tiba-tiba ke inget nelson mandela.. anyway, i'm looking and searching for his biography, and then,
i know i though he is really a good guy, he have already feel many pain and conflict in his life, but he still he never lost himself. so, this is his biography what i get from this site : http://www.nelsonmandela.org/content/page/biography
Biography
Rolihlahla Mandela was born into the Madiba clan in Mvezo, Transkei, on
July 18, 1918, to Nonqaphi Nosekeni and Nkosi Mphakanyiswa Gadla
Mandela, principal counsellor to the Acting King of the Thembu people,
Jongintaba Dalindyebo.
His father died when he was 12 years old (1930) and the young
Rolihlahla became a ward of Jongintaba at the Great Place in
Mqhekezweni.*
Hearing the elder’s stories of his ancestor’s valour during the wars of
resistance, he dreamed also of making his own contribution to the
freedom struggle of his people.
He attended primary school in Qunu where his teacher Miss Mdingane gave
him the name Nelson, in accordance with the custom to give all school
children “Christian” names.
He completed his Junior Certificate at Clarkebury Boarding Institute
and went on to Healdtown, a Wesleyan secondary school of some repute,
where he matriculated.
Nelson Mandela began his studies for a
Bachelor of Arts
degree at the University College of Fort Hare but did not complete the
degree there as he was expelled for joining in a student protest.
He completed his BA through the
University of South Africa and went back to Fort Hare for his graduation in 1943.
On his return to the Great Place at Mqhekezweni the King was furious and said if he didn’t return to
Fort Hare
he would arrange wives for him and his cousin Justice. They ran away to
Johannesburg instead, arriving there in 1941. There he worked as a mine
security officer and after meeting Walter Sisulu, an
estate agent, who introduced him to Lazar Sidelsky. He then did his articles through a firm of attorneys, Witkin Eidelman and Sidelsky.
Meanwhile he began studying for an LLB at the University of the
Witwatersrand. By his own admission he was a poor student and left the
university in 1952 without graduating. He only started studying again
through the University of London after his imprisonment in 1962 but also
did not complete that degree.
In 1989, while in the last months of his imprisonment, he obtained an
LLB through the University of South Africa. He graduated in absentia at a
ceremony in Cape Town.
Nelson Mandela, while increasingly politically involved from 1942, only
joined the African National Congress in 1944 when he helped to form the
ANC Youth League.
In 1944 he married Walter Sisulu’s cousin Evelyn Mase, a nurse. They
had two sons, Madiba Thembekile ‘Thembi’ and Makgatho and two daughters
both called Makaziwe, the first of whom died in infancy. They
effectively separated in 1955 and divorced in 1958.
Nelson Mandela rose through the ranks of the ANCYL and through its
work, in 1949 the ANC adopted a more radical mass-based policy, the
Programme of Action.
In 1952 he was chosen at the National Volunteer-in-Chief of the
Defiance Campaign with Maulvi Cachalia as his deputy. This campaign of
civil disobedience against six unjust laws was a joint programme between
the ANC and the South African Indian Congress. He and 19 others were
charged under the Suppression of Communism Act for their part in the
campaign and sentenced to nine months hard labour, suspended for two
years.
A two-year diploma in law on top of his BA allowed Nelson Mandela to
practice law, and in August 1952 he and Oliver Tambo established South
Africa’s first black law firm, Mandela and Tambo.
At the end of 1952 he was banned for the first time. As a restricted
person he was only permitted to watch in secret as the Freedom Charter
was adopted in Kliptown on 26 June 1955.
Nelson Mandela was arrested in a countrywide police swoop on 5 December
1955, which led to the 1956 Treason Trial. Men and women of all races
found themselves in the dock in the marathon trial that only ended when
the last 28 accused, including Mr Mandela were acquitted on 29 March
1961.
On 21 March 1960 police killed 69 unarmed people in a protest against
the pass laws held at Sharpeville. This led to the country’s first state
of emergency and the banning of the ANC and the Pan Africanist Congress
on 8 April. Nelson Mandela and his colleagues in the Treason Trial were
among thousands detained during the state of emergency.
During the trial on 14 June 1958 Nelson Mandela married a social
worker, Winnie Madikizela. They had two daughters, Zenani and Zindziswa.
The couple divorced in 1996.
Days before the end of the Treason Trial Nelson Mandela travelled to
Pietermaritzburg to speak at the All-in Africa Conference, which
resolved that he should write to Prime Minister Verwoerd requesting a
non-racial national convention, and to warn that should he not agree
there would be a national strike against South Africa becoming a
republic. As soon as he and his colleagues were acquitted in the Treason
Trial Nelson Mandela went underground and began planning a national
strike for 29, 30 and 31 March. In the face of massive mobilisation of
state security the strike was called off early. In June 1961 he was
asked to lead the armed struggle and helped to establish Umkhonto
weSizwe (Spear of the Nation).
On 11 January 1962, using the adopted name David Motsamayi, Nelson
Mandela secretly left South Africa. He travelled around Africa and
visited England to gain support for the armed struggle. He received
military training in Morocco and Ethiopia and returned to South Africa
in July 1962. He was arrested in a police roadblock outside Howick on 5
August while returning from KwaZulu-Natal where he briefed ANC President
Chief Albert Luthuli about his trip.
He was charged with leaving the country illegally and inciting workers
to strike. He was convicted and sentenced to five years' imprisonment
which he began serving in the Pretoria Local Prison. On 27 May 1963 he
was transferred to Robben Island and returned to Pretoria on 12 June.
Within a month police raided a secret hide-out in Rivonia used by ANC
and Communist Party activists, and several of his comrades were
arrested.
On 9 October 1963 Nelson Mandela joined ten others on trial for
sabotage in what became known as the Rivonia Trial. While facing the
death penalty his words to the court at the end of his famous ‘Speech
from the Dock’ on 20 April 1964 became immortalised:
“I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against
black domination. 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.”
On 11 June 1964 Nelson Mandela and seven other accused: Walter Sisulu,
Ahmed Kathrada, Govan Mbeki, Raymond Mhlaba, Denis Goldberg, Elias
Motsoaledi and Andrew Mlangeni were convicted and the next day were
sentenced to life imprisonment. Denis Goldberg was sent to Pretoria
Prison because he was white, while the others went to Robben Island.
Nelson Mandela’s mother died in 1968 and his eldest son Thembi in 1969. He was not allowed to attend their funerals.
On 31 March 1982 Nelson Mandela was transferred to Pollsmoor Prison in
Cape Town with Sisulu, Mhlaba and Mlangeni. Kathrada joined them in
October. When he returned to the prison in November 1985 after prostate
surgery Nelson Mandela was held alone. Justice Minister Kobie Coetsee
visited him in hospital. Later Nelson Mandela initiated talks about an
ultimate meeting between the apartheid government and the ANC.
On 12 August 1988 he was taken to hospital where he was diagnosed with
tuberculosis. After more than three months in two hospitals he was
transferred on 7 December 1988 to a house at Victor Verster Prison near
Paarl where he spent his last 14 months of imprisonment. He was released
from its gates on Sunday 11 February 1990, nine days after the
unbanning of the ANC and the PAC and nearly four months after the
release of his remaining Rivonia comrades. Throughout his imprisonment
he had rejected at least three conditional offers of release.
Nelson Mandela immersed himself in official talks to end white minority
rule and in 1991 was elected ANC President to replace his ailing friend
Oliver Tambo. In 1993 he and President FW de Klerk jointly won the
Nobel Peace Prize and on 27 April 1994 he voted for the first time in
his life.
On 10 May 1994 he was inaugurated South Africa’s first democratically
elected President. On his 80th birthday in 1998 he married Graça Machel,
his third wife.
True to his promise Nelson Mandela stepped down in 1999 after one term
as President. He continued to work with the Nelson Mandela Children’s
Fund he set up in 1995 and established the Nelson Mandela Foundation and
The Mandela Rhodes Foundation.
In April 2007 his grandson Mandla Mandela became head of the Mvezo Traditional Council at a ceremony at the Mvezo Great Place.
Nelson Mandela never wavered in his devotion to democracy, equality and
learning. Despite terrible provocation, he never answered racism with
racism. His life has been an inspiration to all who are oppressed and
deprived; to all who are opposed to oppression and deprivation.
He died at his home in Johannesburg on 5 December 2013.
*Nelson Mandela's father died in 1930 when Mr Mandela was 12 and his
mother died in 1968 when he was in prison. While the autobiography
Long Walk to Freedom
places Madiba’s father’s death in 1927, historical evidence shows it
must have been later, most likely 1930. In fact, the original
Long Walk to Freedom manuscript (written on Robben Island) states the year as 1930.
source :http://www.nelsonmandela.org/content/page/biography