MY LIKES: Nelson Mandela's History 2

In December of the same year, Mandela and 19 others were arrested and charged under the Suppression of Communism Act for their participation in the Defiance Campaign, a national protest against laws curtailing the freedoms of blacks, Indians and coloureds.
The campaign was significant for Mandela. Whereas previously he was wary of working with non-black Africans, the campaign convinced him to move towards coordinating an interracial and united front to fight apartheid.
Mandela was sentenced to nine months' imprisonment with hard labour, suspended for two years. He was later served with a six-month banning order prohibiting him from attending meetings, or from leaving the Johannesburg magisterial district. For the following nine years his banning orders were continually renewed.
In December 1956 Mandela was one of 156 political activists arrested and charged with high treason for the campaign leading to the adoption of The Freedom Charter in 1955. The trial lasted four-and-a-half years. On 25 March 1961, Mandela and 29 others were found not guilty.

In 1958 he married Nomzamo Winnie Madikizela. They had two daughters, Zenani and Zindzi. It was a turbulent marriage. During Mandela's imprisonment on Robben Island, Winnie spearheaded the struggle outside of prison. During the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings some three decades later, she was linked to the deaths of several young ANC activists. They divorced in 1996.
Mandela has a daughter, Makaziwe, from his first marriage to Evelyn Ntoko, a nurse. Their third child, Thembi, was killed in a car accident in 1969, while Mandela was imprisoned on Robben Island. Their other son, Makgatho Lewanika Mandela – Mandela's last surviving son – died on 6 January 2005, aged 54.

When the apartheid government banned the ANC and the Pan Africanist Congress in 1960, Mandela led the campaign to launch an underground struggle. He emerged as a leading figure in the formation of Umkhonto weSizwe, the ANC's armed wing, becoming its first commander-in-chief.
After working outside of South Africa for a period – a time that included military training in Algeria – Mandela returned to South Africa in July 1962.
On 5 August 1962 the police finally captured the elusive "Black Pimpernel" near Howick in what was then Natal province. He was tried and sentenced to five years' imprisonment for incitement to strike and illegally leaving the country.

While Mandela was in prison, police raided the ANC's underground headquarters at Lilliesleaf Farm in Rivonia, north of Johannesburg, and arrested several ANC leaders. Police found documents relating to the manufacture of explosives, Mandela's diary and copies of a draft memorandum – Operation Mayibuye – which outlined a possible strategy for guerrilla struggle.
The Rivonia Trial began in October 1963 and Mandela joined the other accused – Govan Mbeki, Walter Sisulu, Raymond Mhlaba, Elias Motsoaledi, Ahmed Kathrada, Denis Goldberg and Wilton Mkwayi – being tried for sabotage and conspiracy to overthrow the government.
Mandela's statement from the dock received worldwide publicity. On 12 June 1964, all eight of the accused were sentenced to life imprisonment. Goldberg was sent to Pretoria Prison, the rest to Robben Island.

Mandela spent the next 18 years on Robben Island, before being transferred in 1982 to Pollsmoor prison in Cape Town and then to Victor Verster prison, where it was discovered that he was suffering from tuberculosis.
On Robben Island, Mandela, who was kept in isolation along with other senior leaders, continued to play an important role as a political leader behind bars, maintaining contact with the ANC leadership in exile.
From July 1986 onwards, Mandela initiated contact with government representatives, which led eventually to his July 1989 meeting with President PW Botha at Tuynhuys. In December 1989 he met De Klerk.

Mandela was released from jail on Sunday, 11 February 1990. The first images of the president-to-be walking out of prison were relayed live via satellite to ecstatic audiences across the globe.
Mandela led the ANC in negotiations with the South African government which culminated in the adoption of the interim constitution in November 1993. In 1994 the ANC won the country's first multiracial elections with an overwhelming majority.

Mandela's inauguration as President brought together the largest number of heads of state since the funeral of former US President John Kennedy in 1963.
On 18 July 1998 Mandela married Graça Machel, the widow of former Mozambique President Samora Machel.
After handing over the reigns of the presidency to Thabo Mbeki in 1999, Mandela played a key role as middleman in crisis-hit areas such as Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Besides campaigning globally for peace, Mandela focused his still prodigious energies on empowering disadvantaged children and fighting against HIV/Aids. He gave his prison number – 46664 – to a global campaign to raise awareness about the disease.

In June 2004, Mandela officially retired from public life. His parting gift – a R1- billion endowment to South Africa, to be raised by the three charitable organisations that bear his name: the Nelson Mandela Foundation, the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund and the Nelson Mandela Rhodes Foundation.
In 2007, Mandela, together with Machel and Desmond Tutu, convened a group of world leaders – 'The Elders' – to contribute their wisdom and independent leadership to global problems and to ease human suffering.
In 2009, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed Mandela's birthday, 18 July, as "Mandela Day", marking his contribution to the anti-apartheid struggle. It called on individuals to donate 67 minutes to doing something for others, commemorating the 67 years that Mandela had been a part of the movement.
With his health increasingly fragile, Mandela has been admitted to hospital for a reoccuring lung infection many times since 2011. In June 2013, he was admitted in a serious condition. The nation held its breath - but Mandela was sent home on 1 September, with President Zuma describing Mandela's condition as "critical and at times unstable".

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