Nelson Mandela biography

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was born in Mvezo, Transkei, 1918.

He was a South African activist and politician who led the movements against apartheid and who, after a long
ght and 27 years in prison, presided over the rst government in 1994 that put an end to the racist regime.

He was originally from the Xhosa people and part of the Tembu royal house, Mandela studied law at the
University of Fort Hare and the University of the Witwatersrand.

Like that of any African child in rural areas, Nelson Mandela's childhood was spent in games and in close contact
with the traditions of his people.

Two years later, due to the death of his father, little Nelson was left in the care of his cousin, the great chief
Jongintaba; with him he became fond of listening to tribal chiefs and became aware of the sense of justice.
When he was sixteen, he became part of the tribal council; Three years later, in 1937, he entered the Ford Hare
boarding school for blacks for higher education.

In 1962 he traveled through various African countries raising funds, receiving military training and making
propaganda for the South African cause; upon his return, Mandela was arrested and sentenced to ve years in
jail.

A prisoner for 27 years (1963-1990) in harsh conditions, the South African government refused all requests for his
release. Nelson Mandela became a symbol of the ght against apartheid inside and outside the country, a
legendary gure who represented the su ering and lack of freedom of all black South Africans.

Finally, Frederik De Klerk, President of the Republic for the National Party, had to give in to the evidence and
open the way to dismantle racial segregation. In February 1990 he legalized the African National Congress and
freed Mandela, who became his main interlocutor to negotiate the dismantling of apartheid and the transition to
a multiracial democracy; Despite the complexity of the process, both were able to successfully complete the
negotiations. Mandela and De Klerk shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993.

He was the rst black president to head the executive branch, and the rst to be elected by universal su rage in
his country. His government was dedicated to dismantling the social and political structure inherited from
apartheid through the ght against institutionalized racism, poverty, social inequality and the promotion of social
reconciliation. As an African nationalist and Marxist, he chaired the African National Congress (ANC) between
1991 and 1997, and at the international level he was Secretary General of the Non-Aligned Movement between
1998 and 2002.
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