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Nelson Mandela Essay for Students and Children

500+ words essay on nelson mandela.

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was born on 18 July 1918 in the Transkei village close Umtata. Nelson Mandela was sent to Healdtown, a Wesleyan secondary school with some reputation where he enrolled after getting a primary education at a local mission school. He then registered for the Bachelor of Arts degree at Fort Hare University College where he was appointed to the Representative Council of the Student. Also, he was suspended for joining a protest boycott from college. He went to Johannesburg where, by correspondence, he finished his BA, took clerkship papers and began studying for his LLB . The Nelson Mandela essay is an insight into the life and works of the great man.

The greatest pleasure of Nelson Mandela, his most private moment, is to watch the sunset playing with the music of Händel or Tchaikovsky.

During daylight hours locked up in his cell, deprived of music, he was denied these two simple pleasures for centuries. Concerts were organized with his fellow inmates as far as possible, especially at Christmas time, where they would sing.

Nelson Mandela finds music very uplifting and is interested in European classical music as well as African choral music and the many talents in South African music. But above all, one voice stands out – Paul Robeson’s, whom he defines as our hero.

The years in prison strengthened already engraved practices: athlete’s disciplined eating system started in the 1940s, as did the early morning practice. Nelson Mandela is still up by 4.30am today, regardless of how late he worked last night.

He started his exercise routine by 5 am, which lasts for at least an hour. Breakfast is at 6.30 when newspapers are read during the days. With a normal working day of at nearly 12 hours, time management is critical and Nelson Mandela is highly impatient with impunctuality, considering it to be insulting to those with whom you deal.

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Life of Nelson Mandela

He has conducted comprehensive traveling since his release from prison when he spoke. Nelson Mandela claims: “The biography of Pandit Nehru helped me prepare for my discharge. Who wrote about what’s going on when you leave prison.

My daughter Zinzi claims she grew up without a dad who became the nation’s dad when he came back. This has put on my shoulders a huge burden.

And wherever I travel, I instantly start missing the familiar–the mine dumps, the uniquely South African color and smell, and especially the individuals. I don’t like being away for a long moment. There’s no place like home for me.

Mandela accepted the Nobel Peace Prize as a tribute to all those who worked for peace and opposed racism. This individual has been awarded as much as it has been to the ANC and all the individuals of South Africa.

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Biography Online

Biography Nelson Mandela

“I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.”

– Nelson Mandela

Short Bio of Nelson Mandela

A young Nelson Mandela (1938)

Nelson Mandela was born in Transkei, South Africa on July 18, 1918. He was the son of a local tribal leader of the Tembu tribe. As a youngster, Nelson took part in the activities and initiation ceremonies of his local tribe. However, unlike his father Nelson Mandela gained a full education, studying at the University College of Fort Hare and also the University of Witwatersrand. Nelson was a good student and qualified with a law degree in 1942.

During his time at University, Nelson Mandela became increasingly aware of the racial inequality and injustice faced by non-white people. In 1943, he decided to join the ANC and actively take part in the struggle against apartheid.

As one of the few qualified lawyers, Nelson Mandela was in great demand; also his commitment to the cause saw him promoted through the ranks of the ANC. In 1956, Nelson Mandela, along with several other members of the ANC were arrested and charged with treason. After a lengthy and protracted court case, the defendants were finally acquitted in 1961. However, with the ANC now banned, Nelson Mandela suggested an active armed resistance to the apartheid regime. This led to the formation of Umkhonto we Sizwe, which would act as a guerilla resistance movement. Receiving training in other African countries, the Umkhonto we Sizwe took part in active sabotage.

In 1963, Mandela was again arrested and put on trial for treason. This time the State succeeded in convicting Mandela of plotting to overthrow the government. However, the case received considerable international attention and the apartheid regime of South Africa became under the glare of the international community. At the end of his trial, Nelson Mandela made a long speech, in which he was able to affirm his commitment to the ideals of democracy.

“We believe that South Africa belongs to all the people who live in it, and not to one group, be it black or white. We did not want an interracial war, and tried to avoid it to the last minute.”

– Nelson Mandela, Supreme court of South Africa, Pretoria, April 20, 1964

Closing remark at the 1964 trial

“During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people. 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.”

– Nelson Mandela, Supreme court of South Africa, Pretoria, April 20, 1964. (See: full speech )

Time in Prison

F.W.De Klerk and Nelson Mandela at World Economic Forum 1992.

During his time in prison, Mandela became increasingly well known throughout the world. Mandela became the best known black leader and was symbolic of the struggle against the apartheid regime. Largely unbeknown to Mandela, his continued imprisonment led to a world-wide pressure for his release. Many countries implemented sanctions on apartheid South Africa. Due to international pressure, from the mid-1980s, the apartheid regime increasingly began to negotiate with the ANC and Nelson Mandela in particular. On many occasions, Mandela was offered a conditional freedom. However, he always refused to put the political ideals of the ANC above his own freedom.

Freedom and a new Rainbow Nation

Mandela voting in 1994 election. Photo. P.Weinburg

Eventually, Nelson Mandela was released on February 11, 1990. The day was a huge event for South Africa and the world. His release symbolic of the impending end of apartheid. Following his release there followed protracted negotiations to secure a lasting settlement. The negotiations were tense often against the backdrop of tribal violence. However, in April 1994, South Africa had its first full and fair elections. The ANC, with 65% of the vote, were elected and Nelson Mandela became the first President of the new South Africa.

“The time for the healing of the wounds has come. The moment to bridge the chasms that divide us has come. The time to build is upon us.”

As President, he sought to heal the rifts of the past. Despite being mistreated, he was magnanimous in his dealing with his former oppressors. His forgiving and tolerant attitude gained the respect of the whole South African nation and considerably eased the transition to a full democracy.

“If there are dreams about a beautiful South Africa, there are also roads that lead to their goal. Two of these roads could be named goodness and forgiveness.”

Photo: Governor-General of Australia

In 1995, the Rugby World Cup was held in South Africa. Nelson Mandela was instrumental in encouraging black South Africans to support the ‘Springboks’ – The Springboks were previously reviled for being a symbol of white supremacy. Mandela surprised many by meeting the Springbok captain, Francois Pienaar, before the World Cup to wish the team well. After an epic final, in which South Africa beat New Zealand, Mandela, wearing a Springbok jersey, presented the trophy to the winning South Africa team. De Klerk later stated Mandela successfully won the hearts of a million white rugby fans.

Nelson Mandela also oversaw the formation of the Truth and Reconciliation Committee in which former crimes of apartheid were investigated, but stressing individual forgiveness and helping the nation to look forward. The Committee was chaired by Desmond Tutu , and Mandela later praised its work.

Nelson Mandela retired from the Presidency in 1999, to be succeeded by Thabo Mbeki. In Mandela’s later years, ill health curtailed his public life. However, he did speak out on certain issues. He was very critical of the US-led invasion of Iraq during 2003. Speaking in a Newsweek interview in 2002, he expressed concern at American actions, he said:

“I really wanted to retire and rest and spend more time with my children, my grandchildren and of course with my wife. But the problems are such that for anybody with a conscience who can use whatever influence he may have to try to bring about peace, it’s difficult to say no.” (10 September 2002)

He has also campaigned to highlight the issue of HIV / AIDS in South Africa.

Mandela was married three times, fathered six children, and had 17 grandchildren. His first wife was Evelyn Ntoko Mase. His second wife was Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, they split after an acrimonious dispute. Winnie was alleged to have an involvement in human rights abuses. Mandela married for a third time on his 80th birthday to Graça Machel.

Graça Michel, Sri Chinmoy and Nelson Mandela holding Peace Torch. Source

Nelson Mandela was often referred to as Madiba – his Xhosa clan name.

Nelson Mandela died on 5 December 2013 after a long illness with his family at his side. He was 95.

At his memorial, Barack Obama, the President of the US said:

“We will not likely see the likes of Nelson Mandela ever again, so it falls to us, as best we can, to carry forward the example that he set. He no longer belongs to us; he belongs to the ages.”

Citation: Pettinger, Tejvan . “Biography of Nelson Mandela”, Oxford, UK.  www.biographyonline.net.   Published: 7th December 2013. Last updated 13th February 2018.

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Nelson Mandela

By: History.com Editors

Updated: March 29, 2023 | Original: November 9, 2009

The South African activist and former president Nelson Mandela (1918-2013) helped bring an end to apartheid and has been a global advocate for human rights. A member of the African National Congress party beginning in the 1940s, he was a leader of both peaceful protests and armed resistance against the white minority’s oppressive regime in a racially divided South Africa. His actions landed him in prison for nearly three decades and made him the face of the antiapartheid movement both within his country and internationally. Released in 1990, he participated in the eradication of apartheid and in 1994 became the first Black president of South Africa, forming a multiethnic government to oversee the country’s transition. After retiring from politics in 1999, he remained a devoted champion for peace and social justice in his own nation and around the world until his death in 2013 at the age of 95.

Nelson Mandela’s Childhood and Education

Nelson Mandela was born on July 18, 1918, into a royal family of the Xhosa-speaking Thembu tribe in the South African village of Mvezo, where his father, Gadla Henry Mphakanyiswa (c. 1880-1928), served as chief. His mother, Nosekeni Fanny, was the third of Mphakanyiswa’s four wives, who together bore him nine daughters and four sons. After the death of his father in 1927, 9-year-old Mandela—then known by his birth name, Rolihlahla—was adopted by Jongintaba Dalindyebo, a high-ranking Thembu regent who began grooming his young ward for a role within the tribal leadership.

Did you know? As a sign of respect, many South Africans referred to Nelson Mandela as Madiba, his Xhosa clan name.

The first in his family to receive a formal education, Mandela completed his primary studies at a local missionary school. There, a teacher dubbed him Nelson as part of a common practice of giving African students English names. He went on to attend the Clarkebury Boarding Institute and Healdtown, a Methodist secondary school, where he excelled in boxing and track as well as academics. In 1939 Mandela entered the elite University of Fort Hare, the only Western-style higher learning institute for Black South Africans at the time. The following year, he and several other students, including his friend and future business partner Oliver Tambo (1917-1993), were sent home for participating in a boycott against university policies.

After learning that his guardian had arranged a marriage for him, Mandela fled to Johannesburg and worked first as a night watchman and then as a law clerk while completing his bachelor’s degree by correspondence. He studied law at the University of Witwatersrand, where he became involved in the movement against racial discrimination and forged key relationships with Black and white activists. In 1944, Mandela joined the African National Congress (ANC) and worked with fellow party members, including Oliver Tambo, to establish its youth league, the ANCYL. That same year, he met and married his first wife, Evelyn Ntoko Mase (1922-2004), with whom he had four children before their divorce in 1957.

Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress

Nelson Mandela’s commitment to politics and the ANC grew stronger after the 1948 election victory of the Afrikaner-dominated National Party, which introduced a formal system of racial classification and segregation—apartheid—that restricted nonwhites’ basic rights and barred them from government while maintaining white minority rule. The following year, the ANC adopted the ANCYL’s plan to achieve full citizenship for all South Africans through boycotts, strikes, civil disobedience and other nonviolent methods. Mandela helped lead the ANC’s 1952 Campaign for the Defiance of Unjust Laws, traveling across the country to organize protests against discriminatory policies, and promoted the manifesto known as the Freedom Charter, ratified by the Congress of the People in 1955. Also in 1952, Mandela and Tambo opened South Africa’s first Black law firm, which offered free or low-cost legal counsel to those affected by apartheid legislation.

On December 5, 1956, Mandela and 155 other activists were arrested and went on trial for treason. All of the defendants were acquitted in 1961, but in the meantime tensions within the ANC escalated, with a militant faction splitting off in 1959 to form the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC). The next year, police opened fire on peaceful Black protesters in the township of Sharpeville, killing 69 people; as panic, anger and riots swept the country in the massacre’s aftermath, the apartheid government banned both the ANC and the PAC. Forced to go underground and wear disguises to evade detection, Mandela decided that the time had come for a more radical approach than passive resistance.

Nelson Mandela and the Armed Resistance Movement

In 1961, Nelson Mandela co-founded and became the first leader of Umkhonto we Sizwe (“Spear of the Nation”), also known as MK, a new armed wing of the ANC. Several years later, during the trial that would put him behind bars for nearly three decades, he described the reasoning for this radical departure from his party’s original tenets: “[I]t would be wrong and unrealistic for African leaders to continue preaching peace and nonviolence at a time when the government met our peaceful demands with force. It was only when all else had failed, when all channels of peaceful protest had been barred to us, that the decision was made to embark on violent forms of political struggle.”

Under Mandela’s leadership, MK launched a sabotage campaign against the government, which had recently declared South Africa a republic and withdrawn from the British Commonwealth. In January 1962, Mandela traveled abroad illegally to attend a conference of African nationalist leaders in Ethiopia, visit the exiled Oliver Tambo in London and undergo guerilla training in Algeria. On August 5, shortly after his return, he was arrested and subsequently sentenced to five years in prison for leaving the country and inciting a 1961 workers’ strike. The following July, police raided an ANC hideout in Rivonia, a suburb on the outskirts of Johannesburg, and arrested a racially diverse group of MK leaders who had gathered to debate the merits of a guerilla insurgency. Evidence was found implicating Mandela and other activists, who were brought to stand trial for sabotage, treason and violent conspiracy alongside their associates.

Mandela and seven other defendants narrowly escaped the gallows and were instead sentenced to life imprisonment during the so-called Rivonia Trial, which lasted eight months and attracted substantial international attention. In a stirring opening statement that sealed his iconic status around the world, Mandela admitted to some of the charges against him while defending the ANC’s actions and denouncing the injustices of apartheid. He ended with the following words: “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.”

Nelson Mandela’s Years Behind Bars

Nelson Mandela spent the first 18 of his 27 years in jail at the brutal Robben Island Prison, a former leper colony off the coast of Cape Town, where he was confined to a small cell without a bed or plumbing and compelled to do hard labor in a lime quarry. As a Black political prisoner, he received scantier rations and fewer privileges than other inmates. He was only allowed to see his wife, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela (1936-), who he had married in 1958 and was the mother of his two young daughters, once every six months. Mandela and his fellow prisoners were routinely subjected to inhumane punishments for the slightest of offenses; among other atrocities, there were reports of guards burying inmates in the ground up to their necks and urinating on them.

These restrictions and conditions notwithstanding, while in confinement Mandela earned a bachelor of law degree from the University of London and served as a mentor to his fellow prisoners, encouraging them to seek better treatment through nonviolent resistance. He also smuggled out political statements and a draft of his autobiography, “Long Walk to Freedom,” published five years after his release.

Despite his forced retreat from the spotlight, Mandela remained the symbolic leader of the antiapartheid movement. In 1980 Oliver Tambo introduced a “Free Nelson Mandela” campaign that made the jailed leader a household name and fueled the growing international outcry against South Africa’s racist regime. As pressure mounted, the government offered Mandela his freedom in exchange for various political compromises, including the renouncement of violence and recognition of the “independent” Transkei Bantustan, but he categorically rejected these deals.

In 1982 Mandela was moved to Pollsmoor Prison on the mainland, and in 1988 he was placed under house arrest on the grounds of a minimum-security correctional facility. The following year, newly elected president F. W. de Klerk (1936-) lifted the ban on the ANC and called for a nonracist South Africa, breaking with the conservatives in his party. On February 11, 1990, he ordered Mandela’s release.

Nelson Mandela as President of South Africa

After attaining his freedom, Nelson Mandela led the ANC in its negotiations with the governing National Party and various other South African political organizations for an end to apartheid and the establishment of a multiracial government. Though fraught with tension and conducted against a backdrop of political instability, the talks earned Mandela and de Klerk the Nobel Peace Prize in December 1993. On April 26, 1994, more than 22 million South Africans turned out to cast ballots in the country’s first multiracial parliamentary elections in history. An overwhelming majority chose the ANC to lead the country, and on May 10 Mandela was sworn in as the first Black president of South Africa, with de Klerk serving as his first deputy.

As president, Mandela established the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to investigate human rights and political violations committed by both supporters and opponents of apartheid between 1960 and 1994. He also introduced numerous social and economic programs designed to improve the living standards of South Africa’s Black population. In 1996 Mandela presided over the enactment of a new South African constitution, which established a strong central government based on majority rule and prohibited discrimination against minorities, including whites.

Improving race relations, discouraging Blacks from retaliating against the white minority and building a new international image of a united South Africa were central to President Mandela’s agenda. To these ends, he formed a multiracial “Government of National Unity” and proclaimed the country a “rainbow nation at peace with itself and the world.” In a gesture seen as a major step toward reconciliation, he encouraged Blacks and whites alike to rally around the predominantly Afrikaner national rugby team when South Africa hosted the 1995 Rugby World Cup.

On his 80th birthday in 1998, Mandela wed the politician and humanitarian Graça Machel (1945-), widow of the former president of Mozambique. (His marriage to Winnie had ended in divorce in 1992.) The following year, he retired from politics at the end of his first term as president and was succeeded by his deputy, Thabo Mbeki (1942-) of the ANC.

Nelson Mandela’s Later Years and Legacy

After leaving office, Nelson Mandela remained a devoted champion for peace and social justice in his own country and around the world. He established a number of organizations, including the influential Nelson Mandela Foundation and The Elders, an independent group of public figures committed to addressing global problems and easing human suffering. In 2002, Mandela became a vocal advocate of AIDS awareness and treatment programs in a culture where the epidemic had been cloaked in stigma and ignorance. The disease later claimed the life of his son Makgatho (1950-2005) and is believed to affect more people in South Africa than in any other country.

Treated for prostate cancer in 2001 and weakened by other health issues, Mandela grew increasingly frail in his later years and scaled back his schedule of public appearances. In 2009, the United Nations declared July 18 “Nelson Mandela International Day” in recognition of the South African leader’s contributions to democracy, freedom, peace and human rights around the world. Nelson Mandela died on December 5, 2013 from a recurring lung infection.

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• Nelson Mandela - Biographical

Nelson Mandela

Biographical.

Questions and answers on Nelson Mandela

N elson Rolihlahla Mandela was born in Transkei, South Africa on July 18, 1918. His father was Hendry Mphakanyiswa of the Tembu Tribe. Mandela himself was educated at University College of Fort Hare and the University of Witwatersrand where he studied law. He joined the African National Congress in 1944 and was engaged in resistance against the ruling National Party’s apartheid policies after 1948. He went on trial for treason in 1956-1961 and was acquitted in 1961.

After the banning of the ANC in 1960, Nelson Mandela argued for the setting up of a military wing within the ANC. In June 1961, the ANC executive considered his proposal on the use of violent tactics and agreed that those members who wished to involve themselves in Mandela’s campaign would not be stopped from doing so by the ANC. This led to the formation of Umkhonto we Sizwe. Mandela was arrested in 1962 and sentenced to five years’ imprisonment with hard labour. In 1963, when many fellow leaders of the ANC and the Umkhonto we Sizwe were arrested, Mandela was brought to stand trial with them for plotting to overthrow the government by violence. His statement from the dock received considerable international publicity. On June 12, 1964, eight of the accused, including Mandela, were sentenced to life imprisonment. From 1964 to 1982, he was incarcerated at Robben Island Prison, off Cape Town; thereafter, he was at Pollsmoor Prison, nearby on the mainland.

During his years in prison, Nelson Mandela’s reputation grew steadily. He was widely accepted as the most significant black leader in South Africa and became a potent symbol of resistance as the anti-apartheid movement gathered strength. He consistently refused to compromise his political position to obtain his freedom.

Nelson Mandela was released on February 11, 1990. After his release, he plunged himself wholeheartedly into his life’s work, striving to attain the goals he and others had set out almost four decades earlier. In 1991, at the first national conference of the ANC held inside South Africa after the organization had been banned in 1960, Mandela was elected President of the ANC while his lifelong friend and colleague, Oliver Tambo, became the organisation’s National Chairperson.

This autobiography/biography was written at the time of the award and later published in the book series Les Prix Nobel/ Nobel Lectures / The Nobel Prizes . The information is sometimes updated with an addendum submitted by the Laureate.

Watch a video clip of Nelson Mandela and Frederik Willem de Klerk receiving their Nobel Peace Prize medals and diplomas during the Nobel Peace Prize Award Ceremony at the Oslo City Hall in Norway, 10 December 1993.

This autobiography/biography was written at the time of the award and first published in the book series Les Prix Nobel . It was later edited and republished in Nobel Lectures . To cite this document, always state the source as shown above.

For more updated biographical information, see: Mandela, Nelson. Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela . Little, Brown and Co., Boston, 1994.

Nelson Mandela died on 5 December 2013.

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Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela was the first Black president of South Africa, elected after time in prison for his anti-apartheid work. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993.

(1918-2013)

Who Was Nelson Mandela?

Beginning in 1962, Mandela spent 27 years in prison for political offenses. 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. For generations to come, Mandela will be a source of inspiration for civil rights activists worldwide.

Mandela was born on July 18, 1918, in the tiny village of Mvezo, on the banks of the Mbashe River in Transkei, South Africa.

His birth name was Rolihlahla Mandela. "Rolihlahla" in the Xhosa language literally means "pulling the branch of a tree," but more commonly translates as "troublemaker."

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 footpaths 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 right-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 12 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 white people, white men took all of these things for themselves.

READ MORE: 14 Inspiring Nelson Mandela Quotes

Political Awakening

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.

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University Life

Under the guardianship of Regent Jongintaba, Mandela 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 of Fort Hare , the only residential center of higher learning for Black people in South Africa at the time. Fort Hare was considered Africa's equivalent of Harvard , drawing scholars from all parts of sub-Saharan 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 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 the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg to study law.

Anti-Apartheid Movement

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 Black people.

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.

Wife and Children

Mandela was married three times and had six children. He wed his first wife, Evelyn Ntoko Mase, in 1944. The couple had four children together: Madiba Thembekile (d. 1964), Makgatho (d. 2005), Makaziwe (d. 1948 at nine months old) and Maki. The couple divorced in 1957.

In 1958, Mandela wed Winnie Madikizela . The couple had two daughters together, Zenani (Argentina's South African ambassador) and Zindziswa (the South African ambassador to Denmark), before separating in 1996.

Two years later, in 1998, Mandela married Graca Machel, the first Education Minister of Mozambique, with whom he remained until his death in 2013.

Prison Years

Formerly committed to nonviolent protest, Mandela began to believe that armed struggle was the only way to achieve change. In 1961, Mandela co-founded Umkhonto we Sizwe, also known as MK, an armed offshoot of the ANC dedicated to sabotage and use guerilla war tactics to end apartheid.

In 1961, Mandela orchestrated a three-day national workers' strike. He was arrested for leading the strike the following year and was sentenced to five years in prison. In 1963, Mandela was brought to trial again. This time, he and 10 other ANC leaders were sentenced to life imprisonment for political offenses, including sabotage.

Mandela spent 27 years in prison, from November 1962 until February 1990. He was incarcerated on Robben Island for 18 of his 27 years in prison. During this time, he contracted tuberculosis and, as a Black political prisoner, received the lowest level of treatment from prison workers. However, while incarcerated, Mandela was able to earn a Bachelor of Law degree through a University of London correspondence program.

A 1981 memoir by South African intelligence agent Gordon Winter described a plot by the South African government to arrange for Mandela's escape so as to shoot him during the recapture; the plot was foiled by British intelligence.

Mandela continued to be such a potent symbol of Black resistance that a coordinated international campaign for his release was launched, and this international groundswell of support exemplified the power and esteem that Mandela had in the global political community.

In 1982, Mandela and other ANC leaders were moved to Pollsmoor Prison, allegedly to enable contact between them and the South African government. In 1985, President P.W. Botha offered Mandela's release in exchange for renouncing armed struggle; the prisoner flatly rejected the offer.

F. W. de Klerk

With increasing local and international pressure for his release, the government participated in several talks with Mandela over the ensuing years, but no deal was made.

It wasn't until Botha suffered a stroke and was replaced by Frederik Willem de Klerk that Mandela's release was finally announced, on February 11, 1990. De Klerk also lifted the ban on the ANC, removed restrictions on political groups and suspended executions.

Upon his release from prison, 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.

Nobel Peace Prize

In 1993, Mandela and President de Klerk were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their work toward dismantling apartheid in South Africa.

After Mandela’s release from prison, he negotiated with President 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.

Due in no small part to the work of Mandela and President de Klerk, negotiations between Black and white South Africans prevailed: On April 27, 1994, South Africa held its first democratic elections. 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.

From 1994 until June 1999, President 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 white and Black people, 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. That year Mandela was also awarded the Order of Merit.

During his presidency, Mandela also worked to protect South Africa's economy from collapse. 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.

Retirement and Later Career

By the 1999 general election, 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.

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 and wife Graca Machel co-founded The Elders , a group of world leaders aiming to work both publicly and privately to find solutions to some of the world's toughest issues. The group included Desmond Tutu , Kofi Annan , Ela Bhatt, Gro Harlem Brundtland, Jimmy Carter , Li Zhaoxing, Mary Robinson and Muhammad Yunus.

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 . His son Makgatho died of the disease in 2005.

Relationship With Barack Obama

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. Barack Obama, while a junior senator from Illinois, also met with Mandela during his 2005 trip to the United States.

Mandela died on December 5, 2013, at the age of 95 in his home in Johannesburg, South Africa. 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, Machel, canceled a scheduled appearance in London to remain at her husband's side, and his daughter, Zenani Dlamini, flew back from Argentina 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 the day of Mandela’s death, Zuma released a statement speaking 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.

Movie and Books

In 1994, Mandela published his autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom , much of which he had secretly written while in prison. The book inspired the 2013 movie Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom.

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 Day

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 Foundation , 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 Foundation'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."

QUICK FACTS

• Name: Nelson Mandela
• Birth Year: 1918
• Birth date: July 18, 1918
• Birth City: Mvezo, Transkei
• Birth Country: South Africa
• Gender: Male
• Best Known For: Nelson Mandela was the first Black president of South Africa, elected after time in prison for his anti-apartheid work. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993.
• Civil Rights
• World Politics
• Astrological Sign: Cancer
• University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
• University College of Fort Hare
• Wesleyan College
• University of London
• Clarkebury Boarding Institute
• Nacionalities
• South African
• Interesting Facts
• Mandela's African name "Rolihlahla" means "troublemaker."
• Mandela became the first Black president of South Africa in 1994, serving until 1999.
• Beginning in 1962, Mandela spent 27 years in prison for political offenses.
• Death Year: 2013
• Death date: December 5, 2013
• Death City: Johannesburg
• Death Country: South Africa

We strive for accuracy and fairness.If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us !

CITATION INFORMATION

• Article Title: Nelson Mandela Biography
• Author: Biography.com Editors
• Website Name: The Biography.com website
• Url: https://www.biography.com/political-figures/nelson-mandela
• Access Date:
• Publisher: A&E; Television Networks
• Last Updated: January 7, 2022
• Original Published Date: April 3, 2014
• 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.
• Difficulties break some men but make others. No axe is sharp enough to cut the soul of a sinner who keeps on trying, one armed with the hope that he will rise even in the end.
• Death is something inevitable. When a man has done what he considers to be his duty to his people and his country, he can rest in peace. I believe I have made that effort and that is, therefore, why I will sleep for the eternity.
• Those who conduct themselves with morality, integrity and consistency need not fear the forces of inhumanity and cruelty.
• Everyone can rise above their circumstances and achieve success if they are dedicated to and passionate about what they do.
• Our march to freedom is irreversible. We must not allow fear to stand in our way.
• When a man is denied the right to live the life he believes in, he has no choice but to become an outlaw.
• I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it....The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.
• Prison itself is a tremendous education in the need for patience and perseverance. It is above all a test of one's commitment.
• I can rest only for a moment, for with freedom come responsibilities, and I dare not linger, for my long walk is not yet ended.
• During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people. 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.
• For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.
• If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner.
• Man's goodness is a flame that can be hidden but never extinguished.
• I was made, by the law, a criminal, not because of what I had done, but because of what I stood for, because of what I thought, because of my conscience.
• The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.
• 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.

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Biography of nelson Mandela in 500 Words

By sayyed ayan

Updated on: May 3, 2023

Today we covered a short biography of Nelson Mandela in 500 words . If you like, spread your love with this article.

Nelson Mandela is the first former President of South Africa. Nelson Mandela became the first black President of South Africa. His childhood name was Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela. He considered Gandhi as his ideal. And he tried to follow the path of non-violence like Mahatma Gandhi.

Table of Contents

Where Was born Nelson Mandela?

Nelson Mandela was born Gedla Henry Mphakeniswa on 18 July 1918 in Mwezo, Eastern Cape, Union of South Africa. Mvezo is a village in Eastern Cape Town, South Africa.

Nelson Mandela family members’ names?

Nelson Mandela Birth name is Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela. Nelson Mandela did three marriages in his life. He had six children for his three Wifes. And he had a total of 17 grandchildren.

• Nelson Mandela’s first wife’s name- Evelyn mace (married in 1944)
• Nelson Mandela’s second wife name -Nomjamo Winnie Medikijala (married in 1998)
• Nelson Mandela’S third wife name- Grace mickle (married in 1998)
• Nelson Mandela’s Father’s name is Hendry Mphakanyiswa
• Nelson Mandela’s mother’s name is Noqaphi Nosekeni

here we covered Mandela’s family details directly. because this is the biography of Nelson Mandela in 500 words .

Nelson Mandela’s children’s name

Nelson Mandela has six children

• First children-Medica Thembekal Mandela
• Second childen- Macziv Mandela
• Third Children -McGatho Lewanika Mandela
• Fourth children- Macziv Mandela
• Fifth Children- zenana Mandela
• Sixth children -Zinziswa Mandela

we provide you with valuable details about Mandela but the details are short because of the biography of Nelson Mandela in 500 words in class 10.

Nelson Mandela Achievements

Nelson Mandela has received many awards in his life. But we will tell you the names of some important awards that Mandela received.

• Sakharov Prize received in 1988
• Bharat Ratna received in 1990
• Nishan-e-Pakistan received in 1992
• Nobel Peace Prize received in 1993
• Lenin Peace Prize was received in 1990.
• Presidential Medal of Freedom received in 2002.

What is the best biography of Nelson Mandela?

The best biography of Nelson Mandela is Long Walk to Freedom. Which was published in 1994. Which the journey of his entire life from childhood to becoming the President has been explained in detail. This book is divided into two parts. In the first part, his education has been told, and in the second part. how he ended apartheid. in Long Walk to Freedom Book, Mandela discussed on topics like education, apartheid, the importance of Nonviolent Resistance, Political Philosophy, etc. These are very important details of the biography of Nelson Mandela in 500 words .

what is the Theme of Long Walk to Freedom autobiography of nelson Mandela?

The Theme of Long Walk to Freedom is how Mandela’s freedom, social justice, and education are fought in South Africa. This autobiography tells the essence of his student life to political life. This autobiography gave very important information about Mandela’s life from the beginning of his life, such as apartheid, nonviolent resistance, reconciliation, leadership, etc. Mandela dedicated his whole life to all these works.

where did Nelson Mandela die and how?

Nelson Mandela’s death happened on 5 December 2013. Mandela remained in Cape Town prison in 1988 and Victor Vester prison till 1990. In this way, most of Mandela’s life was spent in jail. Thus he had to fight many diseases. And due to many diseases, he died before the age of 95 years.

this is a short biography of Nelson Mandela in 500 words . if you like, spread your love. If you have any doubts or questions? comment below. Our team will give you the answer in the least possible time.

Thanks for reading ❤️.

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Autobiography of Nelson Mandela pdf

ques1. What is the best autobiography of Nelson Mandela?

The best autobiography of Nelson Mandela is Long Walk to Freedom. the theme of autobiography is social justice, education, apartheid, nonviolent resistance, reconciliation, leadership, etc.

ques2. Did Nelson Mandela ever commit murder?

In short Nelson Mandela never commit any murder but the a very interesting real story behind that. Mandela is a great leader of South Africa. He was also a leader of the ANC (African National Congress). Which was the social-democratic political party of Africa. Mandela built one of his armies called MK (uMkhonto we Sizwe). Whose objective was to end the policy of killing terrorist civilians and apartheid. Nelson Mandela gave his army complete weapons such as AK47, M4, granite, landmines, etc, and many other types of weapons. During this time Mandela was in jail and his army named MK was running on secret instructions from Nelson Mandela. during that time period, many civilians were killed. That’s why this question runs in the mind of the people, Did Nelson Mandela ever commit murder? but the people there have not considered him to be a murderer.

ques3. What was Nelson Mandela most famous for?

Nelson Mandela is more famous for ending the apartheid policy in Africa. although his whole life is famous, let’s know. Nelson Mandela was the president of Africa, he has done many such things in his life and has been in jail in many times. yet he was most famous among the people. He has seen so many dangerous or dark moments in his life. Even after all this, he remained firm in his determination. He was also famous as the leader of the ANC. Or went to jail many times in his life, and he has been punished many times. But people have never been punished for popular beliefs and political actions.

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Essay on Nelson Mandela 500+ Words

Nelson Mandela, often referred to as “Madiba,” was a remarkable leader who dedicated his life to fighting for justice, equality, and freedom. He was born in South Africa in 1918, at a time when his country was deeply divided by a system of racial segregation known as apartheid. In this essay, we will explore the extraordinary life of Nelson Mandela, his role in ending apartheid, and his enduring legacy as a symbol of hope and reconciliation.

The Apartheid Era

Apartheid was a brutal system of racial segregation enforced by the South African government. Under apartheid, people were classified by their race, and non-white South Africans faced discrimination, violence, and limited opportunities. Nelson Mandela grew up in a society where racial injustice was deeply entrenched.

Mandela’s Early Life and Activism

Nelson Mandela was a bright and determined young man. Additionally, he studied law and, in his early years, became involved in the anti-apartheid movement. Furthermore, he joined the African National Congress (ANC), a political organization with a dedicated mission to end apartheid and attain equality for all South Africans.

The Rivonia Trial

Nelson Mandela’s fight against apartheid led to his arrest and imprisonment. In 1964, he and other anti-apartheid leaders were sentenced to life in prison during the Rivonia Trial. Mandela spent 27 years behind bars, but his spirit remained unbroken.

The Global Call for Mandela’s Release

While Nelson Mandela was in prison, his cause gained international attention. People around the world, including famous musicians, politicians, and activists, called for his release. The global outcry against apartheid put pressure on the South African government to change its policies.

The End of Apartheid

In 1990, after more than two decades in prison, Nelson Mandela was released. His release marked a turning point in South Africa’s history. Mandela became a leader in negotiations to end apartheid peacefully. His efforts, along with those of other leaders, led to the first multiracial elections in 1994 and the election of Nelson Mandela as South Africa’s first black president.

Mandela’s Presidency and Legacy

As president, Nelson Mandela diligently worked to heal the wounds of apartheid. Moreover, he endeavored to build a more inclusive and equal South Africa. In his pursuit of these goals, he actively promoted reconciliation between different racial groups. Additionally, he took a significant step by establishing the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to address the injustices of the past.

Nelson Mandela’s Global Impact

Nelson Mandela’s legacy extends far beyond South Africa. He is celebrated worldwide for his commitment to justice and peace. He received numerous awards, including the Nobel Peace Prize, and inspired people everywhere to stand up against injustice and discrimination.

Lessons from Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela’s life teaches us important lessons about courage, perseverance, and the power of forgiveness. Despite facing immense challenges and adversity, he remained committed to his principles of justice and equality. His ability to forgive those who had oppressed him is a shining example of the strength of the human spirit.

Conclusion of Essay on Nelson Mandela

In conclusion, Nelson Mandela’s life is a testament to the power of one individual to make a positive and lasting impact on the world. His unwavering dedication to ending apartheid, promoting reconciliation, and championing equality serves as an inspiration to us all. Nelson Mandela’s legacy lives on, reminding us that even in the face of injustice, hope and change are possible. He will forever be remembered as a symbol of freedom, equality, and the enduring human spirit.

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Nelson Mandela summary

Nelson Mandela , (born July 18, 1918, Umtata, Cape of Good Hope, S.Af.—died Dec. 5, 2013, Johannesburg, S.Af.), South African black nationalist leader and statesman. The son of a Xhosa chief, Mandela studied law at the University of Witwatersrand and in 1944 joined the African National Congress (ANC). After the Sharpeville massacre (1960), he abandoned his nonviolent stance and helped found the “Spear of the Nation,” the ANC’s military wing. Arrested in 1962, he was sentenced to life imprisonment. He retained wide support among South Africa’s black population and became an international cause célèbre. Released by Pres. F.W. de Klerk in 1990, he replaced Oliver Tambo as president of the ANC in 1991. In 1993 Mandela and de Klerk were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts to end apartheid and bring about the transition to nonracial democracy. In 1994 he was elected president in the country’s first universal suffrage elections; by the time he stepped down in 1999, Mandela was the most universally respected figure of postcolonial Africa.

Nelson Mandela

The Amazing Life of South Africa's First Black President

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Nelson Mandela was elected the first Black president of South Africa in 1994, following the first multiracial election in South Africa's history. Mandela was imprisoned from 1962 to 1990 for his role in fighting apartheid policies established by the ruling white minority. Revered by his people as a national symbol of the struggle for equality, Mandela is considered one of the 20th century's most influential political figures. He and South African Prime Minister F.W. de Klerk were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993 for their role in dismantling the apartheid system.

Dates: July 18, 1918—December 5, 2013

Also Known As: Rolihlahla Mandela, Madiba, Tata

Famous quote:  "I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it."

Nelson Rilihlahla Mandela was born in the village of Mveso, Transkei, South Africa on July 18, 1918 to Gadla Henry Mphakanyiswa and Noqaphi Nosekeni, the third of Gadla's four wives. In Mandela's native language, Xhosa , Rolihlahla meant "troublemaker." The surname Mandela came from one of his grandfathers.

Mandela's father was a chief of the Thembu tribe in the Mvezo region, but served under the authority of the ruling British government. As a descendant of royalty, Mandela was expected to serve in his father's role when he came of age.

But when Mandela was only an infant, his father rebelled against the British government by refusing a mandatory appearance before the British magistrate. For this, he was stripped of his chieftaincy and his wealth, and forced to leave his home. Mandela and his three sisters moved with their mother back to her home village of Qunu. There, the family lived in more modest circumstances.

The family lived in mud huts and survived on the crops they grew and the cattle and sheep they raised. Mandela, along with the other village boys, worked herding sheep and cattle. He later recalled this as one of the happiest periods in his life. Many evenings, villagers sat around the fire, telling the children stories passed down through generations, of what life had been like before the white man had arrived.

From the mid-17th century, Europeans (first the Dutch and later the British) had arrived on South African soil and gradually taken control from the native South African tribes. The discovery of diamonds and gold in South Africa in the 19th century had only tightened the grip that Europeans had on the nation.

By 1900, most of South Africa was under the control of Europeans. In 1910, the British colonies merged with the Boer (Dutch) republics to form the Union of South Africa, a part of the British Empire. Stripped of their homelands, many Africans were forced to work for white employers at low-paying jobs.

Young Nelson Mandela, living in his small village, did not yet feel the impact of centuries of domination by the white minority.

Mandela's Education

Although themselves uneducated, Mandela's parents wanted their son to go to school. At the age of seven, Mandela was enrolled in the local mission school. On the first day of class, each child was given an English first name; Rolihlahla was given the name "Nelson."

When he was nine years old, Mandela's father died. According to his father's last wishes, Mandela was sent to live in the Thembu capital, Mqhekezeweni, where he could continue his education under the guidance of another tribal chief, Jongintaba Dalindyebo. Upon first seeing the chief's estate, Mandela marveled at his large home and beautiful gardens.

In Mqhekezeweni, Mandela attended another mission school and became a devout Methodist during his years with the Dalindyebo family. Mandela also attended tribal meetings with the chief, who taught him how a leader should conduct himself.

When Mandela was 16, he was sent to a boarding school in a town several hundred miles away. Upon his graduation in 1937 at the age of 19, Mandela enrolled in Healdtown, a Methodist college. An accomplished student, Mandela also became active in boxing, soccer, and long-distance running.

In 1939, after earning his certificate, Mandela began his studies for a Bachelor of Arts at the prestigious Fort Hare College, with a plan to ultimately attend law school. But Mandela did not complete his studies at Fort Hare; instead, he was expelled after participating in a student protest. He returned to the home of Chief Dalindyebo, where he was met with anger and disappointment.

Just weeks after his return home, Mandela received stunning news from the chief. Dalindyebo had arranged for both his son, Justice, and Nelson Mandela to marry women of his choosing. Neither young man would consent to an arranged marriage, so the two decided to flee to Johannesburg, the South African capital.

Desperate for money to finance their trip, Mandela and Justice stole two of the chief's oxen and sold them for train fare.

Move to Johannesburg

Arriving in Johannesburg in 1940, Mandela found the bustling city an exciting place. Soon, however, he was awakened to the injustice of the Black man's life in South Africa. Prior to moving to the capital, Mandela had lived mainly among other Blacks. But in Johannesburg, he saw the disparity between the races. Black residents lived in slum-like townships that had no electricity or running water; while whites lived grandly off the wealth of the gold mines.

Mandela moved in with a cousin and quickly found a job as a security guard. He was soon fired when his employers learned about his theft of the oxen and his escape from his benefactor.

Mandela's luck changed when he was introduced to Lazar Sidelsky, a liberal-minded white lawyer. After learning of Mandela's desire to become an attorney, Sidelsky, who ran a large law firm serving both Blacks and whites, offered to let Mandela work for him as a law clerk. Mandela gratefully accepted and took on the job at the age of 23, even as he worked to finish his BA via correspondence course.

Mandela rented a room in one of the local Black townships. He studied by candlelight each night and often walked the six miles to work and back because he lacked bus fare. Sidelsky supplied him with an old suit, which Mandela patched up and wore nearly every day for five years.

Committed to the Cause

In 1942, Mandela finally completed his BA and enrolled at the University of Witwatersrand as a part-time law student. At "Wits," he met several people who would work with him in the years to come for the cause of liberation.

In 1943, Mandela joined the African National Congress (ANC), an organization that worked to improve conditions for Blacks in South Africa. That same year, Mandela marched in a successful bus boycott staged by thousands of residents of Johannesburg in protest of high bus fares.

As he grew more infuriated by racial inequalities, Mandela deepened his commitment to the struggle for liberation. He helped to form the Youth League , which sought to recruit younger members and transform the ANC into a more militant organization, one that would fight for equal rights. Under laws of the time, Africans were forbidden from owning land or houses in the towns, their wages were five times lower than those of whites, and none could vote.

In 1944, Mandela, 26, married nurse Evelyn Mase , 22, and they moved into a small rental home. The couple had a son, Madiba ("Thembi"), in February 1945, and a daughter, Makaziwe, in 1947. Their daughter died of meningitis as an infant. They welcomed another son, Makgatho, in 1950, and a second daughter, named Makaziwe after her late sister, in 1954.

Following the general elections of 1948 in which the white National Party claimed victory, the party's first official act was to establish apartheid. With this act, the long-held, haphazard system of segregation in South Africa became a formal, institutionalized policy, supported by laws and regulations.

The new policy would even determine, by race, which parts of town each group could live in. Blacks and whites were to be separated from each other in all aspects of life, including public transportation, in theaters and restaurants, and even on beaches.

The Defiance Campaign

Mandela completed his law studies in 1952 and, with partner Oliver Tambo, opened the first Black law practice in Johannesburg. The practice was busy from the start. Clients included Africans who suffered the injustices of racism, such as seizure of property by whites and beatings by the police. Despite facing hostility from white judges and lawyers, Mandela was a successful attorney. He had a dramatic, impassioned style in the courtroom.

During the 1950s, Mandela became more actively involved with the protest movement. He was elected president of the ANC Youth League in 1950. In June 1952, the ANC, along with Indians and "colored" (biracial) people—two other groups also targeted by discriminatory laws—began a period of nonviolent protest known as the "Defiance Campaign." Mandela spearheaded the campaign by recruiting, training, and organizing volunteers.

The campaign lasted six months, with cities and towns throughout South Africa participating. Volunteers defied the laws by entering areas meant for whites only. Several thousand were arrested in that six-month time, including Mandela and other ANC leaders. He and the other members of the group were found guilty of "statutory communism" and sentenced to nine months of hard labor, but the sentence was suspended.

The publicity garnered during the Defiance Campaign helped membership in the ANC soar to 100,000.

Arrested for Treason

The government twice "banned" Mandela, meaning that he could not attend public meetings, or even family gatherings, because of his involvement in the ANC. His 1953 banning lasted two years.

Mandela, along with others on the executive committee of the ANC, drew up the Freedom Charter in June 1955 and presented it during a special meeting called the Congress of the People. The charter called for equal rights for all, regardless of race, and the ability of all citizens to vote, own land, and hold decent-paying jobs. In essence, the charter called for a non-racial South Africa.

Months after the charter was presented, police raided the homes of hundreds of members of the ANC and arrested them. Mandela and 155 others were charged with high treason. They were released to await a trial date.

Mandela's marriage to Evelyn suffered from the strain of his long absences; they divorced in 1957 after 13 years of marriage. Through work, Mandela met Winnie Madikizela, a social worker who had sought his legal advice. They married in June 1958, just months before Mandela's trial began in August. Mandela was 39 years old, Winnie only 21. The trial would last three years; during that time, Winnie gave birth to two daughters, Zenani and Zindziswa.

Sharpeville Massacre

The trial, whose venue was changed to Pretoria, moved at a snail's pace. The preliminary arraignment alone took a year; the actual trial didn't start until August 1959. Charges were dropped against all but 30 of the accused. Then, on March 21, 1960, the trial was interrupted by a national crisis.

In early March, another anti-apartheid group, the Pan African Congress (PAC) had held large demonstrations protesting strict "pass laws," which required Africans to carry identification papers with them at all times in order to be able to travel throughout the country. During one such protest in Sharpeville, police had opened fire on unarmed protestors, killing 69, and wounding more than 400. The shocking incident, which was universally condemned, was called the Sharpeville Massacre .

Mandela and other ANC leaders called for a national day of mourning, along with a stay at home strike. Hundreds of thousands participated in a mostly peaceful demonstration, but some rioting erupted. The South African government declared a national state of emergency and martial law was enacted. Mandela and his co-defendants were moved into prison cells, and both the ANC and PAC were officially banned.

The treason trial resumed on April 25, 1960 and lasted until March 29, 1961. To the surprise of many, the court dropped charges against all of the defendants, citing a lack of evidence proving that the defendants had planned to violently overthrow the government.

For many, it was cause for celebration, but Nelson Mandela had no time to celebrate. He was about to enter into a new—and dangerous—chapter in his life.

The Black Pimpernel

Prior to the verdict, the banned ANC had held an illegal meeting and decided that if Mandela was acquitted, he would go underground after the trial. He would operate clandestinely to give speeches and gather support for the liberation movement. A new organization, the National Action Council (NAC), was formed and Mandela named as its leader.

In accordance with the ANC plan, Mandela became a fugitive directly after the trial. He went into hiding at the first of several safe houses, most of them located in the Johannesburg area. Mandela stayed on the move, knowing that the police were looking everywhere for him.

Venturing out only at night, when he felt safest, Mandela dressed in disguises, such as a chauffeur or a chef. He made unannounced appearances, giving speeches at places that were presumed safe, and also made radio broadcasts. The press took to calling him "the Black Pimpernel," after the title character in the novel The Scarlet Pimpernel.

In October 1961, Mandela moved to a farm in Rivonia, outside of Johannesburg. He was safe for a time there and could even enjoy visits from Winnie and their daughters.

"Spear of the Nation"

In response to the government's increasingly violent treatment of protestors, Mandela developed a new arm of the ANC—a military unit that he named "Spear of the Nation," known also as MK. The MK would operate using a strategy of sabotage, targeting military installations, power facilities, and transportation links. Its goal was to damage property of the state, but not to harm individuals.

The MK's first attack came in December 1961, when they bombed an electric power station and empty government offices in Johannesburg. Weeks later, another set of bombings were carried out. White South Africans were startled into the realization that they could no longer take their safety for granted.

In January 1962, Mandela, who had never in his life been out of South Africa, was smuggled out of the country to attend a Pan-African conference. He hoped to get financial and military support from other African nations, but was not successful. In Ethiopia, Mandela received training in how to fire a gun and how to build small explosives.

After 16 months on the run, Mandela was captured on August 5, 1962, when the car he was driving was overtaken by police. He was arrested on charges of leaving the country illegally and inciting a strike. The trial began on October 15, 1962.

Refusing counsel, Mandela spoke on his own behalf. He used his time in court to denounce the government's immoral, discriminatory policies. Despite his impassioned speech, he was sentenced to five years in prison. Mandela was 44 years old when he entered Pretoria Local Prison.

Imprisoned in Pretoria for six months, Mandela was then taken to Robben Island, a bleak, isolated prison off the coast of Cape Town, in May 1963. After only a few weeks there, Mandela learned he was about to head back to court—this time on charges of sabotage. He would be charged along with several other members of MK, who had been arrested on the farm in Rivonia.

During the trial, Mandela admitted his role in the formation of MK. He emphasized his belief that the protestors were only working toward what they deserved—equal political rights. Mandela concluded his statement by saying that he was prepared to die for his cause.

Mandela and his seven co-defendants received guilty verdicts on June 11, 1964. They could have been sentenced to death for so serious a charge, but each was given life imprisonment. All of the men (except one white prisoner) were sent to Robben Island .

Life at Robben Island

At Robben Island, each prisoner had a small cell with a single light that stayed on 24 hours a day. Prisoners slept on the floor upon a thin mat. Meals consisted of cold porridge and an occasional vegetable or piece of meat (although Indian and Asian prisoners received more generous rations than their Black counterparts.) As a reminder of their lower status, Black prisoners wore short pants all year-round, whereas others were allowed to wear trousers.

Inmates spent nearly ten hours a day at hard labor, digging out rocks from a limestone quarry.

The hardships of prison life made it difficult to maintain one's dignity, but Mandela resolved not to be defeated by his imprisonment. He became the spokesperson and leader of the group, and was known by his clan name, "Madiba."

Over the years, Mandela led the prisoners in numerous protests—hunger strikes, food boycotts, and work slowdowns. He also demanded reading and study privileges. In most cases, the protests eventually yielded results.

Mandela suffered personal losses during his imprisonment. His mother died in January 1968 and his 25-year-old son Thembi died in a car accident the following year. A heartbroken Mandela was not allowed to attend either funeral.

In 1969, Mandela received word that his wife Winnie had been arrested on charges of communist activities. She spent 18 months in solitary confinement and was subjected to torture. The knowledge that Winnie had been imprisoned caused Mandela great distress.

"Free Mandela" Campaign

Throughout his imprisonment, Mandela remained the symbol of the anti-apartheid movement, still inspiring his countrymen. Following a "Free Mandela" campaign in 1980 that attracted global attention, the government capitulated somewhat. In April 1982, Mandela and four other Rivonia prisoners were transferred to Pollsmoor Prison on the mainland. Mandela was 62 years old and had been at Robben Island for 19 years.

Conditions were much improved from those at Robben Island. Inmates were allowed to read newspapers, watch TV, and receive visitors. Mandela was given a lot of publicity, as the government wanted to prove to the world that he was being treated well.

In an effort to stem the violence and repair the failing economy, Prime Minister P.W. Botha announced on January 31, 1985 that he would release Nelson Mandela if Mandela agreed to renounce violent demonstrations. But Mandela refused any offer that was not unconditional.

In December 1988, Mandela was transferred to a private residence at the Victor Verster prison outside Cape Town and later brought in for secret negotiations with the government. Little was accomplished, however, until Botha resigned from his position in August 1989, forced out by his cabinet. His successor, F.W. de Klerk, was ready to negotiate for peace. He was willing to meet with Mandela.

Freedom at Last

At Mandela's urging, de Klerk released Mandela's fellow political prisoners without condition in October 1989. Mandela and de Klerk had long discussions about the illegal status of the ANC and other opposition groups, but came to no specific agreement. Then, on February 2, 1990, de Klerk made an announcement that stunned Mandela and all of South Africa.

De Klerk enacted a number of sweeping reforms, lifting the bans on the ANC, the PAC, and the Communist Party, among others. He lifted the restrictions still in place from the 1986 state of emergency and ordered the release of all nonviolent political prisoners.

On February 11, 1990, Nelson Mandela was given an unconditional release from prison. After 27 years in custody, he was a free man at the age of 71. Mandela was welcomed home by thousands of people cheering in the streets.

Soon after his return home, Mandela learned that his wife Winnie had fallen in love with another man in his absence. The Mandelas separated in April 1992 and later divorced.

Mandela knew that despite the impressive changes that had been made, there was still much work to be done. He returned immediately to working for the ANC, traveling across South Africa to speak with various groups and to serve as a negotiator for further reforms.

In 1993, Mandela and de Klerk were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their joint effort to bring about peace in South Africa.

President Mandela

On April 27, 1994, South Africa held its first election in which Blacks were allowed to vote. The ANC won 63 percent of the votes, a majority in Parliament. Nelson Mandela—only four years after his release from prison—was elected the first Black president of South Africa. Nearly three centuries of white domination had ended.

Mandela visited many Western nations in an attempt to convince leaders to work with the new government in South Africa. He also made efforts to help bring about peace in several African nations, including Botswana, Uganda, and Libya. Mandela soon earned the admiration and respect of many outside of South Africa.

During Mandela's term, he addressed the need for housing, running water, and electricity for all South Africans. The government also returned land to those it had been taken from, and made it legal again for Blacks to own land.

In 1998, Mandela married Graca Machel on his eightieth birthday. Machel, 52 years old, was the widow of a former president of Mozambique.

Nelson Mandela did not seek re-election in 1999. He was replaced by his Deputy President, Thabo Mbeki. Mandela retired to his mother's village of Qunu, Transkei.

Mandela became involved in raising funds for HIV/AIDS, an epidemic in Africa. He organized the AIDS benefit "46664 Concert" in 2003, so named after his prison ID number. In 2005, Mandela's own son, Makgatho, died of AIDS at the age of 44.

In 2009, the United Nations General Assembly designated July 18, Mandela's birthday, as Nelson Mandela International Day. Nelson Mandela died at his Johannesburg home on December 5, 2013 at the age of 95. 

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Learners' biography

Rolihlahla Mandela was born into the Madiba clan in Mvezo, Transkei, on 18 July 1918.

His mother was Nonqaphi Nosekeni and his father, Nkosi Mphakanyiswa Gadla Mandela, was the main advisor to the Acting King of the Thembu people, Jongintaba Dalindyebo.

He received the name "Nelson" on his first day in primary school from his teacher Miss Mdingane. When he was 12 his father died and he was raised by the Regent at the Great Place in Mqhekezweni. He was sent to the best schools available and began studying a BA at Fort Hare University.

When he was expelled for joining a student protest, the Regent told him to return or get married. So he ran away to Johannesburg with his cousin Justice. His first job in 1941 was as a security guard on a gold mine and then as a legal clerk in the law firm Witkin, Edelman and Sidelsky. At the same time he completed his BA through Unisa.

In 1943 he enrolled for an LLB at Wits University. He was a poor student and became more involved in politics from 1944 after he helped to start the ANC Youth League. He married in the same year and needed money to support his family.

By mid-1952 when the university asked him to pay the 27 pounds he owed or leave, he already had three children. He only started studying again in 1962 in prison. He finally graduated with an LLB through Unisa 27 years later.

Later in 1952 he became the National Volunteer-in-Chief of the Defiance Campaign against apartheid laws. He and 19 others were later charged and sentenced to nine months, suspended for two years. In August he and Oliver Tambo started South Africa’s first black law firm, Mandela & Tambo.

In those days one could practise as an attorney with a two-year diploma. Later that year he was banned for the first time – he had to ask the government for permission whenever he needed to leave Johannesburg. After the adoption of the Freedom Charter in 1955, 156 people were arrested and charged with treason. The trial lasted four-and-a-half years until 29 March 1961 by which time all were acquitted. The ANC and PAC were banned after the 21 March 1961 killing by police of 69 unarmed protesters in Sharpeville.

Mandela called on the government not to turn South Africa into a republic on 31 May 1961 but to discuss a non-racial constitution. He was ignored so he called for a strike on 29, 30 and 31 March.

In June 1961 he was asked to lead the ANC’s armed wing, Umkhonto weSizwe and it launched on 16 December that year. On 11 January 1962, Mandela secretly left South Africa to undergo military training and to get support from African countries for the armed struggle.

He was arrested on 5 August and charged with leaving the country illegally and encouraging the strike. He was convicted and sentenced on 7 November 1962 to five years in prison.

On 11 July 1963, a secret hideout he once used was raided by police. On 9 October 1963 he joined 10 others on trial for sabotage in the Rivonia Trial.

On 12 June 1964 he and seven others were sentenced to life imprisonment. While he was in prison his mother and his eldest son died. He was not allowed to attend their funerals.

He spent 18 years on Robben Island, and while at Pollsmoor Prison in Cape Town in 1985 he had to go to hospital. When Justice Minister Kobie Coetsee visited him, he had an idea: to see if the government wanted to talk about one day meeting with the ANC.

In 1988 he was taken to hospital for tuberculosis. Three months later he was moved to Victor Verster Prison where he spent his last 14 months in prison. He was released on Sunday 11 February 1990, nine days after the unbanning of the ANC and the PAC.

Other political prisoners were freed and exiles returned. The ANC began talking to the government about South Africa’s future. For this work he and President FW de Klerk won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993, and on 27 April 1994, Mandela voted in South Africa’s first democratic elections.

On 10 May 1994, he was inaugurated as South Africa’s first democratically elected President and stepped down after one term. In his retirement he worked on building schools and clinics, highlighting HIV, children and leadership. He died at his home in Johannesburg on 5 December 2013.

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Nelson Mandela: His Life In His Words And The Words Of Others

Joe Richman

In April 1994, the world watched as millions of South Africans, most of them jubilant but many wary, cast their ballots in that nation's first multiracial election. Ten years later, NPR broadcast "Mandela: An Audio History," by producers Joe Richman and Sue Johnson of Radio Diaries. The radio documentary tells the story of Nobel Peace Prize-winner Nelson Mandela through the leader's own words, the voices those who fought with him, as well as those who fought against him. You can listen to a segment of the documentary by clicking play on the audio above, or you can listen to the full hour-long documentary, and read a timeline of his life, here .

Copyright © 2013 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

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Essay on Nelson Mandela for Students in English [500 Words]

January 2, 2021 by Sandeep

Essay on Nelson Mandela: The famous South African politician was born on July 18th, 1918, at Mvezo. Throughout his life struggles, he adopted non-violence to fight against justice. He fought against racial discrimination and white supremacy in South Africa. He considered Mahatma Gandhi as his greatest source of inspiration. Nelson Mandela received Bharat Ratna from the Indian government in the year 1990. His publications include “In his own words”, “Long walk to freedom” etc.

Essay on Nelson Mandela 500 Words in English

Below we have provided Nelson Mandela Essay in English, suitable for class 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10.

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” – Nelson Mandela

The world has seen some of the most iconic and inspiring leaders of all time. One such leader was Nelson Mandela, who not only brought about a revolution in his own country but also changed the way how people all across the world treated a certain section of society belonging to a particular “skin colour”.

Early Life & Education

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was born in a small village in South Africa on 18th July 1918. On his birth, Mandela was given the name “Rolihlahla” by his parents, which means a ‘troublemaker.’ In his school days, he was named “Nelson” by his teacher. He did his schooling from the Clark Berry Missionary School. Unfortunately, Mandela lost his father when he was just 12 years old, but his joint family never made him feel alone. His family helped him through his education, and he completed his graduation from Healdtown College. Mandela was always interested in law; therefore, he started studying Law from a university in Johannesburg, South Africa, in the early 1940’s.

Early Struggles

In 1941, in his early 20’s, Mandela came face to face with the biggest problem surrounding his country from hundreds of years- “Racism.” Racism is a form of discrimination against people of a certain race or skin colour. In South Africa, people with “White” skin colour were treated as superiors to people with “Black” skin colour. White people were given several privileges and rights, while Black people were considered to be inferior, although the Blacks were highly responsible for driving the economy of South Africa at the time. When Mandela started attending the University of Law in Johannesburg, he was the only Black student in the entire university. Due to this, he constantly faced racism from the Whites.

Entering Politics

While studying Law, Mandela figured out that the South African government was the main source of this discrimination as they were responsible for introducing several laws that completely violated the basic human rights of the blacks in South Africa. In 1943, Mandela (aged 25) met Anton Lembede (aged 29), a Lawyer and member of the African National Congress (ANC). Lembede, a Black man himself, believed that the “Black Community” of South Africa must unite together and fight for their human rights.

Mandela got highly impressed by him, and in 1944, Lembede founded the African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL). Lembede became the President, and he appointed Mandela as a Member of the Executive Committee.  After the death of Anton Lembede in 1947, many people were appointed as the President of the ANCYL. But, Mandela quickly realised that they were not the right men for the job and forced their resignation from the post, even though they also belonged to the Black community, but Mandela did not like their approach.

In 1948 General Elections of South Africa, only the whites were allowed to vote, which resulted that the opposing party got elected, and more severe laws were introduced against the Black community. This gave birth to the term- “Apartheid,” a system of dividing the people of South Africa on the basis of their skin colour. In 1950, Mandela was finally elected as the President of the ANCYL and as the National Executive of the ANC.

A Revolutionary

Throughout the 1950’s, Mandela led the life of a revolutionary in which he organized many strikes and protests against the ruling government. During this period, he was arrested several times, but his determination to fight for the rights of his beloved people never faded. He decided to build cheap law firms that would allow the Black population to hire lawyers to fight against Apartheid. But, the real struggle began in the early 1960’s. The Government declared Mandela’s party ANC illegal and banned them.

From the period of 1962 to 1990, Mandela was imprisoned by the Government in three different locations of South Africa- Pretoria, Cape Town, and Paarl. He served 28 years of imprisonment for doing nothing wrong. This showed how brave and determined he was to fight for equality. In 1964, Mandela gave one of his most famous three-hour speech-  “I am prepared to die.”

Which he began by saying,

“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 will live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to see realised. But if it needs to be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.”

In February 1990, the then Government of South Africa declared the ANC legal and announced that Mandela would be released from prison, aged 71. Mandela was announced the head of ANC and became a symbol to end Apartheid in South Africa. For his achievements, he was awarded the Nobel Peace prize in 1993. In 1994, after more than 300 years, the Black population of South Africa was allowed to vote for their ruler. By a huge margin of votes, Mandela was elected as the First Black President of South Africa at the age of 75.

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• Nelson Mandela Biography

The first President of South Africa to be elected in entirely representative democratic elections was Nelson Mandela. He was a prominent anti-apartheid radical and leader of the African National Congress before his presidency, who spent 27 years in jail for his participation in the activities of clandestine armed resistance and sabotage.

About Nelson Mandela

Full Name - Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela

Date of Birth - July 18, 1918

Date of Death - December 5, 2013

Cause of Death - Prolonged respiratory infection

Age - 95 years

Nelson Mandela spouse(s) -

Evelyn Ntoko Mase (m. 1944; div. 1958)​

Winnie Madikizela (m. 1958; div. 1996)

Graça Machel ​(m. 1998)

Who is Nelson Mandela?

Nelson Mandela belonged to the Thembu Dynasty cadet branch which reigned (nominally) in the Transkeian Territories of the Cape Province Union of South Africa. He was born in the small village of Qunu in the Mthatha district, the capital of the Transkei. Ngubengcuka (died 1830), the Inkosi Enkulu or King of the Thembu people, was his great-grandfather and was ultimately subjected to British colonial rule. One of the king's sons, named Mandela, became Nelson's grandfather and the source of his surname.

His father, Gadla Henry Mphakanyiswa (1880-1928) was appointed chief of the village of Mvezo. However, he was stripped of his position after alienating the colonial authorities and he moved his family to Qunu. Gadla, however, remained a member of the Privy Council of Inkosi and was instrumental in the ascension of Jongintaba Dalindyebo to the Thembu throne, who would later return this favor by informally adopting Mandela upon the death of Gadla.

Mandela's father had four wives, with whom he fathered a total of 13 children (four boys and nine girls). Nosekeni Fanny, daughter of Nkedama of the Mpemvu Xhosa tribe, in whose homestead Mandela spent most of his childhood, was born to Gadla's third wife ('third' by a complex royal ranking system). His given name, Rolihlahla, means "one who brings trouble upon himself."

Nelson Mandela Education

Rolihlahla Mandela became the first member of his family to attend a school at the age of seven, where a Methodist teacher gave him the name 'Nelson,' after the British admiral Horatio Nelson. When Rolihlahla was nine, his father died of tuberculosis, and the Regent, Jongintaba, became his guardian. Mandela was attending a Wesleyan mission school next door to the Regent's palace. He was initiated at age 16, adopting Thembu tradition, and attended Clarkebury Boarding Institute, learning about Western culture. Instead of the standard three, he completed his Junior Certificate in two years.

In 1937, Mandela moved to Healdtown, the Wesleyan college in Fort Beaufort, which was attended by most Thembu royalty, as he was supposed to inherit the place of his father as a private counselor. He took an interest in boxing and running at the age of nineteen. After registering, he began studying for a B.A. and met Oliver Tambo at Fort Hare University, where the two became lifelong friends and colleagues. He became active in a protest by the Students' Representative Council against university policies at the end of his first year and was forced to leave Fort Hare.

Mandela initially found employment as a guard at a mine upon his arrival in Johannesburg. This was quickly terminated, however, after the employer learned that Mandela was the runaway adopted son of the Regent. Thanks to connections with his friend and fellow lawyer Walter Sisulu, he then managed to find work as a clerk at a law firm. He completed his degree at the University of South Africa (UNISA) through correspondence while working, after which he began his law studies at the University of Witwatersrand. Mandela lived in a township called Alexandra during that time.

About Nelson Mandela Marriage and Family

Nelson Mandela married thrice and had fathered six children, 20 grandchildren, and an increasing number of great-grandchildren. His first marriage was to Evelyn Ntoko Mase, who, like Mandela, was also from what later became South Africa's Transkei region. They first met in Johannesburg.  The couple had two sons, Madiba Thembekile (born 1946) and Makgatho (born 1950), and two daughters, both named Makaziwe (known as Maki; born 1947 and 1953).

Nelson Mandela’s second wife, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, was also from the Transkei region, even though they also met in Johannesburg, where she was the first black social worker in the city. The marriage bore two daughters, Zenani (Zeni), born on February 4, 1958, and Zindziswa (Zindzi), born in 1960. The union, fuelled by political estrangement, ended in separation (April 1992) and divorce (March 1996).

In 1998, on his 80th birthday, Mandela married Graça Machel, née Simbine, the widow of Samora Machel, a former Mozambican president and an ANC ally killed 12 years earlier in an air crash. His traditional sovereign, King Buyelekhaya Zwelibanzi Dalindyebo, born in 1964, carried out the wedding on Mandela's behalf (which followed months of international negotiations to fix the unparalleled bride price sent to her clan). Ironically, it was the grandfather of this paramount leader, the Regent, whose selection of a bride for him compelled Mandela to flee as a young man to Johannesburg. 

About Nelson Mandela Political Activity

Nelson Mandela was influential in the ANC's 1952 Defiance Movement and the 1955 People's Congress. They adopted the Freedom Charter which provided the basic program of the anti-apartheid cause, after the 1948 election victory of the Afrikaner-dominated National Party with its apartheid racial segregation policy. Nelson Mandela and fellow lawyer Oliver Tambo ran the Mandela and Tambo law firm during this period, offering free or low-cost legal advice to many blacks who would otherwise have been without legal representation.

Initially influenced by Mahatma Gandhi and devoted to non-violent mass struggle, on December 5, 1956, Mandela was arrested and charged with treason along with 150 others. The 1956-1961 marathon Treason Trial followed, and all were acquitted. As a new class of black activists (Africanists) emerged in the townships seeking more drastic action against the National Party government, the ANC witnessed disruption from 1952-1959. Albert Luthuli, Oliver Tambo, and Walter Sisulu's ANC leadership thought not only that events were moving too rapidly, but also that their leadership was being questioned.

The ANC lost its most militant support in 1959 when, under Robert Sobukwe and Potlako Leballo, most of the Africanists, with financial support from Ghana and major political support from the Transvaal-based Basotho, split away to form the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC).

Arrest and Imprisonment 

In 1961, Nelson Mandela became the chief of Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation, also abbreviated as MK), the armed wing of the ANC, which he co-founded. He coordinated a campaign of sabotage against military and government objectives and if sabotage failed to end apartheid, made preparations for a future guerrilla war. MK did indeed wage a guerrilla war against the regime a few decades later, especially during the 1980s, in which many civilians were killed. Mandela also collected funds and organized paramilitary training for MK overseas, visiting different African governments.

He was captured after living on the run for 17 months on August 5, 1962, and imprisoned in the Johannesburg Fort. Three days later, at a court appearance, the charges of leading workers to a strike in 1961 and leaving the country illegally were read to him. Mandela was sentenced to five years in prison on October 25, 1962.

On June 11th, 1964, two years later, a verdict was reached concerning his prior participation in the African National Congress (ANC). Nelson Mandela was incarcerated on Robben Island for the next 18 of his 27 years in prison. It was there that he wrote the bulk of his 'Long Walk to Freedom' autobiography. Mandela did not disclose anything in that book about the suspected involvement of President F. W. De Klerk, or the role of his ex-wife Winnie Mandela in the brutality of the 1980s and early 1990s. In Mandela: The Authorized Biography, however, he later cooperated with his friend, journalist Anthony Sampson, who addressed these issues.

Mandela remained in jail rejecting an offer of conditional release in exchange for renouncing armed struggle in February 1985 until concerted ANC and international activism came up with the resounding slogan “Free Nelson Mandela!”. President de Klerk simultaneously ordered the release of Mandela in February 1990 and the revocation of the ANC ban.

Post-apartheid

On April 27, 1994, South Africa's first democratic elections were held in which full enfranchisement was given. In the election, the ANC won the vote, and Nelson Mandela, as ANC leader, was inaugurated as the country's first black president, with de Klerk of the National Party as his deputy president in the National Unity Government.

As South Africa hosted the 1995 Rugby World Cup, Nelson Mandela urged black South Africans to get behind the previously despised Springboks (the South African national rugby team). Nelson Mandela, wearing a Springbok jersey, presented the trophy to captain Francois Pienaar, an Afrikaner after the Springboks had secured an epic final over New Zealand. This has been widely seen as a significant step in white and black South Africans' reconciliation.

It was also during his administration when, with the launch of the SUNSAT satellite in February 1999, South Africa entered the space age. It was developed by Stellenbosch University students and was used primarily to photograph land related to vegetation and forestry issues in South Africa.

Nelson Mandela Awards

Nelson Mandela has received many South African, foreign, and international awards, including the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize, Queen Elizabeth II's Order of Merit and the Order of St. John, and George W. Bush's Presidential Medal of Freedom. In July 2004, during a ceremony in Orlando, Soweto, the city of Johannesburg, South Africa, conferred its highest honor on Mandela by granting him the freedom of the city.

As an indication of his popular international recognition, he had a speaking engagement at the SkyDome in the city of Toronto during his tour of Canada in 1998, where 45,000 school children welcomed him with intense adulation.

He was the first living person to be named an honorary Canadian citizen in 2001.

In 1992, Turkey awarded him the Ataturk Peace Prize. He declined the award, alleging abuses of human rights committed during that period by Turkey, but later accepted the award in 1999. He has also received the Ambassador of Conscience Award from Amnesty International (2006).

Retirement and Death

Nelson Mandela was diagnosed and treated for prostate cancer in the summer of 2001. Mandela declared in June 2004, at the age of 85, that he would retire from public life. His health had been deteriorating, and he and his family decided to spend more time. 

He passed away on December 5, 2013, at the age of 95, after suffering from a prolonged respiratory infection. He died, surrounded by his relatives, at his home in Houghton, Johannesburg.

Some facts about Nelson Mandela

From 1994 until 1999, Nelson Mandela served as President of South Africa. He was South Africa's first black president and the first to be elected in a fully representative election.

The leadership of Nelson Mandela concentrated on overthrowing the country's Apartheid government, which had enforced racial segregation through the law.

Nelson Mandela studied law at school and then went on to become one of South Africa's first black lawyers.

He was chosen leader of the African National Congress (ANC) liberation movement's youth section in the 1950s.

Mandela established a hidden military movement after the government banned the ANC for racial reasons. He had previously participated in nonviolent protests, but as the government responded with brutality, he moved on to promote an anti-government movement.

FAQs on Nelson Mandela Biography

1. When and Where was Nelson Mandela born?

Nelson Mandela was born on July 18, 1918, according to his biography. His parents named him Rolihlahla after he was born. This African name was eventually complemented with the English first name Nelson, which was given to him by his teacher, Miss Mdingane, as the name to which he should respond at school. He was born in the Transkei province of South Africa.

2. Why is he also called ‘Madiba’?

Madiba is Nelson Mandela’s clan name, indicating that he was a Madiba clan member (named after an eighteenth-century Thembu tribe chief). "I am commonly addressed as Madiba, my tribal name, as a symbol of respect," Nelson Mandela writes in his autobiography.

3. What is his educational background?

Nelson Mandela began his education at a nearby mission school. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University College of Fort Hare in Alice, Eastern Cape, at the end of 1942. Mandela then enrolled at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg in early 1943 to pursue a bachelor of law degree, but he never finished it. He chose to take the qualifying exam that would allow him to practice as a full-fledged attorney in 1952 after multiple failed attempts. He graduated from law school in the year 1989.

4. When was Nelson Mandela awarded the Nobel Peace Prize? And why?

Nelson Mandela and Frederik Willem de Klerk, the president of South Africa at the time, shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993 "for their work for the peaceful end of the apartheid regime, and for establishing the foundations for a new democratic South Africa." Visit Vedantu To know more about his contribution to the establishment of a democratic republic. 

Nelson Mandela: Biography and Influences Essay

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Introduction

Brief biography, significant influences, works cited.

For a person to have a significant influence on me, he/ she would have to be somebody that has surpassed complicated tribulations and puzzles by going out of his/ her way with one strict ambition; to make this world a better place.

My understanding of a significant influencer is based on such understanding because, in the current world, human life is faced by countless challenges primarily because at some point we all became selfish and took a direction of caring for ourselves not unless we stood a chance of benefiting from some good deeds to our neighbors.

Nelson Mandela was born on the 18th of July 1918, in Transkei South Africa. He went to the University of Witwatersrand, after that qualifying in law in 1942. After two years, he joined the African National Congress and fought against the ruling party’s apartheid rule after 1948.

Consequently, he went for a trial and was acquitted in 1961. Within a year, Mandela was rearrested for planning to overthrow the government with violence and sentenced to imprisonment with hard labor for five years. Latter on in 1964, his fellow ANC member was arrested, where Mandela stood another trial with them, to be sentenced for life imprisonment (Nobel foundation 1)

His reputation ironically grew rapidly and steadily during his poisoned years. All over Africa and the whole world, he was looked at as being the most viable black leader in South Africa. His vigor made him the potent symbol of rebellion when the anti-apartheid movement gathered strength.

He was offered freedom intermittently, but he rejected on the grounds of keeping his political position intact. He was released in 1990 and got elected the president of South Africa in 1994 after which he set out to realize the liberty and terminate oppressive policies.

According to Stengel (1), Mandela is the closest the world has come to a secular saint. I utterly agree with him. Mandela had one big ambition in life; to make the life of black South Africans oppression- free.

There were moments that he refused freedom offered to him provided he stopped causing public uproar against the apartheid rule (Nobel foundation 1). I would like the significant lessons about this single ambition and commitment that Mandela had would be to never back down from your ambitions no matter how hard discouragements come along.

After studying law, Mandela immediately joined the ANC to restore fair laws to all the South Africa individuals. I can bet that there were many opportunities for him to join private firms and make big amounts of salaries while living a silent and comfortable life.

With such opportunities, Mandela still decided to make the most practical and life-changing application of his career. This is a significant influence on me; life is not about being comfortable with your talent and skill; it is about using your capabilities to better the life of those who need help.

Nelson Mandela Join the ANC as an arena for him to engage in peaceful campaigns against the apartheid rule. However, after his arrest, ANC was disbanded. On his first release from prison in 1961, Mandela set out to secretly reorganize ANC with a military agenda to physically fight against the apartheid rule. There is a very significant lesson learned for this episode; when you have a dream, you have to fight against all odds to make sure that you realize it.

Nelson Mandela has lived a fulfilling life that has seen the whole world give him much recognition and credit. However, giving a critical look at his style of chasing dreams, I know that we can all achieve on whatever we set out to do. He has been such a significant influence on me.

Nobel Foundation. Nelson Mandela – Biography . 2010. Web.

Stengel Richard. Mandela: His 8 lessons of leadership. 2008. Web.

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Nelson Mandela Essay: Childhood, Early Life, Maturity and Death

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Introduction, nelson mandela essay 150 words, nelson mandela essay 250 words, nelson mandela essay 350 words, nelson mandela essay 500 words, imprisonment, release and road to presidency, presidency and reconciliation, global impact and legacy.

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Paragraph on Nelson Mandela | 100, 150, 200, and 400 + Words Amazing Paragraphs

Paragraph on nelson mandela – 100 words.

Nelson Mandela was a remarkable leader and an important figure in the history of South Africa. He was imprisoned for 27 years, but he refused to give up his fight for freedom. When he was released in 1990, Mandela became the first black president of South Africa. He served as president until 1994, when he was elected to the parliament of South Africa. Mandela continued to serve in parliament until 1997, when he retired from politics. He died in 2013 at the age of 95. After spending 27 years in prison, he emerged as one of South Africa’s most revered icons and helped to lead the country through its dark days into an era of racial equality and democracy. As one of the architects of freedom in South Africa, his legacy is sure to be remembered for years to come.

Paragraph on Nelson Mandela- 150 Words

Nelson Mandela was a remarkable individual who had a profound impact on both South Africa and the world. He was born in 1918 in Mvezo, Transkei, and became a political activist at a young age. He was imprisoned for years for his beliefs, but eventually became president of South Africa in 1994. Under his leadership, South Africa became a democracy and saw significant economic growth. Mandela passed away in 2013 at the age of 95 after a long and successful career. Nelson Mandela was an icon of human rights and democracy. He fought against apartheid and became the first black president of South Africa in 1994. After his release from prison, he worked tirelessly to promote reconciliation and democracy in his country. Mandela’s tireless work has earned him numerous awards, including the Nobel Peace Prize. His legacy will continue to inspire people around the world to fight for justice and equality.

Paragraph on Nelson Mandela- 200 Words

Nelson Mandela was an influential figure in the fight for democracy and human rights. He was imprisoned for 27 years, but eventually became the president of South Africa. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993 for his work on behalf of the people of South Africa. Mandela is a symbol of hope and resilience, and his legacy will continue to be felt throughout the world. He was an amazing human being who has been credited with helping to bring about change and peace in his country, South Africa. He was also a powerful leader and a prolific writer. He is best known for his role in the struggle against white rule in South Africa and for leading the country to democracy. Mandela was released from prison on February 11, 1990, after serving 27 years of a life sentence for terrorism. Nelson Mandela was a powerful leader and an icon of peace. He fought for human rights and against apartheid, which was a government system that segregated people based on race. He is now considered one of the most influential figures in history. He left an incredible legacy. Mandela was a powerful voice for social justice, fighting for human rights and democracy worldwide. He is considered one of the greatest leaders in history and his influence is still felt today. Read about his amazing life story and see what he accomplished!

Paragraph on Nelson Mandela- 300 Words

Nelson Mandela was a Nobel Prize-winning South African politician and activist who served as President of the country from 1994 to 1999. He played a leading role in the fight against apartheid, and became head of the African National Congress (ANC) in 1961. In 1990, he was elected President of South Africa, becoming the first black leader of a major Western country. He remained president until his death in 2013. During his time as president, Mandela made significant changes to South Africa’s government and society. He abolished apartheid and reorganized the country’s economy into five sectors: public service, private enterprise, agriculture, manufacturing, and tourism. He also created an integrated education system that included both white and black schools. Mandela was a powerful advocate for human rights, and his presidency was marked by significant peace efforts between South Africa and its former enemies. He is often cited as one of the greatest leaders of our time. Nelson Mandela, one of the most iconic and influential leaders in recent history, was born on July 18, 1918. He became president of South Africa in 1994 after years of fighting against white rule. Mandela’s role as president was not without its challenges – he faced many struggles including years of imprisonment on Robben Island – but his legacy is unquestioned. After his presidency ended in 1999, Mandela devoted himself to helping the poor and disadvantaged around the world through his non-profit organization, The Nelson Mandel Foundation. Today, he is widely recognized for his work with democracy and human rights. He played an important role in the fight against apartheid and helped to bring about change for the betterment of all South Africans. His legacy continues to live on through his work and teachings, and we should all be proud of what he has done for our society.

Paragraph on Nelson Mandela in 400 + Words

Introduction

Nelson Mandela was an incredible person who helped to shape the course of history. He is best known for his work as a political activist in South Africa, and later as the first President of South Africa after the country’s liberation from white rule. Mandela was also a deeply spiritual man, and his moral compass helped him navigate through some of the most difficult times in his life. While Mandela’s death at the age of 95 was a great loss to the world, it also opened up space for others to carry on his legacy. In particular, his daughter Zindzi has made it her mission to ensure that her father’s message of forgiveness and reconciliation is heard around the world. Regardless of your political beliefs, be sure to read Zindzi Mandela’s powerful words on her father’s life and death.

Life of Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela was born on July 18, 1918 in Mvezo, a small town in the Transkei region of South Africa. After graduating from high school, Mandela enrolled at the University of Fort Hare where he became involved in the African National Congress (ANC). In 1944, he was arrested for his involvement in the ANC and sentenced to five years in prison. While incarcerated, Mandela studied law and developed his political beliefs. Upon his release from prison in 1962, Mandela became the Umkhonto weSizwe ( Spear of the Nation) leader of the ANC and worked to liberate South Africa from white rule. In 1990, after years of campaigning and negotiation, Mandela was elected President of South Africa and served until 1994. Mandela is now retired and resides in Houghton, South Africa.

Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela was an incredible figure in the world, and his impact on history is undeniable. He was a leader of the African National Congress during South Africa’s apartheid regime, and after years of fighting and protesting he was eventually imprisoned and released in 1990. Mandela became president of South Africa in 1994, and led the country through a period of significant change and progress. He passed away in 2013, but his legacy will continue to be felt long into the future.

Legacy of Nelson Mandela

Mandela was a global symbol of resistance and reconciliation. He championed the rights of the poor and condemned apartheid as an injustice. Mandela served 27 years in prison before becoming South Africa’s first black president. He passed away in 2013 at the age of 95.

What Nelson Mandela Did

Nelson Mandela was a revolutionary who helped to change South Africa and the world. He was imprisoned for 27 years, but he never gave up hope of one day becoming the president of South Africa. After his release in 1990, Mandela became the first black leader of South Africa. He served as president until 1999, when he was elected as the first black president of the country. Mandela is now retired and lives in Johannesburg.

Mandela’s legacy spans more than sixty years, and his influence is still felt today. He was a powerful symbol of resistance against South Africa’s white minority rule, and his message of Equality, Justice and Peace has inspired millions. Mandela is also credited with helping to revive the African National Congress (ANC) and leading it to victory in the 1990 election. His tireless work for human rights has earned him numerous awards and honors, including the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993.

Background of Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela was born on July 18, 1918, in the Transkei region of South Africa. His father, Thembelani Mandela, was a political leader and chief of the Xhosa tribe. Mandela’s mother, Dolly (Dolores) Madikizela, was a teacher. Mandela attended a Christian school and then the University of South Africa where he studied law. He joined the African National Congress (ANC) in 1943 and served as its secretary-general from 1961 to 1989. In 1962, he was arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment on Robben Island for his role in anti-apartheid activities. He was released in 1990 as part of an agreement between the ANC and the government. In 1991, Mandela was elected the first president of South Africa. During his presidency, he led negotiations that led to the dismantling of apartheid and the establishment of a multiracial democracy. Mandela retired from public life in 1999 and died on December 5, 2013.

Achievements of Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela is considered one of the most influential and significant political activists of the 20th century. He was a leader in the African National Congress and served 18 years in prison because of his activism. Mandela was released in 1990 after negotiations with the South African government. Mandela has since served as president of South Africa and was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1993. He has made significant contributions to peace and reconciliation, and his work has helped to promote human rights globally.

In the twentieth century, Nelson Mandela was one of the most influential and celebrated leaders in the world. He fought against discrimination and apartheid in South Africa for over twenty-five years, leading to his imprisonment and eventual release. Mandela is now a global symbol of human rights and reconciliation, and his legacy continues to inspire people around the world. Thank you for reading this article on Nelson Mandela, and I hope it has helped you learn more about one of history’s greatest figures.

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Nelson Mandela's Biography Lesson! (Reading Passage, Questions, Answers)

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This is a complete lesson (6th to 8th Grade) on one of South Africa's most important figures; Nelson Mandela

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