Nelson Mandela
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This is a photograph of Nelson Mandela giving a speech in front of the South African flag.
Young Mandela was adopted by his father's close friend a regent (chief) of another village. Nelson started following the traditions of the new village, he became good friends with the regent’s son, Justice. He worked the land, went to gatherings, and even went to church every Sunday. When decisions were made the village would gather together for a meeting, women were present but were merely observers not allowed to speak. When Nelson and Justice turned sixteen it was time to become a man, a ceremonial tradition. In this process they stayed in huts and the night before the ritual they would go to a gathering with dancing and singing. The next morning they were to wash in the river and go to a clearing where their friends and waited to be circumcised. During their circumcision they are to yell "I am a man!" with no hesitation. In the meant time Nelson finished eighth grade and showed great potential. He was going to be transferred to Clarkesbury. In 1937 he moves to Headltown to attend Wesleyan college in Fort Beaufort. Later he went to Fort Hare University where he studied for his Bachelor at Arts degree, where he met his lifelong friend Oliver Tambo. 1939 he asked to leave Fort Hare due to his involvement in a boycott of the students’ representative council. He then moved to Johannesburg to escape a planned marriage. He then experiences the first system of apartheid, which did not allow blacks to vote. He joined the African National Congress (ANC) as an activist and formed the Youth League of the ANC with Oliver Tambo and Walter Sislu. He married Evelyn Ntoko Mase, they had three children. The marriage ended in 1957. The South African government limited the freedoms of blacks, even more so when the apartheid policy of racial segregation was introduced across the country. In 1952 he opened the first black legal firm in South Africa along with Oliver Tambo. On December 5th, 1956 he was accused of conspiring to overthrow the South African state by violent acts with 155 other activists and he was charged with high treason. In 1958 he marries Nomzamo 'Winnie' Madikizela, she was a social worker and they had two children; the marriage ended in April of 1992. Meanwhile the ANC is losing most of its financial and militant support. In 1960 the Sharpville massacre occurred, the police killed 69 non-violent protesters and the ANC is banned. Mandela goes into hiding and forms an underground armed military group. August 5, 1962 Mandela is arrested after seventeen months of hiding; the police were tipped off by the USA CIA and he was taken to the Johannesburg Fort. On October 25 Mandela was sentenced to five years in prison; he went on the run again and was captured June 12, 1964; he was convicted of sabotage and treason, then sentenced to life in prison at the age of 46 and initially on he was sent to Robben Island where he was kept for eighteen years. February 11, 1990 Nelson Mandela is released from prison after twenty-seven years. President De Klerk lifts the ban on the ANC. ANC and white national party begins talking about forming a multi-racial democracy in South Africa. Nelson Mandela became President of the ANC in 1991. 1993 Nelson Mandela and De Kler are awarded the Nobel Prize. April 26, 1994 black South Africans are allowed to vote for the first time and Nelson Mandela runs for President. The ANC won 252 of the 400 seats in the national assembly. In May the first black President of South Africa is inaugurated; Mandela appoints De Klerk deputy President. In 1998 his 80th birthday; he marries Grace Machel, a widow of the former president of Mozambique. In 2001 Mandela was diagnosed with prostate cancer for radiation. 2003 he attacked the foreign policy of President Bush. That same year he supported the 46664 AIDS fundraising campaign; named after his prison number. June 2004 Nelson Mandela announced that he would be retiring from the public life at 85. July 23, 2004 Johannesburg gave Mandela the highest honor by granting the city free. On January 26, 2011 Mandela goes into the Johannesburg hospital and is treated for respiratory lung conditions; and he was released two days later in good health.