MY PEOPLE MY LIFE

MY PEOPLE MY LIFE
“The lack of human dignity experienced by Africans is the direct result of the policy of White supremacy. White supremacy implies black inferiority”. Nelson Mandela. Johannesburg 2nd May 1994.
The Beginning of the End.
Nelson Mandela was born on18th July 1918 in Umtata, Transkei. He is the eldest son of Xhosa-speaking temple chief in the Transkei. Hearing the elders’ stories of his ancestors’ valour during the wars of resistance, he dreamed also of making his own contribution to the freedom struggle of his people.
He attended primary school in Qunu where his teacher, Miss Mdingane, gave him the name Nelson, in accordance with the custom of giving all school children “Christian” names.
He attended Methodist missionary school and later gained a Bachelor of Arts degree at Witwatersrand University. He was the only black student at the law school. In 1952, he opened the first black law firm in Johannesburg with Oliver Tambo.
During his early career as a lawyer, Mandela became a political activist with the banned political party, the African National Congress (ANC).

Freedom Revolution
Nelson Mandela was arrested in a countrywide police swoop on 5 December 1955, which led to the 1956 Treason Trial. Men and women of all races found themselves in the dock in the marathon trial that only ended when the last 28 accused, including Nelson Mandela, were acquitted on 29 March 1961.
On 21 March 1960 police killed 69 unarmed people in a protest in Sharpeville against the pass laws. This led to the country’s first state of emergency and the banning of the ANC and the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) on 8 April. Mandela and his colleagues in the Treason Trial were among thousands detained during the state of emergency.
During the trial Nelson Mandela married a social worker, Winnie Madikizela, on 14 June 1958. They had two daughters, Zenani and Zindziswa. The couple later divorced in 1996.
Days before the end of the Treason Trial, Nelson Mandela travelled to Pietermaritzburg to speak at the All-in Africa Conference, which resolved that he should write to Prime Minister Verwoerd requesting a national convention on a non-racial constitution, and to warn that should he not agree there would be a national strike against South Africa becoming a republic. After he and his colleagues were acquitted in the Treason Trial, Nelson Mandela went underground and began planning a national strike for 29, 30 and 31 March.
In the face of massive mobilization of state security the strike was called off early. In June 1961 he was asked to lead the armed struggle and helped to establish Umkhonto weSizwe (Spear of the Nation), which launched on 16 December 1961 with a series of explosions.
The ANC had been banned for its opposition to the South African government’s system of apartheid, a strict policy of racial segregation that repressed the black South African majority. In his defense, Mandela spoke both as an experienced lawyer and a political activist. He and his co-accused Umkhonto we Sizwe members received life sentences in 1964 for plotting violent revolution. They were imprisoned for 26years. (1964-1990).
From 1970 – 1988 the world protest against apartheid grew, with increased demands for Mandela’s release. In 1989, newly elected president F.W de Klerk accelerated the dismantling of apartheid. And in 1990 the ban on the ANC was lifted and Mandela was released unconditionally. He was greeted rapturously by black and white South Africans and people throughout the world.
“I AM THE FIRST ACCUSED”. (Pretoria 20th April 1964).
This was the opening words of his speech in his own defense at his trial. Mandela became a symbolic figurehead for anti-apartheid and anti-racist campaigners through the world. In 1994, four years after his release from prison, the ANC won the South African election and Mandela became President.

“FREE AT LAST” was his first official speech in his political role. (Johannesburg 2nd May 1994).
"Free at Last".

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