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Latest update: 27/01/2011
- anniversary - Nelson Mandela - South Africa
Nation celebrates 20th anniversary of Mandela's release
The iconic figure of the struggle against apartheid, Nelson Mandela won the hearts of South Africa and the world. Feb. 11, 2010, marks the 20th anniversary of his release from jail, after 27 years in the grip of the racist system he helped destroy.
Born into a royal clan on July 18, 1918, in the Eastern Cape, South Africa, Nelson Mandela remains to this day an enduring and emblematic leader even as he has progressively retreated from the public spotlight.
Though his birth name, Rolihlahla, means “troublemaker”, Mandela is most widely admired for leading a scarred South Africa into the post-apartheid era and for embracing the principle of racial harmony.
In the 1940s, Mandela became interested in African nationalism and non-violent resistance while studying law at the University of Fort Hare. Later, while working as a law clerk, he became active in the African National Congress (ANC), eventually becoming the party’s vice president as the regime continued to enforce apartheid.
Mandela married Winnei Madikizela in 1958, and the marriage was to last about 34 years.
In 1960, after a bloody crackdown on anti-apartheid protesters, the ANC – at that point banned by the ruling government – decided that it was time to take up arms. Mandela was involved in laying out sabotage plots against government and military targets and planning a guerrilla resistance. Accused of conspiring against the South African government, Mandela was sentenced to life in prison at the Rivonia trial in 1964. Along with seven other ANC members, Mandela was dispatched to Robben Island, off Cape Town.
In his now famous “I am prepared to die” statement, which he delivered from the dock at the opening of the Rivonia Trial, Mandela said, “I have cherished the ideal 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.”
It was his closing lines and it was to play a critical role in rallying anti-apartheid protesters during his 27-year imprisonment.
In 1982, after spending nearly 20 years at Robben Island, from where he earned a law degree through correspondence education, Mandela was transferred to Pollsmoor Prison in a suburb of Cape Town, along with other ANC figures. Six years later, he was shifted to the Victor Verster Prison and would remain there until his release.
Free Nelson Mandela!
Throughout his imprisonment, local and international pressure mounted on the South African government to release him. But the late1980s, the campaign to release Mandela reached a fevered, global pitch with demonstrators across the world’s major cities rallying to the slogan, “Free Nelson Mandela!”
The dream turned into a reality in February 1990, when President Frederik De Klerk, who had succeeded from President P.W. Botha the year before, announced Mandela’s release.
Shortly after his release, Mandela entered into negotiations with the South African government. Those negotiations earned Mandela and De Klerk a joint Nobel Peace Prize in 1993.
On April 27, 1994, Mandela emerged victorious from South Africa’s first multi-racial elections, and vowed to construct a "rainbow nation at peace with itself and with the world”. He established the “Truth and Reconciliation” commission with the aspiration of resolving the gaping wounds left by apartheid and moving towards national unity.
This absence of anger about injustices suffered personally and by many of his fellow countrymen is Mandela’s best-known characteristic.
At the end of his term in 1999, Mandela retired from political life.
Evoking the wide-reaching symbolic value of Nelson Mandela’s life and actions, South African cleric Desmond Tutu, the first black archbishop of Cape Town and a relentless opponent of racial segregation, called the man “a global icon of reconciliation”.
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Comments (7)
Mandela
Here is agreat man. A true revolutionary who fought not only to liberate black people but to unite the nation. People of all colours in South Africa enjoy living together. This man did not cling to power after winning the first democratic elections.
Tata Madiba you are a great leader. I hope other leaders can emulate you especially those in Africa. Mr Mugabe should learn a thing or two from you Tata.
Viva Madiba, Viva Rolihlahla, long live Nelson Mandela. May the lord bless you aleays.
Mandela
There are only few of such people on earth and he even seem to be only especially in Africa where leaders are manipulated to maltreat their fellew countrymen.Mandela, the world shall live to remember you and your determined efforts that released Africa from wickedness, racism, discrimination and torture
A PATRIOT
This is a man of integrity and love who has to be looked up to by most of our African Leaders.May u live long Papa Mandela!
real and powerfull words
words for the mine
MANDELE THE GREAYEST
NELSO MANDELA IS A GREAT MAN THAT THE WORLD WILL NEVER LIVE TO FORGET AND THE CLERK
FROM NETTING FREDERICK
will mandelas legacy be protected
Nelson Mandela, like all leaders who have gone before him, and those to come, will one day die. He is a unifying force today, a rallying point , both for peoples nostalgia and their aspirations. What then will South Africans use as a rallying point? Will they call on him even in death, will they be able to carry on being forgiving, despite the huge inequalities and other problems that bedevil the country today. In remembering this day, South Africans may also do well to take stock of the values they have cultivated in this nation, and whether those values can carry this nation forward, without the figure of nelson mandela as a tool in any scenario.
Ride and Shine High Nelson
Africa indeed needs many Mandela today to survive. Why becuase leaders nowadays don't think beyound their stomach, what they think and care about is how to amass wealth for themselves and their families.
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