Mandela died at his home in Johannesburg on
December 5, 2013, at age 95.
Nelson
Mandela was born Rolihlahla Mandela on July 18, 1918, in the tiny village of
Mvezo, on the banks of the Mbashe River in Transkei, South Africa.
"Rolihlahla" in the Xhosa language literally means "pulling the
branch of a tree," but more commonly translates as
"troublemaker."
Nelson
Mandela's father, who was destined to be a chief, served as a counselor to
tribal chiefs for several years, but lost both his title and fortune over a
dispute with the local colonial magistrate. Mandela was only an infant at the
time, and his father's loss of status forced his mother to move the family to
Qunu, an even smaller village north of Mvezo. The village was nestled in a
narrow grassy valley; there were no roads, only foot paths that linked the
pastures where livestock grazed. The family lived in huts and ate a local
harvest of maize, sorghum, pumpkin and beans, which was all they could afford.
Water came from springs and streams and cooking was done outdoors. Mandela
played the games of young boys, acting out male rights-of-passage scenarios
with toys he made from the natural materials available, including tree branches
and clay.
At the
suggestion of one of his father's friends, Mandela was baptized in the
Methodist Church. He went on to become the first in his family to attend
school. As was custom at the time, and probably due to the bias of the British
educational system in South Africa, Mandela's teacher told him that his new
first name would be Nelson.
When
Mandela was 9 years old, his father died of lung disease, causing his life to
change dramatically. He was adopted by Chief Jongintaba Dalindyebo, the acting
regent of the Thembu people—a gesture done as a favor to Mandela's father, who,
years earlier, had recommended Jongintaba be made chief. Mandela subsequently
left the carefree life he knew in Qunu, fearing that he would never see his
village again. He traveled by motorcar to Mqhekezweni, the provincial capital
of Thembuland, to the chief's royal residence. Though he had not forgotten his
beloved village of Qunu, he quickly adapted to the new, more sophisticated
surroundings of Mqhekezweni.
Mandela
was given the same status and responsibilities as the regent's two other
children, his son and oldest child, Justice, and daughter Nomafu. Mandela took
classes in a one-room school next to the palace, studying English, Xhosa,
history and geography. It was during this period that Mandela developed an
interest in African history,
from
elder chiefs who came to the Great Palace on official business. He learned how
the African people had lived in relative peace until the coming of the white
people. According to the elders, the children of South Africa had previously
lived as brothers, but white men had shattered this fellowship. While black men
shared their land, air and water with whites, white men took all of these
things for themselves.
When
Mandela was 16, it was time for him to partake in the traditional African
circumcision ritual to mark his entrance into manhood. The ceremony of
circumcision was not just a surgical procedure, but an elaborate ritual in
preparation for manhood. In African tradition, an uncircumcised man cannot
inherit his father's wealth, marry or officiate at tribal rituals. Mandela participated
in the ceremony with 25 other boys. He welcomed the opportunity to partake in
his people's customs and felt ready to make the transition from boyhood to
manhood. His mood shifted during the proceedings, however, when Chief
Meligqili, the main speaker at the ceremony, spoke sadly of the young men,
explaining that they were enslaved in their own country. Because their land was
controlled by white men, they would never have the power to govern themselves,
the chief said. He went on to lament that the promise of the young men would be
squandered as they struggled to make a living and perform mindless chores for
white men. Mandela would later say that while the chief's words didn't make
total sense to him at the time, they would eventually formulate his resolve for
an independent South Africa.
From the
time Mandela came under the guardianship of Regent Jongintaba, he was groomed
to assume high office, not as a chief, but a counselor to one. As Thembu
royalty, Mandela attended a Wesleyan mission school, the Clarkebury Boarding
Institute and Wesleyan College, where, he would later state, he achieved
academic success through "plain hard work." He also excelled at track
and boxing. Mandela was initially mocked as a "country boy" by his
Wesleyan classmates, but eventually became friends with several students,
including Mathona, his first female friend.
In 1939,
Mandela enrolled at the University College of Fort Hare, the only residential
center of higher learning for blacks in South Africa at the time. Fort Hare was
considered Africa's equivalent of the University of Oxford or Harvard
University, drawing scholars from all parts of sub-Sahara Africa. In his first
year at the university, Mandela took the required courses, but focused on Roman
Dutch law to prepare for a career in civil service as an interpreter or
clerk—regarded as the best profession that a black man could obtain at the
time.
In his
second year at Fort Hare, Mandela was elected to the Student Representative
Council. For some time, students had been dissatisfied with the food and lack
of power held by the SRC. During this election, a majority of students voted to
boycott unless their demands were met. Aligning with the student majority,
Mandela resigned from his position. Seeing this as an act of insubordination,
the
university's Dr. Kerr expelled Mandela for the rest of the year and gave him an
ultimatum: He could return to the school if he agreed to serve on the SRC. When
Mandela returned home, the regent was furious, telling him unequivocally that
he would have to recant his decision and go back to school in the fall.
A few
weeks after Mandela returned home, Regent Jongintaba announced that he had
arranged a marriage for his adopted son. The regent wanted to make sure that
Mandela's life was properly planned, and the arrangement was within his right,
as tribal custom dictated. Shocked by the news, feeling trapped and believing
that he had no other option than to follow this recent order, Mandela ran away
from home. He settled in Johannesburg, where he worked a variety of jobs,
including as a guard and a clerk, while completing his bachelor's degree via
correspondence courses. He then enrolled at the University of Witwatersrand in
Johannesburg to study law.
Mandela
soon became actively involved in the anti-apartheid movement, joining the
African National Congress in 1942. Within the ANC, a small group of young
Africans banded together, calling themselves the African National Congress
Youth League. Their goal was to transform the ANC into a mass grassroots
movement, deriving strength from millions of rural peasants and working people
who had no voice under the current regime. Specifically, the group believed
that the ANC's old tactics of polite petitioning were ineffective. In 1949, the
ANC officially adopted the Youth League's methods of boycott, strike, civil
disobedience and non-cooperation, with policy goals of full citizenship,
redistribution of land, trade union rights, and free and compulsory education for
all children.
For 20 years, Mandela directed
peaceful, nonviolent acts of defiance 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, partnering with Oliver Tambo, a brilliant student he'd met
while attending Fort Hare. The law firm 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). Meanwhile, the ANC was being challenged by Africanists,
a new breed of black activists who
believed that the pacifist method of the ANC was ineffective. Africanists soon
broke away to form the Pan-Africanist Congress, which negatively affected the
ANC; by 1959, the movement had lost much of its militant support.
Prison
Release and Presidency
Upon his release from prison, Nelson Mandela
immediately urged foreign powers not to reduce their pressure on the South
African government for constitutional reform. While he stated that he was
committed to working toward peace, he declared that the ANC's armed struggle
would continue until the black majority received the right to vote.
In 1991, Mandela was elected president of the African
National Congress, with lifelong friend and colleague Oliver Tambo serving as national
chairperson. Mandela continued to negotiate with President F.W. de Klerk toward the country's first multiracial
elections. White South Africans were willing to share power, but many black
South Africans wanted a complete transfer of power. The negotiations were often
strained and news of violent eruptions, including the assassination of ANC
leader Chris Hani, continued throughout the country.
Mandela
had to keep a delicate balance of political pressure and intense negotiations
amid the demonstrations and armed resistance.
In 1993,
Mandela and President de Klerk were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for
their work toward dismantling apartheid. And due in no small part to their
work, negotiations between black and white South Africans prevailed: On April
27, 1994,
South
Africa held its first democratic elections. Nelson Mandela was inaugurated as
the country's first black president on May 10, 1994, at the age of 77, with de
Klerk as his first deputy.
Also in 1994, Mandela published
an autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, much of which he had secretly
written while in prison. The following year, he was awarded the Order of Merit.
From 1994
until June 1999, Mandela worked to bring about the transition from minority
rule and apartheid to black majority rule. He used the nation's enthusiasm for
sports as a pivot point to promote reconciliation between whites and blacks,
encouraging black South Africans to support the once-hated national rugby team.
In 1995, South Africa came to the world stage by hosting the Rugby World Cup,
which brought further recognition and prestige to the young republic.
Mandela
also worked to protect South Africa's economy from collapse during his
presidency. Through his Reconstruction and Development Plan, the South African
government funded the creation of jobs, housing and basic health care. In 1996,
Mandela signed into law a new constitution for the nation, establishing a
strong central government based on majority rule, and guaranteeing both the
rights of minorities and the freedom of expression.
By the 1999 general election,
Nelson Mandela had retired from active politics. He continued to maintain a
busy schedule, however, raising money to build schools and clinics in South
Africa's rural heartland through his
foundation, and serving as a mediator in Burundi's civil war. He
also published a number of books on his life and struggles, among them No Easy
Walk to Freedom; Nelson Mandela: The Struggle is my Life; and Nelson
Mandela's Favorite African Folktales.
Mandela
was diagnosed and treated for prostate cancer in 2001. In June 2004, at the age
of 85, he announced his formal retirement from public life and returned to his
native village of Qunu.
On July 18, 2007, Mandela
convened a group of world leaders, including Graca Machel (whom Mandela would
wed in 1998),Desmond Tutu, Kofi Annan, Ela Bhatt, Gro Harlem Brundtland,Jimmy Carter, Li Zhaoxing, Mary Robinson and Muhammad Yunus, to address some of the world's
toughest issues. Aiming to work both publicly and privately to find solutions
to problems around the globe, the group was aptly named "The Elders."
The Elders' impact has spanned Asia, the Middle East and Africa, and their
actions have included promoting peace and women's equality, demanding an end to
atrocities, and supporting initiatives to address humanitarian crises and
promote democracy.
In
addition to advocating for peace and equality on both a national and global
scale, in his later years, Mandela remained committed to the fight against
AIDS—a disease that killed Mandela's son, Makgatho, in 2005.
Nelson Mandela made his last
public appearance at the final match of the World Cup in South Africa in 2010.
He remained largely out of the spotlight in his later years, choosing to spend
much of his time in his childhood community of Qunu, south of Johannesburg. He
did, however, visit with U.S. first lady Michelle Obama, wife of President Barack Obama,during her trip to South Africa in
2011.
After suffering a lung infection
in January 2011, Mandela was briefly hospitalized in Johannesburg to undergo
surgery for a stomach ailment in early 2012. He was released after a few days,
later returning to Qunu. Mandela would be hospitalized many times over the next
several years—in December 2012, March 2013 and June 2013—for further testing
and medical treatment relating to his recurrent lung infection. Following his
June 2013 hospital visit, Mandela's wife, Graca Machel, canceled a scheduled
appearance in London to remain at her husband's his side, and his daughter,
Zenani Dlamini, Argentina's South African ambassador, flew back to South Africa
to be with her father. Jacob Zuma, South Africa's president, issued a
statement in response to public concern over Mandela's March 2013 health scare,
asking for support in the form of prayer: "We appeal to the people of
South Africa and the world to pray for our beloved Madiba and his family and to
keep them in their thoughts," Zuma said.
On December 5, 2013, at the age
of 95, Nelson Mandela died at his home in Johannesburg, South Africa. Zuma
released a statement later that day, in which he spoke to Mandela's legacy:
"Wherever we are in the country, wherever we are in the world, let us
reaffirm his vision of a society ... in which none is exploited, oppressed or
dispossessed by another," he said. For decades to come, Nelson Mandela
will continue to be a source of inspiration for civil rights activists worldwide.
In 2009, Mandela's birthday (July 18)
was declared Mandela Day, an international day to promote global peace and
celebrate the South African leader's legacy. According to the Nelson Mandela
Centre of Memory, the annual event is meant to encourage citizens
worldwide to give back the way that Mandela has throughout his lifetime. A
statement on the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory's website reads: "Mr.
Mandela gave 67 years of his life fighting for the rights of humanity. All we
are asking is that everyone gives 67 minutes of their time, whether it's
supporting your chosen charity or serving your local community."
Mandela was married three times,
beginning with Evelyn Ntoko Mase (m. 1944-1957). The couple had four children
together: Madiba Thembekile, Makgatho (d. 2005), Makaziwe and Maki. Mandela wed Winnie Madikizela in 1958;
the couple had two daughters together, Zenani and Zindziswa, before splitting
in 1996. Two years later, Mandela married Graca Machel, with whom he remained
until his death, 5 December in 2013.
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