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A letter to Nelson Mandela....

A brilliant political life spanning more than half a century can hardly be described in a page, but we, at Global Kids Oz, are definitely going to try! We are talking about none other than the inimitable Mr. Nelson Mandela. With his birthday just around the corner – July 18^th – Global Kids Oz takes a moment to catch up with the great man.

Mandela was born Rolihlahla Dalibhunga on July 18, 1918, into the Xhosa-speaking Thembu people in a small village in the eastern Cape of South Africa. His clan name is "Madiba", by which he is often called even today.  He was given the name Nelson by a teacher at his school and got his name Mandela from one of the sons of the Thembu king. Interestingly, the name Rolihlahla means, colloquially, "troublemaker".

Mandela’s early run in with authorities began early during his days in The University of Fort Hare. While still a student he joined the Students' Representative Council in boycotting university policies. Subsequently, he was asked to leave Fort Hare and not return. A few years later, in 1944, Mandela joined the African National Congress (ANC) as an activist. He would go on to become the founder and president of the ANC Youth League. Mandela also perceived the need to provide low-cost legal counsel to the African men and women who lacked attorney representation and set up South Africa’s first black law firm with Oliver Tambo in Johannesburg.

In the early years of Mandela’s anti-apartheid protests, his ideology was strongly influenced by the Indian leader of non-violence, Mahatma Gandhi. In 1956, Mandela was slapped with the charge of high treason along with 155 other activists. A four-year trial led to his acquittal. He continued to work tirelessly against the apartheid - a system instituted by the all white National Party to oppress and discriminate against Africans in their own land. However, the ANC was banned in 1960 and Mandela went underground. This year also saw the terrible massacre known as Sharpeville massacre where 69 black people were shot dead by police.

The incident led Mandela to set aside peaceful resistance and embark on sabotage campaigns against military and government targets. Mandela described this transition armed struggle as an upshot of increasing repression and violence from the state. Mandela was arrested and charged with sabotage and attempting to violently overthrow the government.

While conducting his own defence, Mandela conveyed his beliefs about democracy, freedom and equality with these words:

"I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities," he said. "It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die."

In 1964, he was imprisoned on Robben Island where he spent the next eighteen of his twenty-seven years in prison. In 1980, an international campaign by Mr. Tambo to release Mandela brought his struggles into the eye of the world. Following a slew of world community sanctions, in 1990, President FW de Klerk lifted the ban on the ANC. Soon, Mandela was released from prison and the view shifted towards forming a new multi-racial democracy for South Africa.

Mandela and de Klerk received the Nobel Peace Prize in December 1993, and a mere five months later, for the very first time in South Africa’s strained history, all races voted in its first democratic elections. Unsurprisingly, Mandela was elected president by an overwhelming number of votes. Over the next five years, Mandela instituted a broad range of social reforms in an effort to negate the effect of social and economic inequalities.

In 1999, at the age of 80, he announced his retirement and on his 89^th birthday, he formed The Elders, a group of leading socio-political figures “to tackle some of the world's toughest problems".

Now, with his 93^rd birthday fast approaching, we wish Mr. Mandela a very Happy Birthday.