Nelson Mandela

The Story of Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela
The story of Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela is one of the most extraordinary narratives of the 20th century – the biography of a man whose life stretched from the humble hut of a Xhosa village to the highest office of South Africa. Born on July 18, 1918, in the tiny village of Mvezo on the banks of the Mbashe River in the Eastern Cape Province, he came into the world as the son of Chief Gladla Henry Mphakanyiswa. His birth name Rolihlahla meant “troublemaker” in Xhosa – a name that would prove to be almost prophetic.

The circumstances of his childhood were shaped by a world that, by Western standards of 1918, resembled the 16th century. No electricity, no running water, in a society still deeply rooted in traditional tribal structures. When Mandela was about nine years old, his father died of an undiagnosed illness – probably a lung disease. This loss was defining for the young Mandela, who later said that he had inherited his father’s “proud rebellious spirit” and “stubborn sense of justice.”

After his father’s death, his mother brought him to the “Great Place,” the palace of Mqhekezweni, where he came under the guardianship of the Thembu regent Chief Jongintaba Dalindyebo. Although he would not see his mother again for many years, Jongintaba and his wife Noengland treated him like their own child and raised him alongside their biological children. During this time, Mandela developed his love of African history as he listened to the stories of elderly visitors at the palace.

School Days and the Name Nelson
One remarkable detail from Mandela’s childhood is the origin of his English name. When he was about seven years old, his devoutly Christian mother sent him to a local Methodist school. On the first day of class, his teacher Miss Mdingane gave each pupil an English name – a common practice at the time, undoubtedly due to the British influence on education. Mandela later recalled: “On that day Miss Mdingane told me that my new name was Nelson. Why exactly that name, I have no idea.”

The young Mandela was baptized in the Methodist tradition and regularly attended church services. Christianity became an important part of his life. Remarkably, he kept his Methodist church membership cards from 1929 to 1934 – the oldest documents in his personal archive. These small, yellowed cards were written in isiXhosa and bore Bible verses.

Boxing as a Passion
A lesser-known aspect of Mandela’s youth was his passion for boxing. Already as a student at Fort Hare University he began boxing and later trained more seriously in the 1940s and 1950s while studying, working, and struggling in Johannesburg. Although he never fought professionally, boxing was an important outlet for him. He later wrote: “I was never a standout boxer. I was in the heavyweight class, and I had neither enough power to make up for my lack of speed, nor enough speed to make up for my lack of power.”

The poorly equipped gym in Soweto where he trained had a cement floor, which was quite dangerous when a boxer went down during sparring. There was no ring, only a punching bag and a handful of gloves. What Mandela valued most in the sport was the discipline of training. Four mornings a week he went running, three evenings a week he trained at the Soweto gym. He described boxing as a way of “losing himself in something that was not the struggle.” After an exhausting training session, he woke the next morning refreshed – “mentally and physically lighter” and “ready to resume the fight.”

The Xhosa Initiation Ceremony
At the age of 16, Mandela underwent the traditional Xhosa initiation ceremony ulwaluko, a ritual circumcision symbolizing the transition from boyhood to manhood. This painful ceremony, performed without anesthetic, is a central part of Xhosa culture. Mandela later described the pain as “a fire shooting through my veins.” After the ceremony he received the traditional name Dalibunga.

The ulwaluko ceremony is not only a physical but also a spiritual transition. Young men are taken into the wilderness, sometimes for up to a month, where they learn the principles of Xhosa manhood. Anyone who cries or shows weakness during circumcision is considered weak – a trait seen as feminine or childish. This experience deeply shaped Mandela’s understanding of courage and perseverance.

Johannesburg and the First Law Firm
After studying at the University of Fort Hare – which he could not complete due to his involvement in student protests – Mandela moved to Johannesburg in 1941. There he came to know firsthand the realities of state racism. In 1952, together with his ANC colleague Oliver Tambo, he founded South Africa’s first black-run law firm, specializing in cases arising from apartheid legislation after 1948.

In the 1950s Mandela, as a young lawyer in Johannesburg, was very much a “man of the world.” He drove a stylish American car and led a lively social life. In 1944 he married Evelyn Ntoko Mase and had four children with her, three of whom tragically died. His first daughter Makaziwe died in infancy in 1948, his son Thembekile was killed in a car crash in 1969 while Mandela was in prison. Especially painful was that he was not permitted to attend his son’s funeral.

The Struggle Against Apartheid
Mandela’s political engagement intensified when he joined the African National Congress (ANC) in 1944 and became a leader of its Youth League. He played a key role in launching a resistance campaign against South Africa’s Pass Laws in 1952, which required non-whites to carry documents authorizing their presence in “restricted” areas. As part of this campaign, he traveled the country trying to build support for nonviolent protest methods against discriminatory laws.

Arrest and the Rivonia Trial
Mandela’s anti-apartheid activism made him a frequent target of the authorities. Beginning in 1952, he was repeatedly subjected to travel bans. In December 1956, together with more than 100 others, he was charged with high treason – a charge aimed at harassing anti-apartheid activists. He stood trial that same year and was eventually acquitted in 1961.

After the founding of Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation), the ANC’s militant wing, Mandela was arrested in 1963. During the notorious Rivonia Trial, he showed his wit, using humor to expose the absurdity of apartheid policy. When the prosecutor asked if he was prepared to serve under a black president, Mandela wittily replied: “I would be prepared to die for such a principle, Sir, but my friend Oliver Tambo has made it clear that I would be redundant in that regard.” The courtroom erupted in laughter.

Robben Island: The University of Protest
On June 12, 1964, Mandela and seven others were sentenced to life imprisonment. He was taken to Robben Island, where he would spend the next 18 years. The island, about 12 kilometers off Cape Town’s coast, had already been used in the 19th century as a political prison for rebellious Xhosa chiefs. It had also served as a leper colony and asylum.

Mandela’s cell was a damp concrete room measuring 2.4 by 2.1 meters, where he slept on a straw mat. At first he was not permitted to wear sunglasses, and the lime dust permanently damaged his eyesight – a detail he revealed only many years later. In a 1995 interview with Sir Trevor McDonald, when McDonald made a joke about poor lighting, Mandela for the first time spoke about the harshness of his prison years: “My eyes were damaged by breaking rocks on Robben Island.”

Prisoners spent their days breaking stones into gravel until, in January 1965, they were assigned to a limestone quarry. There arose the famous “Robben Island University.” During breaks, Mandela and other ANC leaders debated politics, history, culture, and the kind of constitution South Africa would have once it was liberated. It was as if Alexander Hamilton and James Madison discussed the finer points of the Federalist Papers during breaks from forced labor in a penal colony.

The Garden as a Symbol of Hope
One particularly moving story from Mandela’s imprisonment concerns his little garden in the prison yard. Almost from the beginning of his sentence, he asked the authorities for permission to cultivate a small garden in the yard. The yard had been built on a dump site, and in order to begin planting he had to dig out many stones to make room for crops.

The authorities supplied him with seeds. At first he planted tomatoes, chilies, and onions – hardy plants requiring little rich soil or constant care. The first harvests were poor but soon improved. Mandela later wrote: “To plant a seed, watch it grow, tend it and then harvest it, offered a simple but enduring satisfaction. To be the custodian of this small patch of earth offered a taste of freedom.”

This garden carried an even deeper significance: here Mandela buried the original handwritten manuscript of his autobiography Long Walk to Freedom and his political writings, which were later smuggled out of prison. The “traitor plants,” as they may lovingly be called, played a crucial role in sharing Mandela’s inspiring words with the world.

Family and Personal Tragedies
During his imprisonment Mandela suffered severe personal losses. In 1968 his mother died, and less than a year later his eldest son Thembekile was killed in a car accident. He was not permitted to attend their funerals. It would be 21 years before he could embrace his wife Winnie Mandela again. His two young daughters, Zeni and Zindzi, had to wait until they were 16 years old before they could see him.

Visits were strictly regulated: at first he was allowed only one visit and one letter every six months. Glass partitions separated prisoners from visitors. Conversations took place via phones while guards listened to every word. Letters were heavily censored, words blacked out unless they were strictly personal.

Humor in Prison
Despite the harsh conditions, Mandela retained his sense of humor. Reports describe his mischievous manner even under the most brutal circumstances. Ahmed Kathrada, a fellow inmate, recalled Mandela’s ability to bend even the harshest guards to his will through intelligence, charm, and dignified defiance. He assumed leadership among his fellow prisoners and became the master of his own prison.

One anecdote illustrates Mandela’s skill in dealing with the prison leadership: When he once raised a complaint about Commander Badenhorst’s treatment of him before visiting judges, Badenhorst shouted: “Nelson, you forget one thing – these people will leave, and we two will remain here together.” The judges carried that message with them, and shortly afterward Badenhorst was transferred off Robben Island.

Release and Transition
After 27 years of imprisonment, Mandela was released from Victor Verster Prison on February 11, 1990. The last years of his sentence had been spent under better conditions, after he had been transferred in 1982 from Robben Island to Pollsmoor Prison on the mainland. His release was a historic moment that moved the world.

The transition from apartheid to a multiracial democracy was not easy. Mandela saw national reconciliation as the main task of his presidency. He had witnessed other postcolonial African economies suffer from the flight of white elites, and he worked to reassure South Africa’s white population that in the “Rainbow Nation” they would be protected and represented.

The Presidency and the Rugby Miracle
One of the most famous gestures of Mandela’s reconciliation policy occurred during the 1995 Rugby World Cup. Mandela encouraged black South Africans to support the previously hated Springboks (the South African national rugby team) when South Africa hosted the World Cup. After the epic final victory over New Zealand, Mandela handed the trophy to captain Francois Pienaar while wearing a Springbok jersey with Pienaar’s own number 6 on the back. This act was widely seen as a crucial step in reconciling black and white South Africans.

Quirky and Remarkable Facts
Some fascinating details from Mandela’s life show his extraordinary character: He meticulously collected his Methodist church membership cards from childhood – the oldest documents in his archive. As a passionate boxer, he trained in a gym so poorly equipped that it had only one punching bag and a handful of gloves. The Soweto boxing gym where he once trained still uses the same weights Mandela used.

His prison cell on Robben Island measured only 2.4 by 2.1 meters – less than six square meters for 18 years of his life. Visitors to today’s museum can step into a replica of this cell and imagine what it would have been like to live in such cramped conditions for decades. The fact that Mandela emerged from this tiny room with such a vast spirit remains a miracle.

Mandela’s Love of Children
After his release from prison, Mandela developed an almost obsessive love for children – a circumstance he himself attributed to having not seen any for 27 years. “Not seeing them was one of the hardest punishments,” he once said. This love for children became a hallmark of his later years.

One of his favorite anecdotes, which he often told in public, was a conversation with a four-year-old girl who asked him how old he was. These simple yet touching moments showed a different side of the great statesman.

The End of an Era
Nelson Mandela died on December 5, 2013, at the age of 95, after leading his country from a system of institutionalized racial discrimination to a multiracial democracy. Today, his name is inseparably linked with the concept of reconciliation – a quality he not only promoted in abstract terms, but lived with brilliance and conviction, reaching out even to former enemies.

From the “troublemaker” of Mvezo had emerged the father of a nation. From the little boy who herded cattle and played outside with other boys to the man who, through intelligence, charm, and dignified defiance, bent even the harshest prison guards to his will and ultimately led a whole nation toward reconciliation. Mandela’s life proves that even the greatest changes begin with small steps – whether a tiny garden in a prison yard or a simple smile that bridges hostile worlds.

The story of Nelson Mandela remains one of the most inspiring biographies in human history – the story of a man who proved that love can be stronger than hate, forgiveness more powerful than revenge, and that human dignity can never be broken, even under the harshest conditions.