Remarkable Landmarks
1918 Birth of Rolihlahla (meaning = troublemaker) Dalibhunga Mandela to parents Gadla Mphakanyiswa and Nonqaphi Nosekeni in the Transkei, Eastern Cape of South Africa.
1925 Mandela is the first in his family to begin schooling. He is given the name Nelson by his teacher.
1939 Mandela attends Fort Hare University and begins training as a civil servant.
1940 After participating in protesting against the university authorities, Mandela is expelled from Fort Hare without graduating.
1941 Mandela flees to Johannesburg after being faced with arranged marriage. Where he meets Water Sisulu and starts working for a legal firm, followed by getting involved with the African National Congress (ANC).
1943 He begins studying law at Witwatersrand University and joins the ANCYL with Oliver Tambo and Water Sisulu. He also marries Evelyn Mase.
1945 Evelyn gives birth to their son, Madiba Thembekile, followed by the birth of their daughter Makaziwe in 1947 who died after 9 months.
1950 Mandela joins the ANC National Executive and assumes the presidency of the ANCYL. Evelyn gives birth to another son, Makgatho.
1952 Mandela and Oliver Tambo establish the first black law firm. Mandela is convicted of violating the Suppression of Communism Act and given a suspended sentence. He is also banned from attending public meetings. Despite all this he is elected Deputy President of the ANC and begins drawing up plans for underground campaigns.
1956 He and some 200 others are arrested. Their subsequent trial for high treason will last several years.
1957 Mandela and Evelyn divorce.
1958 Mandela marries Winnie Madikizela.
1960 The Sharpville massacre focuses international attention on the apartheid regime. Winne gives birth to daughter Zindzi.
1961 Mandela and his co-defendants are acquitted in the so-called ‘Treason Trial’. He subsequently goes underground and becomes Commander-in-Chief of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the ANC’s newly established armed wing.
1962 Having returned from intelligence-gathering of Europe and Africa, Mandela is convicted of leaving the country without permission and inciting workers’ strikes. He is convicted to 5 years in prison.
1963 Following a raid on a ANC building in Rivonia, Mandela is one of several ANC leaders charged with attempting to violently overthrow the government.
1964 Mandela delivers his landmark Rivonia address from the dock. He is found guilty as charged, sentenced to life in prison on Robben Island.
1975-1975 He works on his biography in secret.
1980 Oliver Tambo spearheads the ANC’s ‘Release Mandela’ campaign.
1982 Mandela is transferred from Robben Island to Pollsmoor Prison.
1983-1984 Violence spreads throughout the black townships of Johannesburg in protest at rent increases and the failure of the government to grant blacks increased representation in parliament. Strikes and boycotts are supplemented by increased activity from MK guerrillas.
1986 Mandela begins talks with Prime Minister P.W. Botha but does not tell his ANC colleagues. Winnie draws international attention when she makes a speech that is widely interpreted as a call to violence.
1987 After a bout of tuberculosis, Mandela is transferred to Victor Verster Prison.
1990 De Klerk lifts the bans on the ANC. Nine days later Nelson Mandela is freed from prison. He becomes deputy President of the ANC. Discussions on the future of South Africa begin. Mandela and de Klerk continue private talks against the background of an upsurge in violence in many black townships.
1991 Mandela is elected ANC president.
1992 Mandela and Winnie announce their separation. There is tension between Mandela and De Klerk as the former implicates the police in the rising tide of violence sweeping the country and the ANC orchestrates a general strike.
1993 Mandela and de Klerk are jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
1994 The ANC wins a majority in the country’s first democratic, multi-racial general election. On 10 May, Nelson Mandela is inaugurated as President of South Africa.
1995 The Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund is established. Mandela and Winnie also get divorced.
1998 On his 80th birthday, Mandela marries Graca Machel.
1999 The ANC wins the general election. Presidency passes on from Mandela to Thabo Mbeki.
2000 Mandela announces that he is retiring from public life.
2001 He is diagnosed with prostate cancer.
2002 The Mandela Rhodes Foundation is established.
2009 The UN marks the first International Nelson Mandela Day on 18th July, his birthday.
2013 Mandela spends long periods in hospital as his health declines. He dies on 5th December aged 95, at his home in Houghton, Johannesburg.
Early Life and Childhood
There was little in Nelson Mandela's early life to indicate that he would become a leader of an independence movement and eventually president of his country. He was born as Rolihlahla Mandela in rural South Africa in the tiny village of Mvezo, on the banks of the Mbashe River in the Umtata district, also known as the capital of Transkei. "Rolihlahla" in the language of Xhosa literally means "pulling the branch of a tree," but more commonly means "troublemaker." The year of Mandela’s birth marked the end of the Great War which was the outbreak of an influenza epidemic that killed millions throughout the world. The Transkei is home to 3,5 Million Xhosas and a small minority of Basothos and whites.
His father was destined to be a chief and for years served as a counselor to tribal chiefs. But over a dispute with the local colonial magistrate, he lost his title and his fortune. Rolihlahla was only an infant at the time and the loss of status forced his mother to move the family to Qunu, an even smaller village north of Mvezo. The village was nestled in a narrow grassy valley. There were no roads, only foot paths that linked the pastures where livestock grazed. The family lived in huts and ate a local harvest of maize, sorghum, pumpkin, and beans, which was all the family could afford. Water came from springs and streams and cooking was done outdoors. Nelson played the games of young boys, acting out male rights-of – passage scenarios with toys he made himself from the natural materials available, tree branches and clay.
At the suggestion of one of Rolihlahla's father's friends, he was baptized into the Methodist church and became the first in his family to attend school. As was the custom at the time, and probably due to the bias of the British educational system in South Africa, his teacher told him that his new first name would be "Nelson."
Nelson Mandela's father died of lung disease when Nelson was nine years old. From that point, his life changed dramatically. He was adopted by Chief Jongintaba Dalindyebo, the acting regent of the Thembu people. This gesture was done as a favor to Nelson's father who, years earlier, had recommended Jongintaba be made chief. Nelson left the carefree life he knew in Qunu, fearing he would never see is village again. He traveled by motorcar to Mqhekezweni, the provincial capital of Thembuland, to the chief's royal residence. Though he had not forgotten his beloved village of Qunu, he quickly adopted to the new, more sophisticated surroundings of Mqhekezweni.
Mandela was given the same status and responsibilities as the regent's two other children, son Justice, the oldest and Nomafu, the regent's daughter. Mandela took classes in a one-room school next to the palace, studying English, Xhosa, history, and geography. It was during this period that Mandela developed his interest in African history from elder chiefs who came to the Great Palace on official business. He heard of how the African people had lived in relative peace until the coming of the white people. Before then, the elders said, the children of southern Africa lived as brothers, but the white man shattered this fellowship. The black man shared the land, the air, and the water with the white man, but the white man took all this for himself.
When Mandela was sixteen, it was time for him to partake in the circumcision ritual that would carry him into manhood. The ceremony of circumcision was not just a surgical procedure, but an elaborate ritual in preparation for manhood. In the African tradition, an uncircumcised male could not inherit his father's wealth, marry or officiate at tribal rituals. Mandela participated in the ceremony with twenty-five other boys. He welcomed the opportunity to partake in his people's customs and felt ready to make the transition from boyhood to manhood. But during the proceedings, Chief Meligqili, the main speaker at the ceremony, spoke sadly of the young men as a generation enslaved in their own country. Because their land was under the control of the white man, they would never have the power to govern themselves. The chief went on to lament that the promise of the young men would be squandered as they struggled to make a living and perform mindless chores for the white man. Mandela would later say that that the chief's words didn't make total sense to him at the time, but they would work on him and would eventually formulate his resolve for an independent South Africa.
From the time Mandela came under the guardianship of the Regent Jongintaba, he was groomed to assume high office, though not as a chief, but as a counselor to one. As Thembu royalty, Nelson attended Wesleyan mission school, Clarkebury Boarding Institute and Wesleyan College. There he found interest and success in his academic studies through "plain hard work." He also excelled in track and later boxing. At first, he is mocked as a "country boy," but eventually makes friends with several classmates, including Mathona, his first female friend.
In 1939, Nelson Mandela enrolled at the University College of Fort Hare, the only residential center of higher learning for blacks in South Africa. Fort Hare was considered Africa's equivalent of Oxford or Harvard, drawing scholars from all parts of sub-Sahara Africa. In his first year, Mandela took the required courses, but focused on Roman Dutch law to prepare for a career in civil service as an interpreter or clerk, the best profession a black man could obtain.
In his second year, he was elected to the Student Representative Council (SRC). For some time students had been dissatisfied with the food and lack of power held by the SRC. During this election, a majority of students voted to boycott unless their demands were met. Mandela aligned with the majority of the students and resigned his position. Seeing this as an act of insubordination, the university's Dr. Kerr expelled Mandela for the rest of the year, telling him he could come back when he agreed to serve on the SRC. When Mandela returned home, the regent was furious and told him unequivocally he would recant his decision and go back to school in the fall.
A few weeks after Mandela arrival at home, Regent Jongintaba announced he had arranged a marriage for him. The regent was within his right as tribal custom dictated and wanted to make sure Mandela's life was set during the regent's lifetime. Mandela was shocked and felt trapped. Believing he had no other option, he ran away to Johannesburg.
The City of Gold
Mandela ran away to Johannesburg in the spring of 1941. Johannesburg, also known as the city of gold had more gold than any place on earth. Thousands, then hundreds of thousands came to Johannesburg hoping to win riches and fame in its gold and diamond pits.
His first work was as a night watchman. Carrying a big stick, he stood in front of a mine entrance, near a sign that proclaimed “Natives cross here.” A few months passed before Mandela found his bearings. The great city, with its electric lights, streetcars, automobiles, and endless lines of paved road must have been quite overwhelming to a young man from the Transkei. He could easily have been swallowed up by the big city and could have been one of the many early failures, were it not for another Transkei native.
Walter Sisulu’s father was white and his mother was black.
He had grown up in the Transkei but came to Johannesburg at an early age and found his way in the world of the whites. Asking for help, Mandela was directed to Walter Sisulu’s office, where the two men met for the first time. Theirs would be a lifetime friendship. Sisulu later recalled that he saw a tall, slim young man of undeniable courage and ability: He just needed a chance. Sisulu led Mandela to the real estate offices of Lazar Sidelsky, where Mandela was soon employed as a clerk. This was no small achievement. Such jobs nearly always went to whites.
Knowing he was fortunate, Mandela settled down to life in the big city. He took law classes in the evenings and worked at the real estate office during the day. Life was not easy, however. Mandela often went a day or two without anything to eat, and he frequently walked 15km a day to save train fare. These early days of hardship fashioned him into a powerful young man, though—full of vim, vigor, and determination.
The Wheel of Fortune
Mandela arrived in Johannesburg in 1941, the year the United States entered World War II. South Africa was already in the war, having entered as a British ally in 1939. This action was not universally popular. Many Afrikaners resented any connection with Great Britain, and some Afrikaners openly sympathized with Nazi Germany. Mandela and his circle of friends paid some attention to the war, especially because of the contribution by black Africans. More than 100,000 blacks served in the South African army, and many won marks of distinction in combat. Mandela and other blacks believed this participation would enhance blacks’ status in South Africa, but they were wrong.
White South Africans actually turned against black South Africans because of their participation in the war. Many white South Africans viewed black involvement in politics or the military as a serious threat, and by the time World War II ended in 1945, a backlash against black South Africans was in the wings. Mandela did not know this, however; he was far too busy building his life.
Late in 1941, the year he ran away, Mandela received a visit from his adoptive father, Jongintaba. The Regent came to Johannesburg to see both his sons. Visibly aged, the Regent politely inquired into Mandela’s living conditions and prospects, but did not say one word about Mandela having run away from home. As was the case with leaving his mother, Mandela had experienced a complete break when he made his move. Though he had fond feelings toward the Regent, he knew he would never return to the Transkei, that he would not trade his new life in the big city to return to the country.
Mandela was proficient as a clerk in the real estate firm, and he was pursuing a law degree through night school. He frequented the home of Walter Sisulu, where he met a charming young nurse. Evelyn Ntoko Mase was also from the Transkei. The two were married in 1943. In the meanwhile, Mandela began to drift into politics. Later, he expressed the situation like this:
“I cannot pinpoint a moment when I became politicized, when I knew that I would spend my life in the liberation struggle. To be an African in South Africa means that one is politicized from the moment of one’s birth, whether one acknowledges it or not. An African child is born in an Africans Only hospi- tal, taken home in an Africans Only bus, lives in an Africans Only area, and attends Africans Only schools, if he attends school at all.”
In 1943, the year Mandela married Evelyn, the train companies in Johannesburg announced a fare increase from five to six pennies per ride. This 20 percent increase was a severe hardship to many people, but especially so for Africans who lived in the outer townships of Orlando, Soweto, and others. For about 10 days, black South Africans carried out a bus and train strike, choosing to walk very long distances to and from work. The collective action worked; the train company brought the fare back to five pennies per ride. For the first time in living memory, black South Africans had carried out a successful boycott and made a major white company change its policy. Mandela now joined the African National Congress.
What is the ANC?
The ANC is a national liberation movement. It was formed in 1912 to unite the African people and spearhead the struggle for fundamental political, social and economic change. The ANC's key objective is the creation of a united, non-racial, non-sexist and democratic society. This means the liberation of Africans in particular, and black people in general from political and economic bondage. It means uplifting the quality of life of all South Africans, especially the poor.
Years passed in which Mandela earned his law degree and his children passed from toddlers to young children. Mandela was not outwardly political in these years, but he had hundreds of conversations with men who were.