Nelson Mandela, A Brief History and Impact

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MEETING THE GREAT MAN

Nelson Mandela

1918-2013

“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.”

Nelson Mandela was born on July 18, 1918 in a royal family of a tribe in a South African village in Mvezo, Thembu.

Ever since he was a child, he would listen to the resistance war stories from his elders and dreamt with contributing to the cause of liberating his people. It was this way that he found the passion which, through the years, would transform into his goal and into his most important achievement.

In 1939, he joined Fort Hare, the only university for black South Africans, where he met the one who would be his friend and partner for the rest of his life: Oliver Tambo. Together, they started a boycott against the unfair policies against the black people inside the university grounds, which got them expelled.

"A fundamental concern for others in our individual and community lives would go a long way in making the world the better place we so passionately dreamt of."

Afterwards, he moved to Johannesburg and finished his studies in the Witwatersrand University, where he stated to get involved with the movement against the racial discrimination and began cultivating key relationships with black and white activists.

In 1944, Mandela joined the African National Congress (ANC) which at the time, was an authorized resistance movement established on January 8, 1912. The ANC seeked that all the Africans together, as one society, figh...

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...eceived more than 1000 awards, including the Nobel Peace Prize and the US Congressional Medal. He also has scores of honorary degrees, honorary citizenships and honorary memberships of many organizations.

• More than 125 streets, boulevards, avenues, bridges and highways have been named after him.

• More than 38 events and awards have been named after him.

• Mandela only has three authorized books. His autobiography Long Walk to Freedom, published in 1994; Conversations with Myself, published in 2010 and Nelson Mandela By Himself: The Authorized Book of Quotations, published in 2011.

• There are three books about Nelson Mandela suitable for children: The Illustrated Long Walk to Freedom; Long Walk to Freedom (Children’s Version), abridged by Chris Van Wyk and Nelson Mandela: The Authorized Comic Book, available in English, American English, French and Dutch.

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