Nelson Mandela Essay -- Essays Papers

Nelson MandelaA transformationalsMandela, Nelson Rolihlahla, South Africas first smuggled president. Mandela was wide revered by blacks throughout Africa as a symbol of black liberation. He gained almost legendary status through the 1980s as South Africas leading antiapartheid figure, assuming the forefront of the black trial after his release from prison. Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was born July 18, 1918 near Umtata in Transkei, in the east Cape, into the royal family of the Tembu, a Xhosa-speaking tribe. He was educated at a British missionary boarding school and at Fort Hare University, from which he was expelled in 1940 for leading a strike with Oliver Tambo. He returned home, but ran aside to Soweto in Transvaal province, giving up his hereditary chieftanship to avoid an arranged marriage. He eventually obtained a law degree from the University of South Africa. Helped by Walter Sisulu, Mandela and Tambo influence up South Africas first black law firm. In 1944, the tether men formed the African National Congress Youth League, which came to command the ANC in 1948. He became president of the league in 1950. Meanwhile Mandela married Evelyn Ntoko, with whom he had three children. The couple later were divorced. Mandela was arrested in 1955 and was acquitted of treason in 1961. After the trial, Mandela took up armed insurrection, traveling abroad for array training. Upon his return to South Africa, he went underground and formed the ANCs military wing,...