Nelson Mandela Foundation Archive (Nelson Mandela Foundation)
Biography and Timeline (Nelson Mandela Foundation)
Robben Island Prison Tour (Nelson Mandela Foundation Archive)
Nelson Mandela Legacy: Life and Statements (United Nations)
Nelson Mandela: His Written Legacy (History Channel)
A History of Apartheid in South Africa (South African History Online)
The Harsh Reality of Life Under Apartheid in South Africa (History Channel)
The Day Nelson Mandela Walked Out of Prison (NPR)
Nelson Mandela's Legacy (Cairo Review of Global Affairs)
The South African activist and former president 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. Continue reading from History Channel
Nelson Mandela was the son of Chief Henry Mandela of the Madiba clan of the Xhosa-speaking Tembu people. Nelson renounced his claim to the chieftainship to become a lawyer. In 1944 he joined the African National Congress (ANC), a black-liberation group, and became a leader of its Youth League (ANCYL).
In 1952, with fellow ANC leader Oliver Tambo, Mandela established South Africa's first black law practice, specializing in cases resulting from the post-1948 apartheid legislation. Mandela played an important role in launching a campaign of defiance against South Africa’s pass laws, which required nonwhites to carry documents authorizing their presence in areas that the government deemed “restricted." In 1955 he was involved in drafting the Freedom Charter.
After the massacre of unarmed black South Africans by police forces at Sharpeville in 1960 and the subsequent banning of the ANC, Mandela abandoned his nonviolent stance and began advocating acts of sabotage against the South African regime. He went underground and was one of the founders of Umkhonto we Sizwe (“Spear of the Nation”), the military wing of the ANC. In 1962 he went to Algeria for training in guerrilla warfare and sabotage. Shortly after his return, Mandela was arrested. Continue reading from Encyclopedia Britannica
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. Mandela and his fellow prisoners were routinely subjected to inhumane punishments for the slightest of offenses. 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. 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 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. Continue reading from History Channel
Mandela immersed himself in official talks to end white minority rule and in 1991 was elected ANC President. In 1993 he and President FW de Klerk jointly won the Nobel Peace Prize and on 27 April 1994 he voted for the first time in his life. On 10 May 1994 he was inaugurated as South Africa’s first democratically elected President. Continue reading from Nelson Mandela Foundation
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.” Continue reading from History Channel
"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. "
