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media type="youtube" key="o3NJwyzFlTE" height="344" width="425"  //Karen Reyes //    //Author: Barry Denenberg//   //Nelson Mandela "No Easy Walk To Freedom" 

Nelson Mandela, the youngest of 4 children, was born in July 18, 1918 and was given the tribal name of Rolihlahla, which in his native language meant "one who brings trouble on himself". He was raised in Transkei, South Africa. His tribe, Qunu, was located in the Transkei territory of South Africa. Nelson loved to listen to the elderly people of his tribe talk about their African history. After meeting they would gather in a group and tell stories of long ago, before the whites had come to Africa. Stories of wars between the black and white men and how the white men stole the blacks cattle and drove the blacks from their own land. Nelson's father saw to it that his son was left in the care of his uncle and given the education that he wanted for his son, before he died. When he did die, Nelson was sent to live with his uncle. When he first arrived to his uncle's village he, understandably, took to himself and was very solitary. But after a little while, he started to becom comfortable with his new home and began making friends. When Nelson was twenty, he enrolled in Fort Hare College, one of the few universities in South Africa that accepted full-time black students. It was built in the peaceful town of Alice, in the Cape Province. He liked politics and considered being a lawyer. He thought that by studying law and current affairs he might be able to help his people obtain the rights denied by the white people. He studied hard, and joined the Students Representative Council, which was organized by protesting against the living conditions of the university. When the students decided to go on a strike he joined them and was expelled. Even though his uncle wanted him to apologize to the university and the authourities, Nelson wouldn't. Nelson understood that he was being groomed to someday taking the place that was rightfully his as tribal chief. His uncle also thought that he should marry. As custom a relative decided his bride and she was already chosen. The only way to get out of the arranged marriage was to run away. Which is what he did. Mandela went to the City Of Gold and took ajob as a guard and made sure that everyone behaved. The conditions of the housing for the miners shocked him. Miners weren't allowed to live with their families, food and shelter were offered but now much else. If you quit you could have gone to jail. Each week Nelson struggled to pay the rent and sometimes he didn't even have enough money to pay for his bus fare. Fortunatley his lanlord was sympathetic and allowed him to go without paying the rent sometimes. After working breifly at Crown Mines, Nelson met Walter Sisulu. Walter Sisulu's father was white but, since being raised by his mother, he was dark. He had been kicked out of his first job because of being disobedient. After that he had a number of jobs: at the mines and factories, a bakery, and as a kitchen boy in a white household. Later he opened a real estate aency agency in Johannesburg and made a living selling what little land blacks could still buy. Nelson and Walter became great friends. The best thing Walter gave Nelson was advice, and a job. Walter introduced him to a senior partner in a white Johannesburg law firm.Some white South African law firms hired blacks as clerks. Mandela happily took the job. In 1944 Nelson proposed to Walter's cousin, who had visited her cousin and had happily found a proposal. That same year, Nelson Mandela joined the ANC, the African Nationa Congress, which was to become increasingly important to him. Mandela tried to spend as much time as possible with his family. He played with the children and took them to local boxing tournametens. He also told them stories he had heard as a child about the old days and how the trouble started between the blacks and the whites. But then Nelson started to get into his political activity's that he wasn't home most of the time. By 1955 his absence was affecting his marriage. Two years later he and Evelyn were divorvced. Although many people wanted to "drive the white men into the sea," as some put it Nelson did not agree. Although Mandela felt that whites had to be convinced to end their domination of the African, he also believed that South Africa must become a a society free of any kind of racism. Then the goverment banned Mandela. Everyone was shocked and angry. They started protests and strikes. Sometimes Nelson was even in them in a disguise. On December 5, 1956, Nelson Mandela and nearly the entire ANC leadership were arrested in a massice sweep operation. Anyone associted the protests or strikes were taken into custody. Those arrested represented a cross section of South African society. Most were workers: clerks, teachers, drivers,etc. They were taken, some by military aircraft, to fifty-six prisoners, men and women of all races, and they all would stand trial for high treason. When the Treason Trial began on December 19, 1956, all one hundred defendents sat together, row after row. On the first day the degendants had been placed behind a six-foot-high wire barrier. The defense objected to their clients being treated like animals. The cages were removed and bail was granted. The trial dragged on for an incredible four and a half years, until 1961. It was a trying and tiring trial. At last, in late March 1961, Mandela and his twenty-nine co-degendants heard the verdict. It was a somber moment: They coulde receive the death penalty. The judge said that the state had failed to prove its case. All had acquitted and were dicharged. The only good thing about the Treason Trial was that he had met Nomzamo Winifred Madikizela. Nomzamo means "she who strices" and it certainly fit. Born on September 26,1936, Winnie, as she was affectionatley known, was the fifth of nine children. Like Mandela, she also refused an arranged marriage and had run away too. Mandela never came right out and proposed. One day, in late March 1957, he mentioned a dressmaker who could make her a wedding gown. He wasnt being arrogant; it was just understood that they would be married. Winnie was very happy about the idea of marrying Nelson Mandela. But later they had a serious and honest talk. If he was found guilty in the Treason Trial he would be sent to jail for a long time. Even if he wasn't, he wanted to be sure she understood that his commitment to freedom was for life. Winnie understood and wouldn't have it any other way, but her father and stepmother were not certain she was making the right decision. They were worried about the kind of life she would be starting with someone as politically active as Mandela. The banned husband-to-be applied for permission to leave Johannesburg to attend his own wedding. Permission was granted on the condition that he conduct no other business. Nelson and Winnie were married on June 14,1958, near the village where Winnie was born and raised. Nelson and Winnie had two daughters - Zeni, born in 1959, and Zindzi in 1960. Then Nelson went into hiding. Mandela,by now a legend, was working underground. His ability to elude the police embarrassed the government. Nelson changed disguises frequently: one day he was a window washer, the next an errand boy. The most difficult part of Mandela's decision to go underground was abandoning his family. When he left he said only that he'd "be going away for a long time." Fortunately, after complicated arrangements, he was able to see her and sometimes the children. One time his disguise was so effective that she didn't recognize him at first. But Nelson Mandela was then betrayed by the informers. The Verwoerd government paid well, and the bonuses they offered were to hard to resist. On August 5, 1962, after being a fugitive for eighteen months, Nelson Mandela was captured. He was sentenced to five years in prison with hard labor. Then he had a trial, he had a speech that lasted for four hours. He spoke of the suffering of Africans endured because or apartheid, about the pass laws, about life in the townships, about the decision to turn to violence, about the argument against allowing blacks to vote, about black education, about the way white South Africans look at black South Africans, about what Africans want, and about his personal commitments. The judge took three minutes to deliver his finding. Mandela was sentenced to life imprisonment. He was sent to Robben Island, the South African Alcatraz off the coast of Cape Town. Mandela was allowen to see his wife and family twice a month for thirty minutes. They were given slop for food and they were not allowed to know of anything in the outside world. In 1975 Nelson Mandela began writing his autobiography. Writing at night ans sleeping whenever possible during the day, Mandela wrote on paper smuggled into his cell. A year later, in 1976, the manuscript was smuggled off Robben Island and officially published in 1994. One night in April 1982, Nelson Mandela was transferred from Robben Island and moved to Pollsmoor Maximum Secutiry Prison. Nelson was sixty-four years old. Sergeant Gregory had been assigned to guard Mandela at Robben Island. He was transferd along with his prisoner. Sergeant Gregory and Nelson Mandela had known each other for almost twenty years. A mutual respect had developed. When visiting time was almost up the sergeant would kindly remind Winnie and Nelson Mandela. In August 1988, Mandela was suffering from a bad cough and was having trouble speaking. He was hospitalized with tuberculosis. He might have caught it in is damp cell at Pollsmoor. Or, as some spectulated, it might have begun as far back as his hard years on Robben Island.He was in pain and his appearance was shocking.  He was taken to a good hospital and began to recover. By October his condition had improved. There was a good chance he would recover completely. Two months later he was moved to a cottage at Victor Verster Prison.Bictor Verster was a prison farm with a swimming pool. He was isolated there and wasn't allowed to leave his compound.  At 4:15 p.m., Sunday, Febuary 11,1990, Nelson Mandela was released from prison. He was seventy-nine years old.  Nelson Mandela was named ANC deputy president on March 2,1990. Peace negotiations were placed on Speptember 14, a National Peace Accord between the government.  On April 27__th__ ,1994 Nelson Mandela was elected President of South Africa!!!!!!!!!!!

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