Nelson Mandela Biography

NELSO MANDELA'S SHORT BIOGRAPHY

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNSxCMIU09g#t=38

Listen to the video and write the dates corresponding to the various events.

Mandela's birth in a South African village.

He was the first in his family to attend school. He was a talented student.

He was expelled from university for his involvement in a boycott against the institution.

He was expected to become chief of his tribe like his father, but instead he chose to study law.

"It is absolutely important that you have the knowledge to save your country and your people"

He joined the African National Congress, a left-wing political party advocating equal rights and freedom.

Within the party, he was member of a group called the ANC Youth League. They used grassroots methods to get their point across: boycotts, strikes and general civil disobedience.

The white National Party was elected to government and instituted a legal system of racial segregation: the apartheid.

The A.N.C.Y.L. continued non-violent protest against racist policies. For example:

Defiance Campaign

Congress of the People

At that time, Mandela was also a lawyer for mistreated black South Africans: it was the first South African black law practice.

Mandela quickly became an enemy of the government and was targeted whenever possible.

He and about 150 protesters were arrested on a suspicion of treason. After a long trial, they were acquitted.

Creation of the Pan Africanist Congress by a group of militant Africans because peaceful approach was not working.

Mandela changed his position and proposed that armed conflict was the only way to end apartheid rule. He helped found a military group within the ANC called Umkhonto we Sizwe, which specialized in sabotage and guerilla warfare.

Mandela was arrested for a strike organized the previous year. He was sentenced to 5 years in prison, but ended up spending his next 27 years in jail.

He was also charged with sabotage, treason and violent conspiracy during the infamous Rivonia trial.

He was sentenced to life in prison and barely escaped the death penalty.

His first years were spent in a prison on Robben Island.

He was transferred.

He was treated poorly as a black prisoner.

He earned a Bachelor of Law's degree through a correspondence programme.

During this time, his profile grew, he became an international symbol of anti-apartheid resistance.

Several times, the government offered him his freedom in exchange for the abandonment of

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