Nelson Mandela

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His ExcellencyNelson Mandela OM AC CC OJ GCStJ QC GColIH RSerafO NPk BR MRCSI
Mandela in 2008
President of South Africa
In office 10 May 1994 – 14 June 1999
Deputy	Thabo Mbeki Frederik Willem de Klerk
Preceded by	Frederik Willem de Klerk As State President of South Africa
Succeeded by	Thabo Mbeki
19th Secretary General of Non-Aligned Movement
In office 2 September 1998 – 14 June 1999
Preceded by	Andrés Pastrana Arango
Succeeded by	Thabo Mbeki
Personal details
Born	Rolihlahla Mandela (1918-07-18) 18 July 1918 (age 93) Mvezo, South Africa
Nationality	South African
Political party	African National Congress
Spouse(s)	Evelyn Ntoko Mase (1944–1957)Winnie Madikizela (1957–1996)Graça Machel (1998–present)
Children	6
Residence
Alma mater	University of Fort Hare University of London External System University of South Africa University of the Witwatersrand
Religion
Signature
Website	Mandela Foundation

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (Xhosa pronunciation: [xoˈliːɬaɬa manˈdeːla]; born 18 July 1918)^[1] served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999, and was the first South African president to be elected in a fully representative democratic election. Before his presidency, Mandela was a militant anti-apartheid activist, and the leader and co-founder of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing of the African National Congress (ANC). In 1962 he was arrested and convicted of sabotage and other charges, and sentenced to life in prison. Mandela served 27 years in prison, spending many of these years on Robben Island. Following his release from prison on 11 February 1990, Mandela led his party in the negotiations that led to democracy in 1994. As president, he frequently gave priority to reconciliation, while introducing policies aimed at combating poverty and inequality in South Africa.^[2][3]
In South Africa, Mandela is often known as Madiba, his Xhosa clan name; or as tata (Xhosa: father).^[4] Mandela has received more than 250 awards over four decades, including the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize.

Early life

Nelson Mandela belongs to a cadet branch of the Thembu dynasty, which reigns in the Transkei region of South Africa's Eastern Cape Province.^[5] He was born in Mvezo, a small village located in the district of Umtata.^[5] He has Khoisan ancestry on his mother's side.^[6] His patrilineal great-grandfather Ngubengcuka (who died in 1832), ruled as the Inkosi Enkhulu, or king, of the Thembu people.^[7] One of the king's sons, named Mandela, became Nelson's grandfather and the source of his surname. However, because he was only the Inkosi's child by a wife of the Ixhiba clan (the so-called "Left-Hand House"^[8]), the descendants of his branch of the royal family were not eligible to succeed to the Thembu throne.

Nelson Mandela circa 1937^[9]

Mandela's father, Gadla Henry Mphakanyiswa, served as chief of the town of Mvezo.^[10] However, upon alienating the colonial authorities, they deprived Mphakanyiswa of his position, and moved his family to Qunu. Despite this, Mphakanyiswa remained a member of the Inkosi's Privy Council, and served an instrumental role in Jongintaba Dalindyebo's ascension to the Thembu throne. Dalindyebo would later return the favour by informally adopting Mandela upon Mphakanyiswa's death.^[11] Mandela's father had four wives, with whom he fathered thirteen children (four boys and nine girls).^[11] Mandela was born to his third wife ('third' by a complex royal ranking system), Nosekeni Fanny. Fanny was a daughter of Nkedama of the Mpemvu Xhosa clan, the dynastic Right Hand House, in whose umzi or homestead Mandela spent much of his childhood.^[12] His given name Rolihlahla means "to pull a branch of a tree", or more colloquially, "troublemaker".^[13][14]
Rolihlahla Mandela became the first member of his family to attend a school, where his teacher Miss Mdingane gave him the English name "Nelson".^[15]
When Mandela was nine, his father died of tuberculosis, and the regent, Jongintaba, became his guardian.^[11] Mandela attended a Wesleyan mission school located next to the palace of the regent. Following Thembu custom, he was initiated at age sixteen, and attended Clarkebury Boarding Institute.^[16] Mandela completed his Junior Certificate in two years, instead of the usual three.^[16] Designated to inherit his father's position as a privy councillor, in 1937 Mandela moved to Healdtown, the Wesleyan college in Fort Beaufort which most Thembu royalty attended.^[17] At nineteen, he took an interest in boxing and running at the school.^[12]
After enrolling, Mandela began to study for a Bachelor of Arts at the Fort Hare University, where he met Oliver Tambo. Tambo and Mandela became lifelong friends and colleagues. Mandela also became close friends with his kinsman, Kaiser ("K.D.") Matanzima who, as royal scion of the Thembu Right Hand House, was in line for the throne of Transkei,^[8] a role that would later lead him to embrace Bantustan policies. His support of these policies would place him and Mandela on opposing political sides.^[12] At the end of Nelson's first year, he became involved in a Students' Representative Council boycott against university policies, and was told to leave Fort Hare and not return unless he accepted election to the SRC.^[18] Later in his life, while in prison, Mandela studied for a Bachelor of Laws from the University of London External Programme.
Shortly after leaving Fort Hare, Jongintaba announced to Mandela and Justice (the regent's son and heir to the throne) that he had arranged marriages for both of them. The young men, displeased by the arrangement, elected to relocate to Johannesburg.^[19] Upon his arrival, Mandela initially found employment as a guard at a mine.^[20] However, the employer quickly terminated Mandela after learning that he was the Regent's runaway ward. Mandela later started work as an articled clerk at a Johannesburg law firm, Witkin, Sidelsky and Edelman, through connections with his friend and mentor, realtor Walter Sisulu.^[20] While working at Witkin, Sidelsky and Edelman, Mandela completed his B.A. degree at the University of South Africa via correspondence, after which he began law studies at the University of Witwatersrand, where he first befriended fellow students and future anti-apartheid political activists Joe Slovo, Harry Schwarz and Ruth First.^[21] Slovo would eventually become Mandela's Minister of Housing, while Schwarz would become his Ambassador to Washington. During this time, Mandela lived in Alexandra township, north of Johannesburg.

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