Nelson Mandela – Anti-Apartheid Activist, Politician
Years later, Mandela befriended many comrades in the anti-apartheid struggle at Fort Hare and Witwatersrand universities. After moving to Johannesburg in 1941, Mandela increasingly became involved with the African National Congress (ANC)–the major political vehicle of Black liberation in South Africa formed in 1912. He played an active role in radicalizing ANC’s anti-colonial approaches, which were lukewarm under the presidency of Dr. A.B. Xuma. Part of the radicalization of ANC that Mandela and his comrades sought manifested in the formation of the ANC Youth League (ANCYL) in 1944 and military wing, Umkhonto weSizwe (Spear of the Nation) in 1961. Following the victory of the Afrikaner Nationalist Party in 1948 and the institutionalization of apartheid, Mandela became deeply immersed in crafting the ANC’s Program of Action to resist apartheid through boycotts, strikes, civil disobedience, noncooperation, sabotage, and armed struggle. As a result, he would be arrested countless times on charges of terrorism, sedition, and violating apartheid statutes such as the Suppression of Communism Act, as was the case in 1952, 1956, and 1960. Nevertheless, he encouraged solidarity with other anti-apartheid movements without losing focus on the importance of Black liberation. By 1962, Mandela’s political stature in the ANC had grown so much that he would serve as its delegate at PAFMECSA in Ethiopia. Thereafter, he traveled throughout Africa, drumming support for the struggle to end apartheid in South Africa. Upon returning to South Africa, Mandela was arrested and charged with sabotage and conspiracy to overthrow the apartheid regime. He was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1964 and released on February 11, 1990. Four years later, he became the first Black president of South Africa and served until 1999. He transitioned on December 5, 2013.
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