Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela began the sojourn of becoming a highly respected world citizen, in Qunu, a village near Umtata in Transkei, South Africa on July 18, 1918. His father was the Chief Councillor to Thembuland’s Acting Paramount Chief. Following his father’s death, young Mandela became the Chief’s ward and was groomed for the high office of chieftainship. Influenced by the cases that came before the Chief’s court. Mandela set his vision on becoming a lawyer and making his own contributions to the freedom struggle of his people.

After receiving a primary education at Healdtown Methodist Boarding School, Nelson Mandela matriculated at a reputable Wesleyan secondary school. He worked toward the Bachelor of Arts degree from the University College of Fort Hare, where he was elected to the Students Representative Council, participated in a student strike and was expelled. He went to Johannesburg where he completed his B.A. degree work by correspondence, did articles of clerkship and commenced studying for the Bachelor of Laws degree at the University of the Witwatersrand.

Mandela entered politics in earnest by joining the African National Congress (ANC) in 1942. He helped to establish the ANC Youth League (ANCYL) in 1944; promoted the principle of self-determination; fashioned and passed a Programme of Action that advocated the use of boycotts, strikes, civil disobedience and non-cooperation; established as an agenda the attainment of full citizenship and direct parliamentary representation for South Africans; assisted in writing important policies related to redistribution of land, trade union rights, free and compulsory education for all children and mass education for adults. He held many positions in ANC organizations, including ANCYL Secretary (1948), ANCYL President (1950), ANC Transvaal President (1952), Deputy National President (1952), and ANC President (1991). He helped to launch the Campaign for the Defiance of Unjust Laws (1952) and was elected its national volunteer-in-chief. He traveled the country organizing resistance to discriminatory legislation. For his part in the defiance campaign, Mandela was convicted under the Suppression of Communism Act, given a suspended sentence and, later, was confined to Johannesburg for six months by a banning order that also prohibited him from attending gatherings.

During this period of restriction, Mandela formulated the "M-Plan," The ANC’s blueprint for its underground branches; passed the attorneys’ admission examination; and was admitted to professional law practice. His was the first black law firm in South Africa. The firm’s representation of indigent people who had lost their land, rights and dignity under South Africa’s apartheid system, endangered the young attorneys’ practice. This was especially true when the authorities demanded that the law office be moved into an area where it would not be accessible to its clients. Mandela and his partner, Oliver Tambo, vowed to defy the law. During the same time, the Transvaal Law Society unsuccessfully petitioned the Supreme Court to remove Mandela from the roll of attorneys because of his earlier conviction. Efforts to repress him continued throughout the decade of the ‘50s, and he was subjected to bans, arrests, and imprisonment and, finally, was forced to resign officially from the ANC.

While he defended himself in the government mounted Treason Trials over a period of five years, Mandela’s law practice and political work suffered greatly. He became a detainee until 1961, when the trials ended in the acquittal of Mandela and his 155 co-defendants. Like most of the country’s liberation movements, the ANC was banned after the Sharpeville massacre of peaceful black demonstrators in 1960. Following the treason trials, the ANC’s leadership, including Mandela, and operations were forced underground. The military wing of the ANC, Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK - Spear of the nation), was established and, under Mandela’s leadership, a campaign of sabotage against the government and economic installations was launched.

Mandela was arrested for leaving the country illegally to go to Algeria for military training in 1961 and for incitement to strike. In November 1962, Mandela was convicted and imprisoned for five years. While jailed, he was charged with sabotage and sentenced to life imprisonment at Robben Island. True to his admonishment to community activists "to make every home, every shack or rickety structure a centre of learning," Mandela made the prison an educational citadel. He was a central figure in organizing political education classes. In spite of conditional offers of freedom, he never compromised his political principles and served as a beacon of hope for other prisoners. Shortly after Mandela was released from prison on February 11, 1990, he and his delegation agreed to a suspension of armed struggle.

In 1993, Mandela accepted the Nobel Peace Prize, on behalf of those in South Africa who suffered and sacrificed so much for peace. He has been awarded more than 50 honorary degrees from universities all over the world and is the Chancellor of the University of the North. Throughout his life, Mandela has been a profile in courage.

On May 10, 1994, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was inaugurated as the first democratically elected State President of South Africa. In June 1999, he retired from the presidency to assume the position of citizen of the world in the place of his birth, Qunu, Transkei, South Africa.

Nelson Mandela: Living Legend

Nelson Mandela Q&A