Only a few men can claim to have changed the world, and even fewer can claim to have changed the world for good. Nelson Mandela belongs to the second category.
He was one of those human beings who has earned the right to be regarded as one of the greatest men to have ever walked the earth.
For those of you who don’t know who Nelson Mandela exactly was, what exactly did he do, and why exactly is he so important, please read on.
This is the first of three articles that will be dedicated to the life of Mandela.
Childhood
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was born on July 18th, 1918, in the small village of Mvezo in Umtata, which lay on the banks of the Mbashe River.
Mandela grew up in the village of Qunu with his mother and two sisters. His childhood there was dominated by Thembu customs and traditions, and he often tended to herds as a cattle boy and spent the majority of his time playing outside along with the other boys.
When Mandela was about 7 years old, he was enrolled in the local Methodist School, where his teacher gave him the English forename of ‘Nelson’.
And when he was only 9 years old, his father passed away due to an unknown illness.
Mandela was then entrusted to the guardianship of the Thembu regent, Chief Jongintaba, at Mqhekezweni, where they treated him as their own child. He was raised alongside the Chief’s own son, Justice, and daughter, Nomafu.
Mandela would not see his mother again for years.
Early Education
It was decided by Chief Jongintaba that Mandela would become a privy councilor for the Thembu Royal House.
For that purpose, in 1933, Mandela, aged 15, was enrolled into Clarkebury Methodist High School in Engcobo, in order to begin his secondary education.
The High School was a Western-style institution and the largest school for native Africans in Thembuland.
In 1937, Mandela, aged 19, enrolled in Healdtown Methodist College, located in Fort Beaufort.
It was a college attended by most Thembu royalty, including Chief Jongintaba’s son, Justice.
University of Fort Hare
In 1939, Mandela, aged 21, joined the University of Fort Hare in order to pursue a BA Degree.
Mandela stayed in the Wesley House dormitory, where he met Oliver Tambo, who eventually became his close friend and comrade in the freedom struggle.
At the University, Mandela became a vocal supporter of the British war effort during the second world war. At the time, he did not consider European colonizers as oppressors. Instead, he thought of them as benefactors who had brought education and other benefits to South Africa.
At the end of his first year, Mandela was suspended from the university for participating in a Students’ Representative Council boycott against the quality of food.
He never returned to the University to complete his BA Degree.
Moving to Johannesburg
On returning to Mqhekezweni after being suspended from the University, Mandela found out that Chief Jongintaba had arranged marriages for him and Justice.
Both Mandela and Justice were against the idea of being married off, and so the two of them fled to Johannesburg.
They arrived in Johannesburg in 1941, when Mandela was 23 years old.
Life in Johannesburg
After some difficulty, Mandela managed to find work as a night watchman at Crown Mines.
This was where he first saw South African capitalism in action. He saw how people (mostly non-whites) were exploited and made to work long arduous hours, in dangerous conditions, for a meager wage.
Mandela was eventually fired from the job when the headman found out that he was a runaway.
After moving in with a cousin of his, Mandela was introduced to Walter Sisulu, who was an ANC activist.
Sisulu would later help secure a job for Mandela as an articled clerk at the law firm of Witkin, Sidelsky, and Eidelman.
Mandela worked a variety of jobs, while simultaneously pursuing his Bachelor’s degree through a correspondence course at the University of South Africa.
Since he only earned a small wage, he rented out a room in the house of an Xhoma family in Alexandria, which was a place rife with crime, pollution, and poverty.
Law Education
After completing his BA in 1943, Mandela began studying law at the University of Witwatersrand, where he was the only native African student.
Simultaneously, he also began his three-year articles at Witkin, Sidelsky, and Eidelman.
At the firm, Mandela met Gaur Radebe and Nat Bregman, who were both members of the Communist Party. Through them, he was introduced to communism.
He also attended a few Communist Party gatherings, where he was surprised to see that Africans, Indians, Coloureds, and Europeans mixed as equals.
While studying at the university, Mandela met and befriended students from different backgrounds, including liberal European, Indian, and Jewish students.
By his own admission, he was a poor student.
Political Awakening
While studying law, Mandela became increasingly aware of the racial inequality existing in South Africa.
He saw how non-whites were oppressed and subjugated, and segregation based on race was widespread.
This sudden awareness prompted him to join the African National Congress (ANC) in order to fight for the rights of the disenfranchised.
Mandela was deeply influenced by the views and ideas of Walter Sisulu, Oliver Tambo, and other activists, while they discussed politics at Sisulu’s house. In this way, Mandela became more and more politicized.
Even though Mandela had many non-blacks and communists as friends, he was of the opinion that black Africans should fight independently in their struggle for freedom and political self-determination.
In 1944, the African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) was formed with Mandela as a member of the executive committee.
The purpose of the Youth wing was to mass-mobilize Africans to fight against oppression and injustice.
First Marriage, and End of Articleship
In October 1944, Mandela married Evelyn Mase, who was a trainee nurse. The couple had first met at Walter Sisulu’s house.
Mandela and Evelyn initially lived with Evelyn’s relatives, and then, later on, moved into a rented house in the township of Orlando.
In February 1945, their first child, Thembi, was born. And two years later, a daughter, Makaziwe, was born but died of meningitis nine months later.
After Mandela’s three years of articleship came to an end in 1947, he decided to become a full-time student by subsisting on loans from the Bantu Welfare Trust.
The 1948 South African General Election and Its Consequences
In the 1948 General Election, in which only whites were allowed to vote, the openly racist Afrikaner Party, known as the Nationalist Party, came into power.
The Nationalist Party immediately expanded and enacted the Apartheid legislation, thereby officially formalizing it in law.
This legislation legally institutionalized systematic racial discrimination in South Africa, where the Whites dominated over the people of other races.
In this way, the Apartheid political system came into existence.
To Be Continued…
This was only the introduction to Nelson Mandela’s life.
In next week’s newsletter, we shall see how Mandela and his colleagues officially kick-start the freedom struggle by planning and organizing mass civil disobedience campaigns against the Nationalist Government, and the consequences they face for their actions.