Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, byname Mandela (born on July 18, 1918, Mvezo, South Africa. He died in December 5, 2003.
Mandela, a Black nationalist was the first Black president of South Africa – 1994-
His negotiations in the early 1990s with South African one time President F.W de Klerk helped end the country’s apartheid system of racial segregation.
Mandela and de Klerk were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1993 for their efforts.
Nelson Mandela was the son of Chief Henry Mandela of the Madiba clan of the Xhosas-peaking Tembu people.
He attended South African Native College (later the University of Fort Hare) and studied law at the University of the Witwatersrand; he later passed the qualification exam 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.That same year he met and married Evelyn Ntoko Mase.
Mandela’s antiapartheid activism made him a frequent target of the authorities. Starting in 1952, he was intermittently banned (severely restricted in travel, association, and speech).
In December 1956 he was arrested with more than 100 other people on charges of treason that were designed to harass antiapartheid activists. Mandela went on trial that same year and eventually was acquitted in 1961. During the extended court proceedings, he divorced his first wife and married Nomzamo Winifred Madikizela.
On June 12, 1964, he was sentenced to life imprisonment, narrowly escaping the death penalty.
