Nelson Mandela, Inmate # 46664

Born Into Apartheid
Nelson Mandela was born in 1918 and by then the 8-year old country of South Africa had already declared the native population of South Africa unworthy of elected office deciding they had no right to hold political office though initially granting them the right to vote. The right to vote would also later be taken away. A year after the African National Congress was formed in 1912 to regain the civil rights of Africans in the newly formed country the Native Lands Act was passed into law giving the 80% majority black population only 7.3% of the land. They were also forbidden from owning land outside their native state and were only allowed to be on white land if they were working there. The system of laws came to be known as apartheid. Apartheid allowed for blacks to be paid a small percentage of the wages of whites working similar jobs. Native Africans under the system of apartheid were not given access to education resulting in a high illiteracy rate.

Into the Fight
Nelson Mandela found a way to make a contribution to the civil rights debate as a student though his actions got him expelled from one school he attended because of a boycott he attended protesting school policies (at Fort Hare University.) He eventually got his BA degree from the University of South Africa by a correspondence course.

When he moved to Johannesburg, South Africa he experienced a state (one of four states in South Africa) where blacks could not vote, travel without permission, or own land. By 1943 he joined the African National Congress the organization which many associate with him today. It was through this organization native Africans would eventually regain or some might say gain for the first time equal rights under the law.

The struggle was a long way from bearing fruit when he joined it in 1943. It wasn't until 1994 that the system of apartheid would begin to officially and legally unravel. 1994 was the first time Nelson Mandela actually voted in an election and thirteen days later he would be elected president at the age of 75.

The Hard-fought and Lean Years
As an activist the ANC found many things to protest during the 1950s and 1960s as South Africa continued to pass laws asserting white dominion over native Africans. The Preservation of Amenities Act mandated separate parks, post offices, beaches, and other public places for whites, blacks, and non-whites (people of mixed race.) The Bantu Homelands Act went so far as to declare that states within South Africa were foreign, independent nations. After passing this law South Africa took away the citizenship of millions of blacks.

In 1956 Nelson Mandela and 155 activists were charged with treason--all were eventually acquitted. By 1960 things were heating up in South Africa when police killed 69 peaceful protesters in what came to be known as the "Sharpeville Massacre." It was after this massacre that many anti-apartheid activists armed themselves.

In 1960 Mandela went into hiding; in 1962 Nelson Mandela was on the lamb but was captured on August 5 and he was imprisoned. Finally in 1964 Nelson Mandela was put on trial for sabotage and treason and was convicted. His sentence was life in prison.

Top of the Heap
He was finally released from prison on February 11, 1990 (he spent 27 years there) after which he was elected Deputy President of the African National Congress on March 2nd of that year. After his release President F.W. DeClerk lifted the ban on the African National Congress that had been in place for decades. The two began talks with the intention of forming a multiracial democracy. It was for this work the two, F.W. DeClerk and Nelson Mandela, would receive the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993.

Nelson Mandela, inmate # 46664 and then President of South Africa, has had a full life.

Resources:
www.history-timelines.org.uk
www.cyberschoolbus.un.org
www.nelsonmandela.org