Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela

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Tommaso Mascolo 3^Az

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About him

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‘A winner is just a dreamer who never gave up.’

-Nelson Mandela

About him

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About him

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Nelson Mandela

His life

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (Mvezo, 18 July 1918 – Johannesburg, 5 December 2013) was a South African politician and activist who served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. Antagonist, with his predecessor Frederik de Klerk, of apartheid and together with them awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993, Mandela was the first non-white South African president to hold that position; civil rights activist and lawyer, he had served 27 years in prison for his fight against racial segregationism.

Nelson Mandela

His release

Mandela was freed on February 11, 1990, the day he gave a memorable speech from Cape Town City Hall. Despite harsh oppression and long detention, he renounced a violent and vindictive strategy in favor of a process of reconciliation and pacification. Becoming a free citizen and President of the ANC, Nelson Mandela competed against De Klerk for the new post of President of South Africa and on April 27, 1994 he won the first democratic elections, becoming the first black head of state. De Klerk was appointed vice president. As president (May 1994–June 1999), Mandela presided over the transition from the old apartheid-based regime to democracy, earning worldwide respect for his support for national and international reconciliation. This transition was carried out through the establishment, by Mandela himself, of a special tribunal, the so-called Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). Mandela played a particular role in inspiring and advising representatives of the Irish Sinn Féin, who were engaged in peace negotiations with the British government.

Nelson Mandela

His arrest

He was arrested along with 150 other people on December 5, 1956 on charges of treason. This was followed by an aggressive trial, which lasted from 1956 to 1961, at the end of which all the defendants were acquitted. In March 1960, after the events of the Sharpeville massacre and the subsequent ban on the ANC and other anti-apartheid groups, Mandela and other militants supported the armed struggle. In 1958 he had married Winnie Madikizela in second marriage, from whom he later separated in 1992.In the late 1950s and early 1960s he was also a member of the South African Communist Party. Inspired by the actions of Fidel Castro's July 26 Movement during the Cuban Revolution, in 1961 Mandela, Sisulu and Slovo founded Umkhonto we Sizwe ("Spear of the Nation", abbreviated MK). Becoming chairman of the group, although initially declared officially separated from the ANC so as not to contaminate the latter's reputation, MK was subsequently widely recognized as the party's armed arm. In 1962 he was arrested a second time for organizing protest demonstrations and leaving the country without the authorization of the authorities, and was sentenced to 5 years in prison.