Nelson Mandela

18 Jul 1918 – 15 Dec 201359 items

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Nelson Mandela in Johannesburg, 13 May 2008, aged eighty-nine. Photo: South Africa The Good News, cropped. CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Nelson Mandela in Johannesburg, 13 May 2008, aged eighty-nine. Photo: South Africa The Good News, cropped. CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

From Mvezo to the Union Buildings

A chief’s son from a village in the Eastern Cape became a Johannesburg lawyer, a leader of the African National Congress and the first commander of its armed wing. He spent twenty-seven years in prison, came out at seventy-one to negotiate the end of apartheid with the government that had jailed him, and at seventy-five became South Africa’s first president elected by all its people.

How it is built

Periods frame the life: childhood in Thembuland, Fort Hare, Johannesburg, the campaigns and trials of the 1950s, the underground, the three prisons, the negotiations, the presidency and the years after. His 1962 journey through Africa is drawn on the map as a route. Every date is Gregorian and every time UTC; South Africa is two hours ahead.

Death tolls are given as the ranges the cited sources give, with the source named. The turn to armed struggle and the findings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, against the state and against the ANC, are set out as the record states them.

Threads to follow

  • apartheid: the system, from 1948 to Boipatong

  • protest: the Defiance Campaign, Kliptown and Soweto

  • armed struggle: Umkhonto we Sizwe, 1961 to 1990

  • prison: Robben Island, Pollsmoor and Victor Verster

  • law: his practice, his trials and the Constitution

  • negotiations: from secret talks to the 1994 election

  • family: three marriages and six children

Items

  1. Childhood in Qunu and at the Great Place

    ≈ 15 years, 11 months · Qunu

  2. Rolihlahla Mandela is born at Mvezo

    Mvezo, on the Mbashe river

  3. Mission schools: Clarkebury and Healdtown

    ≈ 5 years

  4. Fort Hare

    ≈ 1 year · University of Fort Hare, Alice

  5. Johannesburg and the Youth League

    ≈ 10 years, 11 months · Johannesburg

  6. Runs away to Johannesburg

    Johannesburg

  7. The ANC Youth League is founded

    Bantu Men’s Social Centre, Eloff Street, Johannesburg

  8. Marries Evelyn Mase

    8115 Vilakazi Street, Orlando West, Soweto

  9. The National Party wins a whites-only election

  10. The Defiance Campaign

    5 months, 23 days

  11. Mandela & Tambo, attorneys

    Chancellor House, Fox Street, Johannesburg

  12. Convicted of “statutory communism”

    Johannesburg

  13. The Freedom Charter is adopted at Kliptown

    Kliptown (Walter Sisulu Square), Soweto

  14. The Treason Trial

    ≈ 4 years, 3 months · The Old Synagogue, Pretoria

  15. Arrested for high treason

    8115 Vilakazi Street, Orlando West, Soweto

  16. Marries Winnie Madikizela

    Bizana district, Pondoland

  17. The Sharpeville massacre

    Sharpeville

  18. A last public speech, at Pietermaritzburg

    Pietermaritzburg

  19. Underground: the Black Pimpernel

    ≈ 1 year, 4 months

  20. Umkhonto we Sizwe’s first attacks

  21. Through Africa and to London

    ≈ 6 months · Through Africa and to London, 1962

  22. Arrested at a roadblock near Howick

    Mandela Capture Site, near Howick

  23. Five years for incitement and leaving the country

    The Old Synagogue, Pretoria

  24. Police raid Liliesleaf Farm

    Liliesleaf Farm, Rivonia

  25. The Rivonia Trial

    8 months, 7 days · Palace of Justice, Church Square, Pretoria

  26. “I am prepared to die”

    Palace of Justice, Church Square, Pretoria

  27. Sentenced to life imprisonment

    Palace of Justice, Church Square, Pretoria

  28. Robben Island

    ≈ 17 years, 9 months · Robben Island prison

  29. Not allowed to bury his son

    Robben Island prison

  30. The Soweto uprising

    Hector Pieterson Memorial, Orlando West, Soweto

  31. “Free Mandela”

  32. Pollsmoor

    ≈ 6 years, 4 months · Pollsmoor Prison, Tokai

  33. Refuses freedom on conditions

    Jabulani Stadium, Soweto

  34. A seventieth-birthday concert at Wembley

    Wembley Stadium, London

  35. Victor Verster

    ≈ 1 year, 2 months · Victor Verster Prison (now Drakenstein), near Paarl

  36. Tea with P. W. Botha

    Tuynhuys, Cape Town

  37. De Klerk unbans the ANC

    Houses of Parliament, Cape Town

  38. The speech from the City Hall balcony

    Cape Town City Hall, Grand Parade

  39. Walks out of Victor Verster

    Victor Verster Prison (now Drakenstein), near Paarl

  40. Negotiating the end of apartheid

    ≈ 3 years, 6 months

  41. The ANC suspends the armed struggle

  42. Elected president of the ANC

    Durban

  43. CODESA opens at Kempton Park

    World Trade Centre, Kempton Park

  44. Separates from Winnie

    Johannesburg

  45. The Boipatong massacre

    Boipatong

  46. Chris Hani is assassinated

    Dawn Park, Boksburg

  47. The Nobel Peace Prize, shared with de Klerk

    Oslo City Hall

  48. Votes for the first time

    Ohlange High School, Inanda

  49. President of South Africa

    ≈ 5 years, 1 month · Union Buildings, Pretoria

  50. Inaugurated at the Union Buildings

    Union Buildings, Pretoria

  51. The Springbok jersey at Ellis Park

    Ellis Park, Johannesburg

  52. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission

    ≈ 2 years, 6 months

  53. Signs the Constitution at Sharpeville

    Sharpeville

  54. Marries Graça Machel

    Mandela’s home, Houghton, Johannesburg

  55. Later life

    ≈ 14 years, 5 months · Mandela’s home, Houghton, Johannesburg

  56. “My son has died of AIDS”

    Mandela’s home, Houghton, Johannesburg

  57. A last wave at Soccer City

    Soccer City (FNB Stadium), Johannesburg

  58. Dies at home in Houghton

    Mandela’s home, Houghton, Johannesburg

  59. Buried at Qunu

    Qunu