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 Son of a Thembu chief, Mandela was born on 18 July 1918 in the village of Qutu, in the South African province of Umtata. At the age of seven, he became the first member of his family to have a school education. He later became a student at Fort Hare, where he was dismissed for taking part in a student demonstration, and then at the University of Witwatersrand, where he obtained a law degree in 1942.
In 1944, Mandela joined the African National Congress (ANC). When the National Party came to power in 1948 and introduced apartheid, Mandela and the ANC opposed the racist policy of the government. In 1956, Mandela was arrested and tried for treason, but he was acquitted in 1961.
After the Sharpeville massacre in 1960, the ANC and the Pan African Congress were prohibited. Mandela gave up the non-violent strategy of the ANC and founded a military organization, Umkhonto we Sizwe.
In 1962, he was sentenced to five years' hard labour and in 1963 he was charged with sabotage, treason and conspiracy, along with other leaders. For these facts, he was sentenced in 1964, with seven other militants, to life imprisonment.
Nelson Mandela's cell, Robben Island
The two men then led the negotiations that put an end to apartheid, and they received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993. A year later, on the occasion of the first free elections in the history of South Africa, Nelson Mandela was elected president of the rainbow nation, a position he held from 1994 to 1999 .
After his retirement as President, Mandela continued his fight for human rights and he has become an advocate for a variety of social and human rights organisations. He has expressed his support for the international Make Poverty History movement of which the ONE Campaign is a part.
Mandela is a vocal supporter of SOS Children's Villages, the world's largest organisation dedicated to raising orphaned and abandoned children.
He has set up the Nelson Mandela Foundation and fights for education. He is also famous for his fight against AIDS, a disease that badly hits the African continent, and particularly South Africa. His son Makgatho Mandela, died of AIDS on 6 January 2005.
He is the film of Nelson Mandela's 90th birthday speech in London, during the 46664 concert against AIDS.
Mail and Guardian (South Africa)
The Guardian (UK)
The New-York Times (USA)
Date de création : 19/07/2008 - 10:46
Dernière modification : 19/07/2008 - 12:48
Catégorie : L'actualité
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L'actualité - Nelson Mandela's 90th birthday
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