Biography of Nelson Mandela

He was a South African leader well known for his fight against apartheid that had taken root in the country. Apartheid was a system of segregation in the country that was characterized by levels of oppression.  He was born in the year 1918 and served as the president of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. This was after spending twenty-seven years in prison for his fight against apartheid. He was a philanthropist, revolutionary as well as a great politician who is considered as a great African leader that influenced the entire world. He was elected to power and developed measures of breaking down the systems of apartheid that had helped the nation captive for many years. He also fought for racial reconciliation after years of conflict. He was a socialist and president of the ANC; African National Congress party. Nelson Mandela was a Xhosa, a clan in South Africa. He was born as a member of a royal family of the people of Tembu. He was the son of a chief called Henry Mandela who was a leader of the Madiba Clan. He renounced his place as the heir of the chief to pursue his education as a lawyer. As a result, he went and studied law at the University Of Fort Hare which was previously known as the South African Native College. He proceeded and studied law at the University of Witwatersrand, passed and became a lawyer. He quickly became a leader of a youth group within the African national Congress. The ANC was a party developed as a liberation group for the blacks who were suffering from oppression at the hands of white South Africans. As a leader in the group, he revitalized it and helped develop strong measures against policies of Apartheid.

At the time the national party that ruled South Africa was all white and established a system of governance that was all white. The system of apartheid had policies of segregation and oppression of black South Africans in the country. The whites in the country were highly privileged regarding access to resources and social amenities.  Nelson Mandela became a prominent figure of the ANC when he was involved in defiance campaign in 1952. He was also involved in the Congress of people in 1955. His involvement with the ANC led to his many arrests for his fight against apartheid. Mandela was once tried for treason in the year 1956 because of his efforts against the government. He was greatly influenced by Marxism which is mainly associated with a socialist form of government. As a result, he secretly joined a communist group called the South African Communist Party that was associated with communist ideals. This was a group that was against the policies the government had established because they were oppressive of black South Africans and privileged the whites in the country. It was a time when the country was greatly divided by aspects of the race. Mandela went on with his fight against the government, and he developed together with others from SACP a militant group by the name of Umkhonto We Sizwe. They developed this group in the year 1961, and it made an effort to sabotage activities of the government. In the same year, the group orchestrated a government takes over. He was arrested as among the people conspiring to overthrow the government and got a life sentence

The militant group was part of the ANC, and unlike ANC which was non-violent, he group took more measures and established an actual take over. Mandela’s involvement with the take over him imprisoned in the year 1963. His trial was varied famous and was known as the Rivonia Trial. He eased the death penalty in the year 1964 and instead received life imprisonment. He was incarcerated at Robben Island which was a prison in Cape Town. He was kept at maximum security, but once in the year 1988 he caught Tuberculosis and had to be transferred to the Victor Verster Prison which was near the town of Paarl. Throughout his sentence, the fight against apartheid continued, and it grew stronger because one of its profound leaders was in a life sentence. Pressure grew on the national government. The government offered him freedom on conditions that he renounced his violent approach to freedom. Mandela refused offers from the government and continued his sentence. Many black South Africans offered great support to him while incarcerated and pushed on the fight against apartheid. In the year 1990 Mandel was released from prison by the president De Klerk. His release from prison was only based on the promise of the end of apartheid and smooth transition to a society that focused on peace and equality among people of all color. After his release, he took the mantle as the president of the ANC and fought towards social freedom. In the year 1994 Mandela became the president of South Africa after elections and initiated social efforts for the improvement of living standards of the black population in the country.