Nomad_Africa_Edition12

Nelson Mandela
NELSON MANDELA
100 YEARS AFTER
What is it that makes a leader stand out not only among men,
but also among his peers? Is it their vision or courage? Or perhaps the
ability of the leader to lead where others fear to tread?
Words: BRUCE GERMAINE
RISE OF A REVOLUTIONARY
Already an independent mind, it was just a
matter of time before he joined the African
National Congress in 1942.
During those early turbulent years in Johannesburg,
Mandela was introduced to the
realtor and ANC activist Walter Sisulu, who
secured him a job as an articled clerk at
law firm Witkin, Sidelsky and Eidelman. The
company was run by a liberal Jew, Lazar
Sidelsky, who was sympathetic to the
ANC's cause.
Mandela realised that the ANC’s old tactics
of polite petitioning were ineffective and
in 1949, the ANC officially adopted the
Youth League's methods of boycott, strike,
civil disobedience and non-co-operation
with policy goals of full citizenship, redistribution
of land, trade union rights, and
free and compulsory education for all chilit
is all of those qualities and so
much more that took Nelson Rolihlahla
Mandela on a life changing
journey from the a small village of
Mveso, a rural area of the Transkei
in the Eastern Cape of South Africa
to being South Africa’s first democratically
elected black president
in 1994. A journey marked by a
continuous struggle against inequality,
racism, poor education and poverty despite
being imprisoned by the South
African white minority powers in 1963.
Mandela’s early life took a significant turn
when Chief Jongintaba Dalindyebo, the
acting regent of the Thembu people,
adopted him after his father’s death. He
was nine years old. Having to relocate
from the village of Qunu to the more sophisticated
environment of Mqhekezweni,
the provincial capital of Thembuland, the
chief's royal residence, Mandela was destined
for greater things and given the same
status and responsibilities as the regent's
two other children.
After school, the University College of Fort
Hare in Eastern Cape, the only residential
centre of higher learning for black Africans
in South Africa at the time beckoned, drawing
scholars from all parts of Sub-Sahara
Africa.
In his first year at the university, Mandela
took the required courses, but focused on
Roman Dutch law to prepare for a career in
civil service as an interpreter or clerk—regarded
as the best profession that a black
man could obtain at the time, bearing in
mind that South Africa was a British colony
at the time ruled by white people.
But it was in his second year when Mandela
was elected to the Student Representative
Council that student politics played
a major role. For a while, students had
been unhappy with the food and lack of
power held by the Student Representative
Council (SRC). A boycott was launched and
Mandela resigned from his SRC position.
This was, according to the authorities, an
act of insubordination and they demanded
he serve on the SRC. The regent, head of
his adopted family, was also furious and
demanded from Mandela that he recants
his position and return to Fort Hare.
Seeing this as an act of insubordination, the
university's Dr Kerr expelled Mandela for
the rest of the year and gave him an ultimatum:
He could return to the school if he
agreed to serve on the SRC. When Mandela
returned home, the regent was furious,
telling him unequivocally that he
would have to recant his decision and go
back to school. While back at home, he received
news that the regent had arranged
a marriage for him as was custom, but
shocked by this news and recent events,
Mandela departed from his family home
and settled in Johannesburg, working a variety
of jobs while completing his bachelor's
degree via correspondence courses
and eventually enrolling at the University
of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg to study
law.
Issue 12 | ...Celebrating the world’s richest continent | www.nomadafricamag.com | 75