FREE ESSAY ON NELSON MANDELA

NELSON MANDELA

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was born in a village near Umtata in the Transkei on the 18 July
1918. His father was the principal councillor to the Acting Paramount Chief of
Thembuland. After his father s death, the young Rolihlahla became the Paramount Chief s
ward to be groomed to assume high office. However, influenced by the cases that came
before the Chief s court, he determined to become a lawyer. Hearing the elders stories of
his ancestors valour during the wars of resistance in defence of their fatherland, he
dreamed also of making his own contribution to the freedom struggle of his people. 
After receiving a primary education at a local mission school, Nelson Mandela was sent to
Healdtown, a Wesleyan secondary school of some repute where he matriculated. He then
enrolled at the University College of Fort Hare for the Bachelor of Arts Degree where he
was elected onto the Student's Representative Council. He was suspended from college for
joining in a protest boycott. He went to Johannesburg where he completed his BA by
correspondence, took articles of clerkship and commenced study for his LLB. He entered
politics in earnest while studying in Johannesburg by joining the African National
Congress in 1942. 
At the height of the Second World War a small group of young Africans, members of the
African National Congress, banded together under the leadership of Anton Lembede. Among
them were William Nkomo, Walter Sisulu, Oliver R. Tambo, Ashby P. Mda and Nelson Mandela.
Starting out with 60 members, all of whom were residing around the Witwatersrand, these
young people set themselves the formidable task of transforming the ANC into a mass
movement, deriving its strength and motivation from the unlettered millions of working
people in the towns and countryside, the peasants in the rural areas and the
professionals. 
Bibliography
Nelson Mandela.