Nelson Mandela

 Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, /maen’del@/; Xhosa [xolilala machde.la 18 July 1918 - 5 Dec 2013), was a South African antiapartheid activist. Mandela was the first president of South Africa between 1994 and 1999. Mandela was the nation's first head of state who was black and the first to be elected in a democratically elected election. His government focused on dismantling the legacy of apartheid by fostering racial reconciliation. Ideologically an African nationalist and socialist, he served as the president of the African National Congress (ANC) party from 1991 until 1997.A Xhosa, Mandela was born to the Thembu royal family in Mvezo, Union of South Africa. Before he became an Johannesburg lawyer, he was studying law at the University of Fort Hare as well as the University of Witwatersrand. He was engaged with anti-colonial and African nationalist politics, joining the ANC in 1943, and co-founding its Youth League in 1944. Mandela and the ANC declared their intention to overthrow apartheid's only white-only government, known as the National Party. Mandela was elected president of the ANC's Transvaal Branch. His participation in the 1952 Defiance Campaign, and the 1955 Congress of the People made him a well-known persona. He was arrested several times for seditious activities and was unsuccessfully tried during the 1956 Treason Trial. Inspired by Marxism, he secretly joined the banned South African Communist Party (SACP). Although initially committed to peaceful protest, in association with the SACP he founded the militant uMkhonto we Sizwe in 1961 and led a sabotage campaign against the state. He was arrested and imprisoned in 1962. He was later after the Rivonia Trial which he was convicted of, was sentenced for life prison for conspiring to topple the state.