Biographie de Nelson Mandela

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela est né dans l'ancien Bantoustan, en Afrique du Sud. Son père était l'un
des chefs de l'ethnie Xhosa. Après avoir obtenu un diplôme en droit en 1942 à l'Université du
Witwatersrand de Johannesburg, il entre à l'ANC (l'African National Congress) qui est alors un parti
politique modéré de la bourgeoisie noire.

Avec Oliver Tambo, Nelson Mandela fonde le premier cabinet d'avocats noirs en Afrique du Sud, puis,
en mars 1944, crée la Ligue de la jeunesse de l'ANC (Youth League). Au moment où l'apartheid est
"officialisé" par le premier ministre sud africain Daniel Malan en 1948, Nelson Mandela et Olivier
Tambo parviennent à accéder à la tête de l'ANC avec la Ligue de la jeunesse.

Après plusieurs années de lutte contre l'Apartheid, d'arrestations et de procès, Nelson Mandela est
condamné en 1964 avec sept de ses compagnons à la prison à vie pour sabotage, trahison et
complot. Durant toute sa captivité, il refuse d'être libéré contre le renoncement public à la lutte anti-
apartheid. En 1986 ont lieu des rencontres avec les autorités qui le placent en résidence surveillée à
partir de 1988.

Nelson Mandela est finalement libéré le 11 février 1990 après avoir passé 27 ans et demi en prison.
Le gouvernement sud africain légalise le Parti communiste et l'ANC dont Mandela devient le
président en 1991.

En 1993, avec le président De Klerk, il reçoit le prix Nobel de la paix. Les premières élections
pluralistes et multiraciales ont lieu en 1994. L'ANC remporte une très large victoire. La même année,
Nelson Mandela est investi Président de l'Afrique du Sud, poste qu'il occupe jusqu'en 1999 pour
laisser la place à Thabo Mbeki.

Nelson Mandela crée en 1999 la Fondation Nelson Mandela et se consacre à la lutte contre le sida
après la mort de son fils en 2005.
LEARNERS' BIOGRAPHY

Rolihlahla Mandela was born into the Madiba clan in Mvezo, Transkei, on 18 July 1918.

His mother was Nonqaphi Nosekeni and his father, Nkosi Mphakanyiswa Gadla Mandela, was the
main advisor to the Acting King of the Thembu people, Jongintaba Dalindyebo.

He received the name "Nelson" on his first day in primary school from his teacher Miss Mdingane.
When he was 12 his father died and he was raised by the Regent at the Great Place in Mqhekezweni.
He was sent to the best schools available and began studying a BA at Fort Hare University.

When he was expelled for joining a student protest, the Regent told him to return or get married. So
he ran away to Johannesburg with his cousin Justice. His first job in 1941 was as a security guard on a
gold mine and then as a legal clerk in the law firm Witkin, Edelman and Sidelsky. At the same time he
completed his BA through Unisa.

In 1943 he enrolled for an LLB at Wits University. He was a poor student and became more involved
in politics from 1944 after he helped to start the ANC Youth League. He married in the same year and
needed money to support his family.

By mid-1952 when the university asked him to pay the 27 pounds he owed or leave, he already had
three children. He only started studying again in 1962 in prison. He finally graduated with an LLB
through Unisa 27 years later.

Later in 1952 he became the National Volunteer-in-Chief of the Defiance Campaign against apartheid
laws. He and 19 others were later charged and sentenced to nine months, suspended for two years.
In August he and Oliver Tambo started South Africa’s first black law firm, Mandela & Tambo.

In those days one could practise as an attorney with a two-year diploma. Later that year he was
banned for the first time – he had to ask the government for permission whenever he needed to
leave Johannesburg. After the adoption of the Freedom Charter in 1955, 156 people were arrested
and charged with treason. The trial lasted four-and-a-half years until 29 March 1961 by which time all
were acquitted. The ANC and PAC were banned after the 21 March 1961 killing by police of 69
unarmed protesters in Sharpeville.

Mandela called on the government not to turn South Africa into a republic on 31 May 1961 but to
discuss a non-racial constitution. He was ignored so he called for a strike on 29, 30 and 31 March.

In June 1961 he was asked to lead the ANC’s armed wing, Umkhonto weSizwe and it launched on 16
December that year. On 11 January 1962, Mandela secretly left South Africa to undergo military
training and to get support from African countries for the armed struggle.

He was arrested on 5 August and charged with leaving the country illegally and encouraging the
strike. He was convicted and sentenced on 7 November 1962 to five years in prison.

On 11 July 1963, a secret hideout he once used was raided by police. On 9 October 1963 he joined 10
others on trial for sabotage in the Rivonia Trial.

On 12 June 1964 he and seven others were sentenced to life imprisonment. While he was in prison
his mother and his eldest son died. He was not allowed to attend their funerals.
He spent 18 years on Robben Island, and while at Pollsmoor Prison in Cape Town in 1985 he had to
go to hospital. When Justice Minister Kobie Coetsee visited him, he had an idea: to see if the
government wanted to talk about one day meeting with the ANC.

In 1988 he was taken to hospital for tuberculosis. Three months later he was moved to Victor Verster
Prison where he spent his last 14 months in prison. He was released on Sunday 11 February 1990,
nine days after the unbanning of the ANC and the PAC.

Other political prisoners were freed and exiles returned. The ANC began talking to the government
about South Africa’s future. For this work he and President FW de Klerk won the Nobel Peace Prize in
1993, and on 27 April 1994, Mandela voted in South Africa’s first democratic elections.

On 10 May 1994, he was inaugurated as South Africa’s first democratically elected President and
stepped down after one term. In his retirement he worked on building schools and clinics,
highlighting HIV, children and leadership. He died at his home in Johannesburg on 5 December 2013.

Nelson Mandela Quotes about Education

Mandela recognized education as a great vehicle to bring equality of opportunity to the world. Here
are nine Nelson Mandela quotes about education:

“I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in
harmony and with equal opportunities.”

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”

“The power of education extends beyond the development of skills we need for economic success. It
can contribute to nation-building and reconciliation.”

“A good head and good heart are always a formidable combination. But when you add to that a
literate tongue or pen, then you have something very special.”

“Young people must take it upon themselves to ensure that they receive the highest education
possible so that they can represent us well in future as future leaders.”

“Without language, one cannot talk to people and understand them; one cannot share their hopes
and aspirations, grasp their history, appreciate their poetry, or savour their songs.”

“No country can really develop unless its citizens are educated.”

“Education is the great engine of personal development. It is through education that the daughter of
a peasant can become a doctor, that the son of a mine worker can become the head of the mine,
that a child of farm workers can become the president of a great nation. It is what we make out of
what we have, not what we are given, that separates one person from another.”

“It is not beyond our power to create a world in which all children have access to a good education.
Those who do not believe this have small imaginations.”
Our God is an awesome God, He reigns

From Heaven above with wisdom, power and love

Our God is an awesome God

Our God is an awesome God, He reigns

From Heaven above with wisdom, power and love

Our God is an awesome God

Our God is an awesome God, He reigns

From Heaven above with wisdom, power and love

Our God is an awesome God

Our God is an awesome God, He reigns

From Heaven above with wisdom, power and love

Our God is an awesome God

Wide awake while the world is sound a-sleeping

Too afraid of what might show up while you're dreaming

Nobody, nobody, nobody sees you

Nobody, nobody would believe you

Every day you try to pick up all the pieces

All the memories they somehow never leave you

Nobody, nobody, nobody sees you

Nobody, nobody would believe you

God only knows what you've been through

God only knows what they say about you

God only knows how it's killing you

Is there a kinda love that...

(Our God is an awesome God)

God only knows what you've been through

God only knows what they say about you

God only knows how it's killing you

Is there a kinda love that God only knows?

God only knows what you've been through

God only knows what they say about you

God only knows the real you

Is there a kinda love that God only knows?

Our God is an awesome God, He reigns

From Heaven above with wisdom, power and love

Our God is an awesome God

Durkio told me he been on some positive shit, yeah, yeah

Lately, I just wanna show up and body some shit, yeah, yeah

Always been a lil' mathematician, lately it's cash I'm gettin'

Got me losin' count of these bags, I've been movin' too fast

Hard times don't last, 'member when cops harrassed

Talkin' out my ass, boy, you ain't shit but a bitch with a badge

All my life (all my life)

They been tryin' to keep me down (they been tryin' to keep me down)

All this time (all this time)

Never thought I would make it out (never thought I'd make it out)

They couldn't break me, they couldn't break me (no, no)

They couldn't take me, they couldn't take me (no)

All my life (all my life)

They been tryin' to keep me down (they been tryin' to keep me down)

I decided I had to finish, but the media called me a menace

I done sat with the mayor and politicians, I'm tryna change the image

You can't blame my past no more, I come from the trenches

Some said I'd never be a superstar, but I know I'm different (no, no, no)

I'm The Voice, but the system ain't give me a choice

Know some people that's still on deploy

I know a felon who tryna get FOID

Child support your only support

For a visit, I'm goin' through courts

Went to jail, they was chainin' me up

And you know that I'm famous as fuck

See how you gon' joke about stimulus?

But they really had came in the clutch

I know some kids wanna hurt they self

Stop tryna take drugs, I refer to myself

Tryna better myself, tryna better my health but

All my life (all my life)

They been tryin' to keep me down (they been tryin' to keep me down)

All this time (all this time)

Never thought I would make it out (never thought I'd make it out)

They couldn't break me, they couldn't break me (no, no)

They couldn't take me, they couldn't take me (no)

All my life (all my life)

They been tryin' to keep me down (they been tryin' to keep me down) (yeah)

First-generation ghetto nigga

Cole world, hello niggas

Made it out the city with my head on straight

Niggas keep shootin' up the lead out

Young Jordan Peele, gotta get out

'Cause the shit that I spit out

Is a cheat code like I'm facin' a RICO, how a nigga put a hit out

And another one, and, and another one

I got like a hundred of 'em

'Bout to lap niggas so they think they ahead of me, but I'm really in front of them

Now some of them fumblin' they bags

Fuckin' up the little crumbs that they had

A reminder to humble yourself, this shit could be gone in an instant

Me, I'm runnin' long distance

All pistons firin'

I be stuck between maybe retirin'

And feelin' like I'm just not hittin' my prime

These days seein' rappers be dyin'

Way before they even gettin' they shine

I never even heard of lil' buddy

'Til somebody murdered lil' buddy

Now I'm on the phone, searchin' lil' buddy name

Got to playin' his tunes, all day in my room

Thinkin', "Damn, this shit wicked, to get they names buzzin'

Some niggas just gotta go lay in a tomb"

And media thirsty for clicks, I got a new rule

If you ain't never posted a rapper when he was alive

You can't post about him after he get hit

It's simple, it's the principle

On any tempo, I'm invincible

Don't even rap, I just vent to you

I rather that than an interview

Most days

Fuck 'em all like I'm goin' through a ho phase

Young nigga shoot out the whip like road rage

I pray all of my dawgs stay so paid

And the only thing that kill 'em is old age

All my life (all my life)

They been tryin' to keep me down (they been tryin' to keep me down)

All this time (all this time)

Never thought I would make it out (never thought I'd make it out)

They couldn't break me, they couldn't break me (no, no)

They couldn't take me, they couldn't take me (no)

All my life (all my life)

They been tryin' to keep me down (they been tryin' to keep me down)