Nelson Mandela was one of the founding members of the African National Congress Youth League. In fact he only joined the ANC when the Youth League was founded in 1944. Here he talks about the founding of the organisation and, at the same time, reveals his frankness about his own short-comings: in this case how nervous he was about engaging in political discussions and meetings.
Once Nelson Mandela had angered his guardian, the King, by getting himself expelled from the University College of Fort Hare, it was decided that the problem would be solved by an arranged marriage. He and Justice, his cousin and the king’s son, were presented with the plan: The King had found them both wives. It was this action on the King’s part that directly led to Mr Mandela’s exodus from the countryside and journey into the rapidly industrialising arms of the city of Johannesburg. It was there that he became interested in politics and set himself on the path to his destiny – overthrowing apartheid.
While he was born in the Eastern Cape village of Mvezo, the only son of his father’s third wife, Nelson Mandela spend most of his early childhood in Qunu and later moved to Mqhekezweni after his father died. He has always enjoyed returning to Qunu where he built a house after his release from prison in 1990. Uppermost in his mind as a free man was to visit Qunu where his parents were laid to rest. His mother Nosekeni had died in her Seventies in 1968 when her son was imprisoned on Robben Island. As soon as he could, he visited her grave and that of his father Nkosi (Chief) Mphakanyiswa who had died when he was a boy.
When Nelson Mandela went to prison he studied the language of the oppressor, Afrikaans. He also studied the history of the Afrikaner as well as their struggle against the British. He read some of the Afrikaans writers in Afrikaans and enjoyed the books. One of the authors whose work he enjoyed was one of South Africa’s foremost writers, CJ Langenhoven, who also wrote the national anthem Die Stem for the apartheid state. Langenhoven was a member of parliament who worked to have Afrikaans recognised as an official language in South Africa. When Nelson Mandela was in prison only English and Afrikaans were official languages. When he became president of the country he included nine African languages.
After the 1976 Soweto Uprising Robben Island and other prisons in South Africa swelled with new prisoners – young people who had taken part in this watershed period in the country’s history. The Soweto generation who had faced down the armed police of the apartheid regime had been killed, driven into exile or captured and jailed. These militant young people brought with them news that the opposition to apartheid that the regime had crushed since the Mandela generation had risen. Hope was at hand. Anti-apartheid forces were again on the march. The older prisoners were inspired.
It would have been easy for Nelson Mandela to allow the world to believe that he was physically assaulted in prison. On the contrary, he has publicly said that it never happened to him. It happened to others but not to him. It would also have been easy for him to tar all the prison guards with the same brush – that they were brutes who would never give an inch. Here he paints a different picture; he talks about how they were not all ‘rogues’ – he makes a point of showing the human, and more humane, side of some of his jailers.
One of Nelson Mandela’s greatest achievements is that he is a qualified attorney. In 1953 he established South Africa’s first black law partnership in Johannesburg with his friend and comrade Oliver Tambo. During his long imprisonment he used his knowledge of the law to full effect and advantage. His answer to brutality and bullying as well as harassment and abuses was to turn to the law, whether it was on his own behalf or to assist other prisoners: he would either threaten to take action or to institute legal action. As this story shows, it became an essential protection.
This story about Nelson Mandela’s first imprisonment on Robben Island strongly demonstrates his iron will and indelible sense of dignity that helped him to survive 27 years in prison. He shows, on the one hand, that from day one, the prison warders were determined to treat the prisoners as nothing more than cattle as they tried aggressively to bring them under their control. It was not to be. Mr Mandela immediately took charge and showed how one can turn the tables even in the more dire circumstances. It was this dignity and strength demonstrated by Mr Mandela and that of his colleagues later that marked their imprisonment and subsequent demeanour.
Nelson Mandela always enjoyed telling the story of how dramatically the Xhosa poet Mqhayi had burst into his young world, shattering myths and inspiring him to see beyond the barriers he had taken for granted. His telling and retelling of this story was based on Mqhayi’s visit to his Methodist boarding school Healdtown where he was sent to finish his high school education. His account draws the listener into the late 1930s institution ruled over by the colonial figure of Dr Arthur Wellington, whom virtually no one would question – until onto the stage strode Mqhayi who showed his rapt audience how they were the most important of all people. Mr Mandela ends by explaining that he later did, however, learn that it was backward to be tribalistic.
One of the books Nelson Mandela read in prison was the biography of one of apartheid’s leaders, Prime Minister John Vorster. This story about the book also reveals another of Mr Mandela’s characteristics – that he always tries to “take something out” of a situation or an experience. Things and people are usually neither all bad nor all good. He detested what Vorster stood for as Prime Minister of South Africa from 1966 to 1978, but in this conversation he shows that he found something upon which to compliment him.
Many people are unaware that Nelson Mandela was sent to prison on Robben Island twice. The first time was a brief period in 1963, about six months after he had been sentenced to five years in prison for leaving the country illegally and inciting a strike. Initially held at Pretoria Local Prison, Mr Mandela was sent to Robben Island in May 1963 and then, on 13 June 1963, he was inexplicably returned to Pretoria. After he had been there for about a month, his colleagues were arrested and they stood trial together for sabotage in the Rivonia Trial. Mr Mandela and seven others were sentenced to life imprisonment on 12 June 1964. He remained on Robben Island until the end of March 1982 after which he was transferred to Pollsmoor Prison on the mainland. Then, after a few months in hospitals, he was sent to Victor Verster Prison in December 1988 from where he was freed on 11 February 1990.
Audio recordings and transcripts of conversations that Rick Stengel had with Nelson Mandela for the research of Long Walk to Freedom, covering Nelson Mandela's life from 1918-1994.
Letter sent by Nelson Mandela to Kgalema Motlanthe, Secretary General of the African National Congress (ANC). It includes a handwritten draft, a typed version and a fax cover sheet.
The series consists to two letters sent by Nelson Mandela to Kofi Annan, Secretary General of the United Nations, in his role as facilitator of the Burundi Peace Mission.
1 Photograph of the official visit to South Africa by President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore. They meet President Nelson Mandela and Deputy President Thabo Mbeki in Cape Town at the official residence, Tynhuys.
1 Photograph of the official visit to South Africa by President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore. They meet President Nelson Mandela and Deputy President Thabo Mbeki in Cape Town at the official residence, Tynhuys.
11 photographs of the official visit to South Africa by President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore. They meet President Nelson Mandela and Deputy President Thabo Mbeki in Cape Town at the official residence, Tynhuys.
Copy of compilation of Vision Declarations signed during 2000-2001 by Heads of State or Government and Parliamentarians in advance of the United Nations World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance (WCAR), held in Durban, 31 August - 7 September 2001. Includes a covering letter from Mary Robinson, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR)
Records created and accumulated during the course of Nelson Mandela’s role as Facilitator of the Burundi Peace Process. Most of the papers are typewritten, although there are a few notes handwritten by Mr. Mandela. The creator of the collection is possibly Zelda La Grange.
Accrual to NMOP 2009/50 Giant Media films all of Nelson Mandela activities from 2008 - 2009 through the 90th year in celebration of his 90th birthday. These include meetings and his engagements with people. Mandela at 90 was broadcast by the BBC2 in the UK.
Accrual to NMOP 2009/50 Giant Media films all of Nelson Mandela activities from 2008 - 2009 through the 90th year in celebration of his 90th birthday. These include meetings and his engagements with people. Mandela at 90 was broadcast by the BBC2 in the UK.
Collection of paper-based material from the period when Nelson Mandela was president. The material was among the Children's correspondence that was written to Mr Mandela and Mrs Rosa Parks. The material was separated with the intention to send it back to the National Archives. The process has been very long and the Nelson Mandela Foundation decided to accession it for accountability purposes.
Giant Media films all of Nelson Mandela activities from 2008 - 2009 through the 90th year in celebration of his 90th birthday. These include meetings and his engagements with people. Mandela at 90 was broadcast by the BBC2 in the UK. There are 2 accruals, NMOP 2009/68 and NMOP 2009/69.
Video of visit by Nelson Mandela to Freedom Park in Pretoria on 2 July 2009. Mandela meets staff of Freedom Park and is taken on a guided tour by Wally Serote, CEO of Freedom Park.
I - Mr. Mandela's medical records and assorted correspondence, passed on to the NMF by the Presidency. Consists of medical status reports with test results, correspondence regarding the medical care of the President as well as invoices and statements from several doctors, the state and Medical Aid societies. April 1990-February 1999
II - Personal and Private correspondence The business correspondence is mainly regarding requests, media, gifts and some financial records. The correspondence of a private nature deals mainly with family matters and private residences. April 1994-March 1999
Video recording at the Union Buildings in Pretoria of the meeting between Nelson Mandela and King Constantine of Greece. Mandela accepting the Patronship of the Round Square.
Colourful 1994 ANC elections poster with the title A better life for All signed by Nelson Mandela for Dota of Limkokwing University. The poster the depicts Nelson Mandela with children has handwritten message and inscription by Nelson Mandela: To Dato Limkokwing, compliments and best wishes to an impressive friend. Signed by Nelson Mandela 5. 9.94
Office design plan of the Nelson Mandela Foundation in Houghton: Print of design of the Nelson Mandela Foundation offices in Houghton. Plan wrongly titled Nelson Mandela Children's Fund
Nike air shoes: One pair of South African flag coloured Nike sports shoes. One shoe is written 46664 and is written Madiba and a quote " During my lifetime have dedicated myself to the struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination and black domination.
Proceedings of the launch of the exhibition Reflections in prison include Nelson Mandela receiving his two personal Notebooks that mysteriously went missing after a raid in Robben Island prison. Donald Card an ex-prison official in Robben Island at the time of the notebooks going missing returns them to Nelson Mandela at the Nelson Mandela Foundation offices in Johannesburg in 2004. Video recording of the proceedings of the launch of the exhibition Reflections in prison together with the return of the two of personal notebooks of that belonged to Nelson Mandela while he was serving a prison sentence in Robben Island. The two Notebooks mysteriously went missing after a raid at the prison.
