NELSON MANDELA

Nelson Mandela,(born on July 18, 1918) was a man who made the world a better place. He didn’t have to do what he did, he could have given up anytime when it got hard but he kept pushing and pushing in his stand against apartheid. He was the first black South African to hold the office of the President. He was an international hero.

The great man died on December  5, 2013 at the age of 95. He died with the twinkle still in his eye, the spirit of strength still in him. He is among those few we grew up learning about and will continue learning. He might be dead, but his story will remain forever.

 "Difficulties break some men but make others. No axe is sharp enough to cut the soul of a sinner who keeps on trying, one armed with the hope that he will rise even in the end."

-Nelson Mandela

 

Taken from Nelson Mandela facts

Africa's Greatest Freedom Symbol

Son of a chief, Nelson Mandela studied law and became one of South Africa's first black lawyers. Early in the 1950s he was elected leader of the youth wing of the ANC (African National Congress) liberation movement. When the country's white minority government prohibited the ANC in 1960, Mandela became convinced that armed struggle was inevitable. Inspired by the guerrilla wars in Algeria and Cuba, he organized a military underground movement that engaged in sabotage. In 1962 he was arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment for high treason and conspiracy against the state.

From 1964 to 1982 he was confined to the notorious prison island Robben Island, together with several other resistance leaders. He was then moved to prison on the mainland until his release in 1990. During his imprisonment, Mandela became a rallying point for South Africa's oppressed, and the world's most famous political prisoner.

Nelson Mandela shared the Peace Prize with the man who had released him, President Frederik Willem de Klerk, because they had agreed on a peaceful transition to majority rule.