Nelson Mandela,
born in 1918, South African activist, winner of the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize, and
the first black president of South Africa (1994-1999). Born in Umtata, South
Africa, in what is now Eastern Cape province, Mandela was the son of a
Xhosa-speaking Thembu chief. He attended the University of Fort Hare in Alice
where he became involved in the political struggle against the racial
discrimination practiced in South Africa. He was expelled in 1940 for
participating in a student demonstration. After moving to Johannesburg, he
completed his course work by correspondence through the University of South
Africa and received a bachelor’s degree in 1942. Mandela then studied law at
the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. He became increasingly
involved with the African National Congress (ANC), a multiracial nationalist
movement which sought to bring about democratic political change in South
Africa. Mandela helped establish the ANC Youth League in 1944 and became its
president in 1951.
The National Party (NP) came
to power in South Africa in 1948 on a political platform of white supremacy.
The official policy of apartheid, or forced segregation of the races, began to
be implemented under NP rule. In 1952 the ANC staged a campaign known as the
Defiance Campaign, when protesters across the country refused to obey apartheid
laws. That same year Mandela became one of the ANC’s four deputy presidents. In
1952 he and his friend Oliver Tambo were the first blacks to open a law
practice in South Africa. In the face of government harassment and with the
prospect of the ANC being officially banned, Mandela and others devised a plan.
Called the “M” plan after Mandela, it organized the ANC into small units of
people who could then encourage grassroots participation in antiapartheid
struggles.
By the late 1950s Mandela,
with Oliver Tambo and others, moved the ANC in a more militant direction
against the increasingly discriminatory policies of the government. He was
charged with treason in 1956 because of the ANC’s increased activity,
particularly in the Defiance Campaign, but he was acquitted after a five-year
trial. In 1957 Mandela divorced his first wife, Evelyn Mase; in 1958 he married
Nomzamo Madikizela, a social worker, who became known as Winnie Mandela.
In March 1960 the ANC and its
rival, the Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC), called for a nationwide demonstration
against South Africa’s pass laws, which controlled the movement and employment
of blacks and forced them to carry identity papers. After police massacred 69
blacks demonstrating in Sharpeville (see Sharpeville Massacre), both the
ANC and the PAC were banned. After Sharpeville the ANC abandoned the strategy
of nonviolence, which until that time had been an important part of its
philosophy. Mandela helped to establish the ANC’s military wing, Umkhonto we
Sizwe (Spear of the Nation), in December 1961. He was named its
commander-in-chief and went to Algeria for military training. Back in South
Africa, he was arrested in August 1962 and sentenced to five years in prison
for incitement and for leaving the country illegally.
While Mandela was in prison,
ANC colleagues who had been operating in hiding were arrested at Rivonia,
outside of Johannesburg. Mandela was put on trial with them for sabotage,
treason, and violent conspiracy. He was found guilty and sentenced to life
imprisonment in June 1964. For the next 18 years he was imprisoned on Robben
Island and held under harsh conditions with other political prisoners. Despite
the maximum security of the Robben Island prison, Mandela and other leaders
were able to keep in contact with the antiapartheid movement covertly. Mandela
wrote much of his autobiography secretly in prison. The manuscript was smuggled
out and was eventually completed and published in 1994 as Long Walk to
Freedom. Later, Mandela was moved to the maximum-security Pollsmoor Prison
near Cape Town. Mandela became an international symbol of resistance to
apartheid during his long years of imprisonment, and world leaders continued to
demand his release.
In response to both
international and domestic pressure, the South African government, under the
leadership of President F. W. de Klerk, lifted the ban against the ANC and released
Mandela in February 1990. Soon after his release from prison he became
estranged from Winnie Mandela, who had played a key leadership role in the
antiapartheid movement during his incarceration. Although Winnie had won
international recognition for her defiance of the government, immediately
before Mandela’s release she had come into conflict with the ANC over a
controversial kidnapping and murder trial that involved her young bodyguards.
The Mandelas were divorced in 1996.
Mandela, who enjoyed enormous
popularity, assumed the leadership of the ANC and led negotiations with the
government for an end to apartheid. While white South Africans considered
sharing power a big step, black South Africans wanted nothing less than a
complete transfer of power. Mandela played a crucial role in resolving
differences. For their efforts, he and de Klerk were awarded the Nobel Peace
Prize in 1993. The following year South Africa held its first multiracial
elections, and Mandela became president.
Mandela sought to calm the
fears of white South Africans and of potential international investors by
trying to balance plans for reconstruction and development with financial
caution. His Reconstruction and Development Plan allotted large amounts of
money to the creation of jobs and housing and to the development of basic
health care. In December 1996 Mandela signed into law a new South African
constitution. The constitution established a federal system with a strong
central government based on majority rule, and it contained guarantees of the
rights of minorities and of freedom of expression. Mandela, who had announced
that he would not run for reelection in 1999, stepped down as party leader of
the ANC in late 1997 and was succeeded by South African deputy president Thabo
Mbeki. Mandela's presidency came to an end in June 1999, when the ANC won
legislative elections and selected Mbeki as South Africa's next president.
Mandela died of a lung infection on 5 December
2013 at around 20:50 UTC at his home in Houghton, Johannesburg surrounded by
his family. He was 95 years of age. His death was announced by President Jacob
Zuma On 6 December, Zuma announced a national mourning period of ten days, with
the main event being an official memorial service to be held at the FNB Stadium
in Johannesburg on 10 December 2013. Mandela's body will lie in state from 11
to 13 December at the Union Buildings in Pretoria and a state funeral will be
held on 15 December 2013 in Qunu
Source: Microsoft Encarta (2009),
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelson_Mandela
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